Gulfport musician Brooks Hubbert turns inventor - WLOX.com - The News for South Mississippi

Brooks Hubbert III of Gulfport is a musician turned inventor. He integrates technology and music during his live shows, like a lot of performers do these days. But he also realized a need and created a product that's getting a lot of attention from some of the nation's top leaders in the music industry. It's called "The Sonic Clamp."

The Gulfport native is a third generation musician who earns a living performing live music across the southeast. As a one man band, Hubbert began using countless apps on his smart phone to add special effects and more instruments to his performances. Technology makes the possibilities of creating new sounds endless, but it wasn't easy.

"I was balancing on my acoustic guitar and it fell off and cracked the screen and I was like, There's got to be a better way to do this."

So he found a way. In this case, necessity truly was the mother of his invention. Hubbert recently had The Sonic Clamp manufactured, and the response at the National Association of Music Merchants show in Nashville was overwhelming.

"I can't even describe to you the feeling!"

He said a panel of judges, made up of industry leaders, gave the fledgling Sonic Clamp highest honors.

"What we won was 'Best in Show.' We actually got chosen by two different judges as the best, what's the hottest product of the year."

Those accolades also earned him an invitation to the Da Vinci Institute's Denver exhibition next month which features new and ingenious American creations.

"That was just completely overwhelming being that this was my very first invention. You can watch videos, you can read tablature, you can read chords."

But it's not just for professional musicians. Hubbert said beginners can have a virtual music classroom at their fingertips with thousands of free apps teaching them how to pick and strum.

"That's one of the things that I've focused a lot on the potential of it as in education, beginners, people learning."

Whether you're a smoking hot guitar player like Brooks Hubbert or someone just picking it up, he says The Sonic Clamp will only grow the possibilities and the passion for his first true love: Music.

Brooks Hubbert is trying to raise money to mass produce The Sonic Clamp, and you can be a part of it by going to kickstarter.com and type in "Sonic Clamp." There you can make a pledge and get one for free as a thank you gift for your support. He only has until early in the morning of Friday, Oct 26 to reach his $30,000 goal in this online campaign.

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