Hello! So here is a project write up for a musical instrument I am just finishing that I have been making here and at home.
It’s a piece that I am making with City of London Sinfonia (CLS - an orchestra) and Maudsley and Bethlem hospital schools and their patients - working specifically with children and young people. I lead weekly composition workshops in these schools where we create new pieces of music in response to orchestral repertoire. This instrument is an attempt to create an instrument which allow people who are scared of music making because they feel they can’t to interact with something that doesn’t feel like a traditional instrument, as well as a way to share the music that they have made in a meaningful way while keeping the participants anonymous (which is necessary (and the law) to ensure they have the right to recover - essentially its about protecting their dignity)
The design has been made with them and we started with this cardboard prototype
on which foil capacitive sensors were placed
children then made paper overlays, which represent different sound sets
