With an accelerometer and capacitive sensing, even a beginner can produce some great tunes with this DIY device.

If you like making beautiful music, but would rather not actually practice this skill, perhaps this thumb piano and controller by producer/DJ Rob Blazey would be a good instrument to pick up. His project, called “Kalimbo,” employs an Arduino to translate manipulations of metal rods, along with movement of the piano itself, into Open Sound Control (OSC) messages. These are then be used to produce music.

You first hear its awesomeness around the 1:00 mark in the video seen below. Even just moving it around sounds good, but it becomes incredible when he really starts playing just before 2:00!

Inside the instrument there is an Arduino with an accelerometer and a capacitive sensing wire, which is connected to the insulated bridge at the back, so touching the edge of that bridge acts as a trigger or switch or can control things more precisely depending on how hard you press it.

Intrigued? You can find more background on this project in mrblazey’s video description.