Introduction

As a horn player, I spend more of my time on the bandstand listening rather than playing. While this also gives me a chance to rest my chops, it doesn't allow me to contribute a whole lot to the audience's experience either aurally and visually. In fact, there's never really too much to see as far as horn players go. With this in mind, I set out while on winter break from school to create a visual light display for my trumpet. Thus, a week spent holed up in my parent's garage in early January 2006 yielded the most arbitrarily delightful musical accessory in my possession to date - Project: Trompetelichter.

Trompetelichter

From the onset, I didn't want a static display on my horn. Whatever visual display I rigged up had to change with the music either acousitically or, at the least, mechanically. I eventually decided on the following set up:

Each valve on my trumpet is magnetically connected to a switch that triggers a primary color of LED on the bell with combinations of valves triggering the corresponding secondary colors.

Video

Prototype Video (11.2 MB)	This is a video of Project: Trompetelichter in action. The song is "Auld Lang Syne" (that one you hear around New Year's - it was a lot more appropriate when I shot it in January).

Special Thanks

• Mom, Dad for letting me use their garage.
• Victor Li, Keith Martin, Paul Marshall for bouncing back ideas.
• Jon Gaw, Wilmot Yeh, Harry Zhong for their tools.