Moshe'sDigital Instruments

Real instruments, synthesized note by note in your browser. Strike, hover, tap, rub or strum. No samples, no installs, and fifteen songs to learn with a guide that lights the way.

No. 01

Steelpan

A Caribbean tenor pan you strike with a click, a tap or your keyboard.

Origin: Trinidad & Tobago, 1930s
Range: C4 – C6 · 25 pads
Layout: Circle-of-fifths spiral
Play with: Mouse · touch · keyboard
Engine: Additive partials + strike noise

Play the steelpan

No. 02

Theremin“Aetherwave”

The instrument you play without touching. Hover, or tilt your phone through the air.

Origin: Léon Theremin, 1920
Range: C3 – C6 · continuous
Voice: Glide · vibrato · timbre
Play with: Hover · touch · phone tilt
Engine: Twin oscillators + LFO

Play the theremin

No. 03

Kalimba

A thumb piano of tuned steel tines on a warm wooden board. Tap the tines, or play with two thumbs.

Origin: Southern Africa · mbira family
Range: C4 – E6 · 17 tines, C major
Layout: Alternating from the centre
Play with: Tap · two thumbs · number keys
Engine: Clamped-tine modes 1 : 6.27 : 17.55

Play the kalimba

No. 04

Glass Harp

Twenty-five tuned wine glasses that sing when you circle their rims. Faster circles sing louder.

Origin: Musical glasses · Franklin, 1761
Range: C4 – C6 · 25 glasses
Layout: Two rows, like piano keys
Play with: Circle the rim · multi-touch
Engine: Friction-driven glass modes

Play the glass harp

No. 05

Lever Harp

Fifteen strings to pluck or sweep across, with real sharping levers that flip themselves for each song.

Origin: Celtic lever harp
Range: C4 – C6 · 15 strings, E♭ tuning
Levers: Raise any string a semitone
Play with: Pluck · drag to strum · keys
Engine: Karplus–Strong plucked string

Play the harp

The Songbook

Fifteen public-domain melodies, from nursery tunes to carols. Each link opens the instrument with the song ready to play and every note written out underneath. The C-major kalimba sits out the songs with sharps and flats.

Song	Origin	Key	Level	Play on
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star	French folk tune, 1761	C major	Easy	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp
Mary Had a Little Lamb	American nursery rhyme, 1830	C major	Easy	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp
Ode to Joy	Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, 1824	C major	Easy	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp
When the Saints Go Marching In	American gospel standard	C major	Medium	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp
Amazing Grace	Hymn tune "New Britain", 1829	G major	Medium	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp
Oh! Susanna	Stephen Foster, 1848	C major	Medium	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp
Greensleeves	English folk air, 16th century	A minor	Medium	Steelpan ThereminKalimba — not available: Needs G♯4 — this kalimba is tuned to C majorGlass Harp Harp
Scarborough Fair	English ballad, traditional	E Dorian	Medium	Steelpan ThereminKalimba — not available: Needs C♯5, F♯4 — this kalimba is tuned to C majorGlass Harp Harp
Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)	Irish air, traditional	F major	Hard	Steelpan ThereminKalimba — not available: Needs A♯4 — this kalimba is tuned to C majorGlass Harp Harp
Jingle Bells	James Lord Pierpont, 1857	C major	Easy	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp
Silent Night	Franz Xaver Gruber, 1818	C major	Medium	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp
We Wish You a Merry Christmas	English West Country carol, traditional	C major	Medium	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp
Auld Lang Syne	Scottish traditional tune; words by Robert Burns, 1788	C major	Medium	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp
Happy Birthday	Mildred and Patty Hill, "Good Morning to All", 1893	C major	Easy	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp
Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping?)	French nursery round, 18th century	C major	Easy	Steelpan Theremin Kalimba Glass Harp Harp

Missing a song? Suggest one on GitHub. It needs to be in the public domain: folk songs, hymns, carols and classical pieces all work.

How they're made

Synthesized, not sampled

Each instrument uses the physics of the real thing: tuned partials over a metallic strike for the pan, cantilever-beam modes for kalimba tines, friction-driven glass modes, Karplus–Strong for harp strings, and one gliding oscillator voice for the theremin.

Learn by following the light

Listen plays the tune for you. Play Along lights the next pad, tine, glass or string, or sweeps a target across the theremin field and scores how long you stay on pitch.

Played with your body

Strike the pan, hover over the theremin (or tilt your phone), tap or sweep the kalimba tines, circle the glass rims with as many fingers as you like, and drag across the harp for a glissando.