The thinking behind the Strummi was to explore how established musical instruments (such as the guitar) can be replicated or modified to meet the access needs of disabled musicians. We wanted to create an instrument which served the role of a guitar, but which lowered the barriers to participation. Being a digital musical instrument, the Strummi’s tuning can be altered without the need for the dexterity and strength required for fretting guitar strings. Additionally, its layout can be rearranged in different ways to meet different players’ access needs.

The Strummi preserves some of the ‘acoustic’ feel of strumming a real guitar. This is achieved by using short lengths of guitar string which have been muted or dampened. The acoustic signal from these strings is then used to excite a ‘digital’ string, using the Karplus-Strong string synthesis algorithm. This combination of acoustic input and digital response provides a more expressive and sensitive string playing experience, compared with sampling-based methods, for example.

Strummi was created in collaboration with arts charity Heart n Soul.