Donor Profile Spring 2021

Learning How to Push the Envelope

Les Paul Foundation Supports Student Music Innovations

V.J. Manzo, associate professor of music technology in the Humanities and Arts Department, has been giving his students the opportunity to experience innovation this year through a project supported by the Les Paul Foundation.

“Les Paul was a pivotal figure at the convergence of music and technology,” explains Manzo, who is a guitarist and director of the Electric Guitar Innovation Lab (EGIL) at WPI. “He had a lifetime of doing interesting and innovative things. There’s a real WPI-ness about him.”

Manzo shares Paul’s story, how he “came from a humble background with very little money” and was curious about music and doing interesting things with music. Like many WPI alumni, even as a child, Paul took apart items at home such as the player piano, the telephone, and record player, just to see how they worked.

“He was doing this way back in the 1920s,” Manzo says.

In early 2020, Manzo and other WPI music faculty members redesigned Humanities and Arts capstone courses centered on hands-on projects that explore Paul’s music innovations. Students from various majors enrolled in the course, in which they undertake projects to recreate Paul’s innovations in a modern way, with materials paid for by the Les Paul Foundation.

“I thought, if he were alive, Les Paul would be hanging out on our campus.”

As an example, Manzo describes how Paul experimented with sound, using a piece of steel railroad rail, guitar string, and a microphone under it. In the lab, students have recreated this instrument from comparable materials and then varied the materials to hear changes in the timbre. The goal is for students to experience the same “aha” moments that Paul had when he conducted similar experiments.

In another project, students followed Paul’s path in using unconventional found materials to construct musical instruments. In this case, students repurposed vinyl records in the construction of a guitar body (see video above).

Manzo’s interest in Paul and these types of innovations is a natural outgrowth of his own interest in technologies that can help people compose and perform music, “especially those who don’t normally—adults, children with special needs.” After earning tenure at WPI, he founded the EGIL—the only lab of its kind in the world—which provides opportunities to work with companies, professional musicians, and instrument makers. When looking for funding to support his interactive and adaptive work, Manzo discovered the Les Paul Foundation.

“I thought, if he were alive, Les Paul would be hanging out on our campus.”

The course launched in January 2020, a couple of months before the pandemic impacted the WPI campus. By mid-March, students no longer had access to labs and equipment.

“And it’s been even more like the Les Paul experience,” Manzo says. “It actually worked out pretty perfectly that we didn’t have the safety net of all the fancy machines and support staff—of course, I hope this never happens again.”

In true WPI spirit, Manzo has found the added challenges of the pandemic have deepened the lessons discovered in the Electric Guitar Innovation Lab.

“It actually worked out pretty perfectly that we didn’t have the safety net of all the fancy machines and support staff—of course, I hope this never happens again.”

“I really love what we’re doing. I love the whole idea of being resilient, of telling students failure is normal,” he says. “We’re telling students Les Paul was pushing the envelope his whole life, and you can do that, too.”

The Les Paul Foundation is also pleased to see the musician’s legacy expressed in this way.

“The students of V.J. Manzo at WPI are clear examples of the same innovative thinking as that of Les Paul. Les always looked to create things that didn’t exist and by doing that he changed the world of music forever. We are looking forward to all the things that will be brought forward by the remarkable creativity and innovation of the students at WPI,” says Michael Braunstein, executive director of the Les Paul Foundation.

To build on this work, Manzo is looking forward to sharing Paul’s legacy and lessons with even more young people. With an additional grant recently awarded by the foundation, Manzo will hold a music tech summer camp for underrepresented elementary and middle school students, either virtually with materials shipped to students’ homes or on campus.

More student projects can be found on the Electric Guitar Innovation Lab page.