Now and again it never hurts to take some time off and have fun, or share it with others - and an example of this would be making an eight-key capacitive touch piano with an Arduino. Doing so is incredibly simple, as the Arduino can generate a variety of sounds - and you can make touch sensors with some aluminium foil found in the kitchen, some cardboard, a few resistors and wire. To make your own check out the documentation by Tyler Crumpton whose piano is simple and effective, for example:
Not bad at all, and with a little work it could be made into a permanent fixture for a childrens' toy or other musical requirements. Get started with the instructions here. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
If you're interested in working with sound piezos for various reasons we have a neat little SOUND: sound and buzzer module:
It can be used as a noise-maker driven by your microcontroller for audible feedback of events, and it can also be used as a knock-detector input to sense events and react to them. Includes a built-in 1M resistor to allow the piezo element to detect shocks. For more information and to order, please visit the product page here.
