"When I was a kid I'd play piano for four or five hours a day. I had to get my fix, otherwise I'd get cranky. When my parents took me on holiday, they had to make sure there was a piano somewhere so I could play. Either in a marketplace, a church, somewhere." -- Imogen Heap, Keyboard magazine, 2006
"As far as I remember I've never not played the piano. I don't remember the first time I played it. It's just always been me and it. To improvise for hours on end is my favourite waste of time. I learned the cello and clarinet...I figured out the more instruments I played, the more academic lessons I got called out of for my music lesson! Because I wanted to be a composer as a kid too, I chose to learn a woodwind, a stringed instrument and a brass one...but I was too impatient for the trumpet! But if you play the piano you can kinda play anything you like now! It's great." -- Imogen Heap, antiMusic interview with Morley Seaver, 2005
"I don't actually have very many keyboards," she adds. "I have my Ensoniq TS-12, which I love very much. I like it, especially, because of its effects. On 'Loose Ends', there's a really high, intentionally loud guitar part, but it's actually the Ensoniq going through a distorted delay." -- Imogen Heap, Keyboard Magazine, 2006
Immi uses her red keytar to control a vocoder for live performances of Hide and Seek, creating the electro-ethereal sound of her voice.
M B I R A
"Zimbabwe's mbira ... is the primary traditional instrument of the Zezuru tribes of the Shona people, and has been played for over 1,000 years at religious rituals, royal courts, and social occasions. It consists of 22 to 28 metal keys mounted on a hardwood soundboard and is usally placed inside a large gourd resonator (deze). The keys are played with the two thumbs plucking down and the right forefinger plucking up." -- mbira.org, the non-profit organization devoted to Shona mbira music
Immi's array mbira is a favored, whimsical instrument which she plays with skill. Immi brought her mbira along for live shows, bedazzled with greenery and entwined with flowers, on tour in support of Speak for Yourself.
T O Y P I A N O
Immi's toy piano, which she introduced in vBlog #23, makes a wonderful "duggada" sound which she enjoys. The toy piano is featured in the song A-ha! from Immi's upcoming album.
H A N G
"Hang means "hand" in the Bernese language, and is pronounced "hung or hong". The Hang was developed in Switzerland. It was the result of many years of research on the steelpan and the study of the diverse collection of instruments from around the world, such as Gongs, Gamelan, Ghatam, drums, bells, etc. The instrument is played with the hands. Udu-like sounds are produced with the air resonance, the sounds of the clamped shallow shells sound like bells or harmonically tuned steelpans. The inner note on the bottom dome is the bass note, and when played in a dampened way allows change in pitch like a talking drum. Seven to nine notes are tuned harmonically around a central deep note. The hemispehres are hardened by a process known as gas-nitriding. This is a thermal treatment process in which nascient hydrogen atoms diffuse into the steel and form nitride compounds with many of the alloys in the steel." -- oddmusic.com
Immi introduced her new hang drum in vBlog #24, which she went to Switzerland to pick up. She said that she has been waiting a long time to get hers (apparently there is a long waiting list!) and while she is still getting the hang of playing it, it has threatened to replace the mbira (!) as her favorite instrument of the moment.
Disclaimer: this site is not officially realted to or endorsed by Imogen Heap or her record label. This is an unofficial site created by fans for fans.
Not Now But Soon single
Heroes Soundtrack
New Studio Album
I N S T R U M E N T S 
