The intro
This website describes a new instrument that has its roots in the accordion, a musical instrument invented* in the early 1800s and has not undergone significant changes until now. ** On the following pages, I will tell the story of how I came to create the instrument, provide news as to how I am developing Novokordo (the name comes from Esperanto meaning “a new chord”), and provide details and files of all the components so that anyone can build there own, modify it for their own performances, and generally improve the design. There are also videos of me playing the…
The story
I love the piano accordion. After playing the piano from childhood, I bought my first accordion after I moved to Brighton, UK in 1998. Unlike most musical instruments, when you hug the accordion to your body you become a portable one-man band. On your right, you have a piano keyboard for melodies, and on your left a combined bass section and chord generator beautifully arranged as a matrix of up to 6 x 20 buttons (and when I say beautiful, I should say extraordinarily beautiful). And if this wasn’t enough, you power this contraption with a set of bellows that…
Blog
Revolutionising robotic wrist movement …
… with a compact, cowerful, and versatile differential system https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN6T4nmYSwA Introduction Robotics enthusiasts and engineers are constantly looking for ways to improve the efficiency, compactness, and power of their designs. In this blog post, we will discuss a novel approach to creating a robotic wrist using a differential system, incorporating two servo motors and three…
The gloves are on …
… and then they are off again! Last week, I gave myself 5 days to make a set of musical gloves that I would demonstrate at the weekend at UX Camp Brighton and with the help of ChatGPT I was able to pull off a fairly reasonable demonstration, even though I say so myself. This…
A grand piano attachment
What do you do with a piano that refuses to stay in tune and is too expensive to repair? My piano tuner said it would cost around £5000 to recondition and the best option was to replace it. I was tempted, but I was more than happy with my Roland FP7 and the Pianoteq plugin.…