In this YouTube segment, J. Anthony Allen explains the various ways guitarists can use MIDI technology to control virtual instruments. He first describes how a simple MIDI pickup can be installed on any standard guitar, converting the player's performance into MIDI data that can trigger a computer‑based synthesizer—allow example of playing a full orchestral sound with a guitar. He then introduces the JamStick, a dedicated MIDI controller that retains real strings and a familiar guitar feel while being entirely digital. Finally, he reviews the Artiphon Instrument 1, a strap‑on device with rubber pads that mimics strumming but lacks real strings, offering a different tactile experience yet the same MIDI capabilities. Allen emphasizes the creative fun of layering guitar riffs onto orchestral textures and encourages guitarists to explore these options.
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Now, there's a bunch actually different kinds of MIDI guitars. You can actually, if you're a guitar player and you know how to play the guitar, you can actually just get a pickup to put on any guitar. That will then plug into a computer and send MIDI information to the computer so you can tell the computer what notes to play. Now, why would you want to do this? This is actually really interesting because if you control a synthesizer that's in the computer. So this is a little bit backwards of what I said earlier, but it works both ways. So we can have a synthesizer in the computer, and we could load up in that synthesizer something like an orchestra. Okay. So we've got a synthesizer that's playing the sound of a full orchestra. Then I plug in my MIDI guitar. I can actually play the sound of the full orchestra with my guitar if it has a MIDI pickup. So using a MIDI pickup is one way to do it. And then there are a couple of other options. This. This thing called the jamstick came out not that long ago. This one's cool because it has real strings. It feels like a real guitar, but it is a totally MIDI instrument. I'm really into this one lately that I picked up. This is called an Artiphone System one or Instrument one, Sorry, Instrument one. This does not have real strings. It's just these rubber kind of things. And you've got these rubber pads here that you strum. So this doesn't really feel like a real guitar in the way that this Jamstick one does. This feels like something different. But, you know, I can still do the same things that I would do on a guitar on it. And so I think it's kind of fun in that way. It's fun to, you know, play guitar riffs through an orchestra and just kind of hear what it does. So this one's been a lot of fun for me. But there's a bunch of different things out there for MIDI guitars. So if you're a guitar player, check them out, you can have some fun with them.
