After more than a decade of teaching, he began to notice a problem with the options available to his students.


“Traditional instruments often filter the kind of person who becomes a musician. As a music teacher, I saw the obstacles that students face, whether it’s nonstandard anatomy, financial limitations, or an in- ability to stay in one spot for a long time to practice an instrument,” Groover adds.


Cut to 2016, and Groover had begun scribbling down ideas for a brand new instrument that almost anyone could play.


“My guiding principle with the whole design was accessibility,” Groover adds.


He went on to make an instrument from scratch that you can play if you’re standing up or sitting down. Te instrument is adaptable. And you can play it if you’re right-handed or left-handed. Te controls are ambidextrous. And you can play it if you’ve got cash to spare or you’re tight on money. Te cost is $150.


But what else makes his instrument unique?


Groover based his instrument around the acceler- ometer, a device used to measure increase in speed. Accelerometers are what power cellphones to switch between horizontal and vertical views when we tilt them, he explains. When applied to his instrument, the accelerometer gives the musician surprising control over the elements of not only pitch and tone, but also volume and vibrato.


“Te biggest feature of the instrument is that you can play one note, and then you can change your fingers around and glide to a different note: aah- aah,” Groover demonstrates in a singing voice, with the second “aah” several steps higher. “Tat was one of the very last features that I came up with, and that feature brought it all together.”


Tat feature is also the namesake of Groover’s now patented instrument, Te Glide. In its completed realization, it consists of two hand controls with a total of five buttons, joined together by a thin cable. Using Bluetooth, you can pair Te Glide with a phone, tablet, or computer and then play it through


a synthesizer app.


Around the same time he wrapped up his prototype, Groover learned about the Margaret Guthman New Instrument Competition, an annual event “aimed at identifying the world’s next generation of musical instruments,” according to its website.


He heard back just days after applying that he’d been invited to participate in the 2019 competition at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA, along with an elite handful of instrument inventors from across the globe.


“I had considered using a backing track or doing a song that everyone knew for my final performance, but I decided that I wanted it to be as exposed as possible and to have an improvisatory feel,” confides Groover. “Tat’s the heart and soul of what I envi- sioned for Te Glide: that it would be an instrument that would make it easy to make music off the cuff.”


Te event closed with an awards ceremony, where the judges praised Groover for “[taking the instru- ment] all the way from idea through engineering and design all the way to . . . a very compelling performance.”


Ten, they announced him as the first place winner.


“I’ve poured countless hours into Te Glide,” Groover says. “Tis win made me really hopeful for the future of the instrument.”


With his cash prize of $5,000 in hand, Groover plans to continue production of Te Glide and possibly to develop a smaller version of the instru- ment designed for children. He foresees making the software behind Te Glide open source, empowering other musicians to alter what the instrument can do in the days ahead.


“I would love for Te Glide to help usher in an era of increased accessibility of music-making for everyone,” Groover says. “If I could have had an instrument like this as a kid, I think I really would have taken off with it.”


Learn more about NGU’s music programs at ngu.edu/csom.


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