Hey there!

Fig. 1: Left to right – Tan Yi Song (Aerospace Engineering), Sean Chim (Mechanical Engineering), Vivian Seow (Biological Sciences), Bernice Yeo (Biological sciences)

We are a group creating a machine to play the musical instrument, the Lyre. 

Inspired by Vivian, a Harpist, we decided on the Lyre as it can be seen as a mini harp. That’s because a Harp costs at least $15,000 which is WAYY beyond our budget. Music has the ability to calm the mind and has been proven to reduce stress and anxiety, even manage and ease physical pain. As such, we would like to marry our expertise in Engineering/ Science and music to create something beautiful 😇

Currently, there have been a few machines invented to play some musical instruments including the violin and piano, but it is generally quite rare. We hope that our project would be able to serenade a crowd and perhaps play an accompaniment in a duet or other arrangements. 

The Lyre 

Fig. 2: Ancient lyre (left), Modern lyre (right)

The lyre is a string instrument that is similar in appearance to a small harp but with clear dissimilarities.  The most notable is how the strings are, with a Lyre, the strings go over the bridge. Whereas, for harps, the strings stay inside the body of the harp. The Lyre originates from Greece back in 1400 BC. Fun fact! The original lyres are made from tortoises… (Fig. 2)  The word “lyre” comes from the word “lura”, which means a stringed instrument with a tortoiseshell sounding board. Not only that, sheep guts were used to make the strings. Yucks!