It took Antonio Stradivari months to create one of his instrumental masterpieces, but you can make yourself a tiny wooden violin in just a few hours using popsicle sticks, toothpicks, coffee stirrers, and string. It can’t be used to play Mozart, but you can still pretend to play it whenever your friends start…

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's weekly roundup of the fanciest toys that will have you even more upset you’re not able to make it to the San Diego Comic-Con this year. And if you’ve ever lamented not having an Arnold Schwarzenegger figure that looks like he just took the day off to visit Home Depot, you’ll find…

When you see a 15-piece orchestra full of trumpets, violins, and cellos, you’re probably expecting to hear a little Chopin, or Mozart. But the Rundfunk-Tanzorchester Ehrenfeld (or Radio Dance Orchestra of Ehrenfeld, in english) plays a near perfect rendition of Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger in this…

The stories Mari Lesteberg tells won’t put her on the New York Times’ bestseller list, but that doesn’t make them any less fantastic. Watching her simple side-scrolling tale of a little girl venturing into a dark cave isn’t terribly exciting, until you realize the artwork is actually playing the accompanying soundtrack

Last year, artist Neil Mendoza turned a hamster running in a wheel into a talented sketch artist. This year he’s pulled off an even more amazing feat by turning inanimate rocks into a talented (literal) rock band that plays a surprisingly decent cover of The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun.”

You know those deep feelings of resentment you have towards your parents for the countless hours they made you practice the piano? Arpeggio, a piano-playing robot that could easily perform at Carnegie Hall, is the over-achieving childhood musician your parents secretly always wanted.

For electronic musicians who still like being able to perform with dials and buttons, Teenage Engineering’s Pocket Operators are miniature synths that manage to pack a tremendous amount of functionality into a tiny package. And that now includes the ability to import and export sounds and patterns with the new PO-32…

At no point in the history of humanity did anyone ever ask for a bagpipe-playing robot that would never get tired. But this is exactly what Instructables’ XenonJohn has built with his Ardu McDuino bot that uses a pair of 3D-printed prosthetic hands to autonomously play a bagpipe’s chanter. Thanks?

Though musicians like David Bowie found ways to incorporate the Stylophone’s unique sound into their music, the tiny synthesizer has mostly been considered nothing more than a musical toy. But Dubreq wants to change that with a new feature-packed version of the Stylophone that might finally legitimize the toy as a…

You no longer have to be a Stradivarius, a Gibson, or even a Steinway to make your own musical instruments. Anyone with access to a 3D printer and this simple software, developed by Autodesk Research, can turn any 3D model into a wind instrument capable of playing a variety of different notes.

Invented in 1850 by French violin maker Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, the absurdly oversized viola called the Octobasse, standing almost 12-feet tall, dwarfs anyone who tries to play it. But it’s a real instrument, designed to produce low, rumbling notes to accompany the rest of an orchestra.

Every once in a while a video comes along that changes the way you think about yourself, about the world, and about everything you thought you believed. Such was the case with this video of the band Dancing Noodle making electronic dance music using just rubber chickens, a table, and a paper cup.

We’ve seen 3D-printed violins before, but they used an electric pickup to amplify the sound of the resonating strings. Using a newly formulated white resin, Formlabs instead 3D-printed an acoustic violin that relies on its shape, internal chambers, and the material its made from to produce an authentic violin sound.

Being able to play music is a gift, but learning to play an instrument is morass of frustration—especially teaching yourself the guitar. Hands have to be bent in uncomfortable positions, uncalloused fingers get sore, and it becomes clear that human extremities innately possess the coordination of a newborn deer that’s…

There’s about five pounds of salvageable copper inside your typical photocopier (mostly in the power supply and the motor’s copper windings). Copper, that can be mixed with zinc to create brass. Brass, that can be shaped out to make a trumpet. It’s the circle of life!

It doesn’t take much practice to learn to play the world’s tiniest violin—just a complete and utter lack of sympathy for what someone else is complaining about. But thanks to the folks at Design I/O, your microscopic violin will finally produce actual sad music.

Learning to play any instrument isn’t just about correctly following every last note on a sheet of music. Being expressive, and imaginative, is just as important to learn. That’s what led MIT’s Xiao Xiao and Hiroshi Ishii to develop Andante, which adds lively animated figures to a self-playing piano.