The Touchless Electric Guitar MIDI Controller

Despite what Evan Kale’s original intro might say, MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. This is great for creating interesting sounds or even controlling the sound emanating from an instrument. Unfortunately though, most of us only have two hands, so if you want to play some awesome tunes on your electric guitar and modify the notes in real-time, options are kind of limited to a foot pedal.

Luckily, Kale has an excellent solution based on his previous toy metal detector project. His solution, instead of searching for gold coins or tooth fillings, picks up his gloved hand via a strip of aluminum foil embedded inside. As he moves his hand away from the guitar, the metal detector uses this analog signal as a MIDI input.

It’s a really innovative idea and you’ll definitely want to check out Kale’s video below. If you want to build your own, schematics are available here, as is the necessary Arduino code.