Josh neck final project Building an experimental instrument

My passion for music and sound As a kid I grew up around loads of different styles and genres of music and had great access to them. Music played big part in my life and so all I wanted to do was be able to play an instrument. I started learning the drums and it quickly became my love and everything I wanted to do. But it was not just the instrument that grabbed my love, but the sound it created and the way it worked intrigued me.

My music career I continued my musical career as I went through school, I learned a few more instruments and gained more knowledge, joining bands and playing music. I was still very interested in how sound works and why it has such an affect on people world wide. I continued playing drums with a passion and taking exams but I slowly moved from that and wanted to go into more depth of sound. I attended a musical instrument workshop, learning about the design of instruments, how they work and what makes the sound they make. It was something I extremely enjoyed and something I believed would be useful in the future.

Starting the production course I then started the production course, learning about things such as acoustics and sythesis. Synthesis dragged me in very quickly. The idea of being able to create my own sounds from nothing but sound waves was amazing to me, it was like I could build my own instrument inside a computer, and I could also replicate the sounds of other instruments. The idea of doing this in the fraction of the time it takes to build an instrument is crazy, and is one of the main things that influenced my idea for my project.

My first idea and why it changed My original idea was to build an acoustic instrument that not many people know. Its an African instrument called the Kalimba (or thumb piano) My idea changed after research on Alex Ferris, the owner of the Anarchestra. Alex Ferris has built hundreds of home made instruments designed by himself Some of them are based off traditional instruments and some are completely original with sounds out of this world.

Project concept and inspiration The idea of my project is to build an experimental instrument designed and built by myself. I want to build an instrument that anyone could simply pick up and just play, no musical talent or experience, just play. My inspiration for this comes from Alex Ferris and his Anarchestra. He believes sound is tool to be used and manipulated, he takes advantage of this and creates instruments that anyone can just play. My aim is to build an instrument belonging to both the stringed and percussion family, a hybrid instrument. I want it to have a clean simple look, but a completely original sound.

Realisation As with anything there could be some possible problems along the way, such as not completing the build in time. This is why I have a 8 week plan to ensure I complete my project Week 1: design the instrument Week 2: design the instrument Week 3: collect materials Week 4: collect materials Week 5: build Week 6: build Week 7: build Week 8: finish build

Target audience and selling product My target audience is not specific. I want my product to be for everyone and anyone. No matter what the age is, I want people to be able to pick it up and play. As I previously mentioned the purpose is for anyone to play the instrument, musical skills or not. When it comes to selling the instrument, as there is only one it is very unlikely I will be selling it, unless of course I had the opportunity to mass produce it

Thanks for listening