Inspired by Whack-a-Potato, I decided to make a Potato Piano, using a MaKey MaKey, a laptop and 8 potatoes. This is a pretty simple project: just go to http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/3197340/ and click on the green flag. You don’t even need to install Scratch. Then wire up your 8 potatoes in order to the keys shown on the screen on the MaKey MaKey. And off you go – make a mash-up!
I should warn you that the quality of potato you use is important: you will get a much crisper sound if you use a Jersey Royal than if you use a Sainsbury’s ‘Basics’ potato. Oh, no, hang on, it’s a digital system, it’s on or off – so that’s utter hogwash, like trying saying that it’s worth spending a fortune on a platinum HDMI cable with braid spun from unicorn hair. Or that it matters which direction your speaker cable runs in. Or (for those of you old enough to remember such things) that it makes any difference at all to audio quality which brand of Minidisc you buy.
The only thing that matters is that the spud should contain water. And this is a great way to get your eight a day (it’s bound to be eight by now…)
filmed by Tillster (8)
At last, a piano that suits my spuddy playing style! Apparently, there are potato varieties called Melody, Harmony, Mozart & Vivaldi.