MERIDI

musical instrument

FUTURE of MUSIC

MERIDI

MUSIC

The "Chordboard"

In 1992 Grant Johnson had a dream about a futuristic musical instrument, and at 3 am near the end of it, he woke up suddenly with all the details vivid on his mind.

The MERIDI

musical instrument

Grant: "Over the decades, the technology has advanced to where what I saw in the original 1992 dream is possible to create. In 1992 it was impossible. Now it is the Year 2020 with touch screen and color."

Early Prototypes:

The Chordboard STAC

Grant Johnson was awarded a US PATENT in 1995 for his invention, the Chordboard. After, he started assembling technical teams of electrical engineers. In time, this was created in software using off-the-shelf hardware and the prototype package was for sale to a handful of musicians, some famous.

Prototype: Chordboard STAC a fully functional working prototype of the MERIDI

GALLERIES

PROJECTS

The future of music is the MERIDI musical instrument. Played like a keyboard with the infinite palate of sounds, and interfacing with computer software, the possibilities are endless. Chords are endless. The colors are endless.

The Dream

In 1992 I had a vivid dream and remembered it when I woke up. I was at a music production studio, actually a sound stage for a TV show and a famous future musician was on stage playing his music and he was using a surface instrument that was colorful and graphical, the concepts which have been depicted on Star Trek TV shows, however this was different. It was a musical instrument. And it was fantastic. The musician said, "OK, we're going to make the song sound sadder now," and he pressed some colorful geometric shapes that were on the screen of the instrument, and now when he played it, it sounded truly sad and the whole emotion of the song changed. It was at that precise moment that I woke up.