Tongue drums may look alike, but the real difference lies in their notes. Many are tuned to a single scale, making them easy and intuitive to play. Chromatic tongue drums add the missing sharps and flats, opening the door to a far wider range of music. I think of them like coloured pencils: a small set is wonderfully simple, but a full set lets you capture every shade. Different notes, like different colours, simply make different kinds of music possible.

For a long time, my main YW Pulsar has had to serve two purposes. It was my instrument, of course. But at times, it also became the instrument I would place in front of someone else — a client, a visitor, a curious pair of hands. Which, in many ways, is a beautiful thing. These instruments invite touch.They invite listening.They invite a person to come closer. And yet, I have also learnt, rather painfully, that my own performing instrument needs a certain boundary around it. Some time ago,...

I have fibromyalgia. There — I’ve said it. I don’t bring it up often, but today feels like the right moment. It began quietly, as these things tend to do. A dull ache in my left arm while playing the harp. No obvious cause. No clear explanation. Just pain, showing up uninvited and refusing to leave. Over time, the stiffness in my fingers grew harder to ignore. Then one day — or perhaps gradually, and I simply hadn’t wanted to notice — I could no longer play the piano. Or the harp. The...