FAD GADGETS

Rhodri Marsden on three of the latest must-have gizmos currently putting the prog in progress.

POCKETGUITAR

“The most attractive portable guitar ever,” runs the blurb for Aeroband’s Pocketguitar, although a pedant might argue that guitars are already very portable. Anyway, this comes in the form of a giant plectrum (about two inches across) which connects via Bluetooth to your smartphone. It then enables you to play a constrained form of air guitar. If you hold it and strum up and down, chords or notes selected on your smartphone (using your other hand) will sound. Playing the more traditional air guitar is probably more fun, but it may not teach you quite as much about rhythm. www.aeroband.net

KALIMBAGO

Kickstarter seems to be rammed with clever devices that teach you how to play instruments via flashing lights: put your fingers here, now! We’ve featured a bunch of them in this column, including ukelele, piano and guitar assistants. The craze has now expanded to the kalimba, a 17-key thumb piano with its roots in Zimbabwean culture. Part of the joy of the kalimba is picking it up and twanging it and seeing what happens, but if you’d rather use it to play a slightly stilted version of Pachelbel’s Canon, that’s now possible: simply attach this WiFi-enabled LED panel which shows you when and where to pluck. www.iwalya.com

MICTIC

More movement detecting magic. This Swiss company has worked with dancers and musicians to create wristbands that transform a wave of the arms into smartphone sound. Having made them, they’re now turning them over to us, “the unruly, untameable public.” Mictic is

“a new musical tool with literally no rules,” they say, which ignores the fact that you’re triggering a bunch of preprogrammed soundscapes. Advanced users can hook them up to MIDI for a go at becoming the new Imogen Heap. www.mictic.com