Project: BeetBox musical instrument

By: Scott Garner, 33

Key Ingredients

1 x Pi, 6 x beetroots
1 x piece of hardwood
1 x capacitive touch sensor
1 x amplifier
1 x speaker

Learn how to make your own Beetbox at http://scott.j38.net

How do you turn six root vegetables into a drum kit?

Speak to American artist and NYU Masters student Scott Garner, who's brilliant but bonkers device involves linking a Pi to a touch sensor to determine when one of six beetroots is being tapped by a user.

The Pi monitors when a beetroot has been touched, triggering a pre-recorded drum beat which is outputted to the device's speaker.

"At first I thought it was a silly project," says Garner, "but I was delighted and surprised when people kept coming to play on it."

Cue a gleeful cacophony of rock 'n' roll rhythms.

Beatles riffs work well, though high-tempo drum 'n' bass fans might find the Pi's timelag a deal breaker.

>> See our full list of Raspberry Pi projects as we add a new one every week