Makey Makey Foley Board
You're going to build a custom digital Foley instrument.
By the end, your group will have a physical board where touching a banana plays an explosion, touching aluminum foil triggers footsteps, and tapping a paper clip fires a laser. This is real production tech — and you're building it from scratch.
The Makey Makey is a small circuit board. Plug it into a computer, clip alligator wires from the board to any conductive object (foil, bananas, water, your body), and that object becomes a keyboard key.
Touch the banana while you're connected to the "Earth" wire — the circuit completes — the computer thinks you pressed the spacebar.
That's the magic trick. Now we use it to make sound.
Spanish vocabulary for today: grabar (record), sonido (sound), bocina (speaker), disparador (trigger).
Before you build anything custom, just play. The Makey Makey website has ready-to-go apps that work the second you plug in.
- Plug the Makey Makey into your laptop with the USB cable
- Open one of the sample apps (start with Bongos or Piano — most dramatic)
- Clip the BLACK "Earth" wire to something you'll hold (foil, a paper clip you can grip)
- Clip other colored wires to objects on your table — banana, foil square, water cup, conductive props
- Hold the Earth, touch the other objects — make music!
Spend 10–15 minutes here. Notice what's conductive (anything wet, anything metal, anything alive). Notice what isn't (plastic, dry wood, glass). You'll need this intuition for your own build.
The sample apps are great for the wow moment. But for your Foley board, you need to use YOUR OWN sounds. That's where Scratch comes in.
- Click "Create" (you can use Scratch without an account, but signing in saves your work)
- Delete the cat sprite (right-click → delete)
- Your stage is now empty — that's good. You don't need visuals, just sounds.
You need a library of sounds your board will play. Two ways to build it:
You captured 8+ sounds during the Field Recording Expedition. Upload them into Scratch:
- Click the "Sounds" tab in Scratch
- Click the speaker icon at the bottom-left → "Upload Sound"
- Upload each sound file from your field recording library
- Label each one clearly (in Spanish AND English — e.g., puerta / door_slam)
- Click "Sounds" tab → speaker icon → "Record"
- Use Foley props at your table to make sounds — record each one
- Trim the silence at the start/end of each clip
- Label in Spanish AND English
Aim for at least 6 sounds. Think about what you'll need for Captain Harlock: footsteps, the wooden wheel turning, the engine rumble, an alarm, a laser blast, an impact.
Now tell Scratch: "When this key is pressed, play this sound."
When [space] key pressed → play sound [door_slam]
- Click the "Code" tab
- In the "Events" category (yellow), drag out "When [space] key pressed"
- Click the dropdown to choose a different key (Makey Makey defaults: ↑ ↓ ← → space)
- In the "Sound" category (pink), drag out "play sound [____] until done"
- Snap them together. Choose the sound you want.
- Repeat for each sound — each one mapped to a different key.
Holding alligator clips to random objects works, but it's chaotic on stage. You're going to design a real board — a cardboard surface with labeled, durable trigger zones.
- Cardboard base (your call on size)
- Aluminum foil sheets (cut into trigger pads)
- Brass paper fasteners (poke through cardboard for clip-on points)
- Large paper clips (alt trigger pads)
- Binder clips (hold things in place)
- Pink foam ring + black hair tie (creative trigger ideas — pressure pad? wearable?)
- 11 alligator clips, 10+ jumper wires
- Paper for labels
Before you build, draw it. Where does each sound go on the board? How will a performer reach them without crossing arms?
- Group similar sounds together (all footsteps in one zone)
- Put the MOST USED sound somewhere easy to reach
- Label each zone in Spanish AND English
- Cut foil into trigger pads (the size of a credit card works well)
- Tape or fasten each pad to the cardboard
- Use brass fasteners pushed through the cardboard as alternative trigger points (poke them through, fold the legs flat on the back)
- Add labels next to each pad
- Clip one alligator wire from each Makey Makey key (←, →, ↑, ↓, space, etc.) to a different trigger pad
- Clip the BLACK "Earth" wire to something the performer will hold or wear (the foam ring or hair tie work great as wearable Earth contacts)
- Use jumper wires (the rainbow ribbon ones) for shorter internal connections if needed
- Wear/hold the Earth. Touch each pad. Does each one trigger the right sound?
- Try playing them in sequence — does the timing work?
- If a pad isn't triggering: check the alligator clip is fully closed, check the foil contact is solid, check the wire is going to the right key in Scratch
Before you wrap: which sounds on your board are you planning to use for the Captain Harlock final performance? Start thinking now. You'll add AI-generated sounds (engine rumble, distant battle) to this same board over the next sessions.