I've noticed that there are very few instruments which aren't cumbersome and hard to work. Consider a lightweight glove which has a small computer chip on the back of the palm and one at the tip of each finger. The chip on the back of the palm is the main computer of the glove; it recieves/sends messages
to an amp/computer, and the chips in the fingers can tell how high/low they are compared to the palm chip.
The music is played based on the elevation of the four fingers. If the fingers are straight out, a different sound will be created then if they were curled into a fist. You can tell the instrument whether to play a note or not by moving your thumb closer to your hand. The closer your thumb gets to your hand, the louder the note would be.
Chords can be played by having some fingers up while putting other fingers down.
A signal would then be remotely transmitted to an amp, much like an electric guitar. (Of course, you could also have the computer record what you're playing at the same time.)
One of the great things about this "Glove of Music" would be that it wouldn't have a fixed sound, you could change it much like you would a keyboard. Any sound you could create could be assigned to a certain finger movement. Also, it would be very easy to hold a microphone in one hand while playing the "Glove of Music" in the other, letting singers have more freedom.