The Skateboard Embaire: Reanimating tradition through musical instrument design

Digital musical instruments (DMIs) have a high degree of flexibility of form, sound and materials, and a unique ability to create cultural continuity between traditional and contemporary musical practice. In this paper we demonstrate this concept through the process of design and construction of an embaire created during a residency at a music festival in Nairobi Kenya in 2025. The embaire, a traditional Ugandan xylophone, is typically large in scale, accommodates multiple players, and uses a ground hole for resonance. Here we reimagined it in a modern context using discarded skateboard decks sourced from the local skateboard community and a custom-built sensing and sound synthesis system. Building on historical tuning research from 1940s musicological field notes and re-implementing this tuning system in Pure Data, this playable hardware implementation strongly links traditional African musical heritage with contemporary culture and digital technology. This project offers a model for sustainable instrument design that respects traditional practices while embracing local resources and modern sensing technologies.