Cyrille Martraire

On a Sunday afternoon, fifteen friends, all non musicians but two amateur musicians, joined the machines set in turn, around 8 at a time, to improvise electro or hip-hop rhythmic grooves. Of course there were food and drinks as well. The goal was to introduce music making in an attractive way: no pressure, no constraint, [...]

In this last part, we put ideas into practice to build an instrument dedicated to play solo for electronic music genres. We will use light sensors, buttons and an Arduino board to control MIDI synthesizers in a way that is attractive to both musicians and non musicians.

Musical instruments for musicians and non-musicians, part Two.
In this post we have a look at how making a musical instrument smarter (or more music-aware) can make it much easier, especially for beginners.

Musical instruments for musicians and non-musicians, part One: Controlling the sounds

In this first post of the series we will analyse how various instruments provide control to the human player, and how this makes them easier (playability) or more expressive.