Feeling the music - 27th September 2023

Some deaf people attended a classical music concert in New York. A company called Music: Not Impossible has created equipment they can wear to feel the music.

A manager at Music: Not Impossible, Flavia Naslausky, said that everyone wants to use the device.

Flavia Naslausky: "As you know already, this was designed with and inspired by the deaf community. And along this journey, though, we realised that everybody wants to use it. This is about shared connections, shared experiences, bringing people together that otherwise wouldn't be together."

Researchers developed this technology after many years. The device can translate music into vibrations on the skin in real time.

Patrick Hanlon explains that it can also change to match different types of music and instruments.

Patrick Hanlon: "For an orchestra, I'm gonna have the violins across the chest and we're gonna put the cello and the bass elements in the back, and then we'll have some horns and stuff over the shoulders. But if I was to use it for a techno gig, it would be kick drum, snare, hats maybe on the shoulders, so it's a little bit of a different approach."

The device vibrates in 8 parts of the body. Instead of changing the music volume, wearers can change the level of vibrations they feel. Each level has a different colour LED light.

Jay Zimmerman's a deaf musical theatre composer. He said this device is much better than the first one in 2018.

Jay Zimmerman: "It was super exciting. I was super excited because it has come a long way. Originally, it was actually wired up like I'm gonna be electrocuted. And now they're separate. So it was very, very exciting, but I still feel, you know, down the road, I'm always like, we wanna go, we wanna take it to the next level."

Before, the deaf community had to hold inflated balloons to feel the vibrations of concert music. Now, it's a whole body experience. Pop star Pharrell thinks this device has changed how people experience music forever.