DiGitarre
Categories: Hardware Prototypes/Non-Commercial products
Submitted By: klingklusion
Elevator Pitch

DiGitarre
Product Description
DiGitarre is an accessible digital guitar designed for inclusive classroom music-making. It was developed through participatory design with disabled children and music teachers in German SEN schools, following the principle “Nothing about us without us.”
The instrument is played using five coloured chord buttons and a five-point multi-touch slider that emulates strumming or plucking. It works as a standalone instrument with integrated sound output and wireless configuration, and it is supported by a didactic concept based on colour notation for direct use in educational settings.
How It’s Innovative
DiGitarre is innovative because it does not treat accessibility as an add-on. Accessibility, musicality, and classroom usability are designed together from the start.
Its innovation lies in the combination of participatory development, recognisable instrument character, intuitive low-threshold interaction, and direct educational usability. Instead of requiring complex setup or specialist technical knowledge, DiGitarre is designed to work immediately in real school contexts. The five-button chord interface and multi-touch strumming surface lower physical and cognitive barriers while still allowing expressive musical development. Unlike many existing solutions, it is not only a controller or a therapeutic device: it is designed as a musical instrument for shared music-making in inclusive education.
Most Inspiring Use Cases
The most inspiring use of DiGitarre is when a child who would otherwise be excluded from guitar-based classroom music can actively play along with others in a shared song.
In our context, this means more than access to sound. It means access to participation, agency, and musical identity within the group. A child can contribute chords, rhythm, and accompaniment in real time alongside classmates using conventional school instruments. That moment—when inclusive music-making becomes socially and musically natural rather than exceptional—is the most inspiring use of DiGitarre.
Expansion Plans
Our first expansion step is to establish DiGitarre in the German education market while preparing for entry into the UK and other European markets with comparable inclusive education structures.
Product-wise, DiGitarre is intended as the first element of a broader family of accessible digital instruments for inclusive music education. Expansion therefore means not only geographic growth, but also ecosystem growth: additional instruments, more teaching content, stronger interoperability, and broader integration into educational and accessible music technology environments. In that longer-term vision, greater external MIDI connectivity would play an important role by allowing DiGitarre to connect more easily with software, sound libraries, adaptive interfaces, and other digital instruments across different educational and creative contexts.
Commercialization
DiGitarre is currently transitioning from a validated prototype to a market-ready product. Our commercialization plan focuses first on the German educational market, especially SEN schools, primary schools, and inclusive learning contexts where there is a clear need for accessible and immediately usable music technology, while also exploring future routes into the UK through early conversations with specialist distribution partners.
The next steps are product finalisation, CE preparation, reproducible small-batch production, and continued user testing. We plan to commercialise DiGitarre as a standalone hardware instrument supported by didactic materials, with optional recurring revenue through subscription-based songs and teaching content. Initial market entry is planned through direct relationships with schools and pilot partners in Germany, followed by specialist distribution partnerships in Germany and potentially the UK. Future MIDI connectivity can support commercialization by increasing interoperability with existing music technology workflows and by making the instrument more attractive to educators, inclusive music practitioners, and future distribution partners.