Watch This Musician Play a Keyboard With Keys Made Out of Watermelon
Ever seen a keyboard instrument made out of watermelon? One inventive musician used slices of the large, edible fruit to construct the keys for a musical controller that processes notes and sounds.
The musician's name is Mezerg, and he's a French electronic composer and performer who utilizes such tools to operate as a one-man-band. His watermelon keyboard works by using a MIDI controller called the Playtron, a novel noisemaker designed and constructed by the manufacturer Playtronica.
Watch a video of Mezerg rockin' the watermelon keyboard down toward the bottom of this post.
In the clip showing the extraordinary device, it isn't just watermelon the keyboard player uses to make his bouncing electro tune. There's also a sliced kiwi that serves as an additional music pad, and there appear to be pieces of cantaloupe intermixed with the melodious watermelon slices.
The video was shared by Playtronica on YouTube last October. A month prior, Mezerg himself initially shared the intriguing clip of the musical watermelon performance on his Twitter page.
The Playtron works by creating a circuit between the player's body and the fruit, as The Next Web pointed out. The tech outlet visited France's Maker Faire to show the controller put to use on a pineapple.
According to the Playtronica website, the Playtron allows musicians to connect a specialized circuit board via alligator clips specifically to fruits to "play electronic music using online synthesizers or use it as a MIDI controller with any music software and conductive objects."
We're sure it's not the first time music's been played using food. In the rock world, however, instruments often pay tribute to food items without actually being constructed from the stuff — like when Andrew W.K. brandished a taco guitar or Dave Grohl received a barbecue axe.
Want your own Playtron? They're available for $103.85 (plus $12.06 for ten additional alligator clips) on Playtronica's site. If you're interested in more music from Mezerg, check out his Bandcamp page.
Mezerg Plays Watermelon Keyboard Using Playtronica - Oct. 7, 2020