How to Build an AirHarp

The AirHarp is a type of digital autoharp that allows musicians of diverse skill levels to play music of advanced harmonic complexity simply by pressing four pushbuttons and "strumming" invisible harp strings in the air.  Developed by musician-turned-engineer Peter DeSimone, the AirHarp is pocket-portable and suitable both as an introductory instrument and an accompaniment tool for singers and songwriters.  It allows direct access to fourteen chords within a given key (including the seven diatonic chords), and can play in any key.  This allows the AirHarp to easily play most songs, from baroque arias to modern rock songs.

In Part 1, Peter walks you through all the steps necessary to building your very own AirHarp!  In Part 2, he shows how to upload the AirHarp firmware and hack the Arduino into being a class compliant USB MIDI controller!

AirHarp parts can be purchased directly from Peter!

http://www.lyratron.com/Lyratron/Store.html

Here's a clip of Peter playing "Lascia ch'io pianga" from Handel's "Rinaldo", proving that the diminutive AirHarp is more than just a novelty instrument:

URLs:
http://www.arduino.cc
http://www.airharp.com
http://arduino.cc/en/Hacking/DFUProgramming8U2
Moco for LUFA (NEW address):
http://morecatlab.akiba.coocan.jp/lab
OLD address:
http://web.mac.com/kuwatay/morecat_lab./MocoLUFA.html

DFU command line arguments:
sudo dfu-programmer at90usb82 erase
sudo dfu-programmer at90usb82 flash MocoLUFA.hex
sudo dfu-programmer at90usb82 reset