The Clarion: An award-winning, accessible instrument
1st May 2025
Photo credit: National Open Youth Orchestra
The Clarion is an award-winning, accessible musical instrument that can be played independently with any part of the body, including the eyes. Jonathan Westrup, Programme Manager at Open Up Music, explains why the Clarion should be the next addition to your educational offer.
Close your eyes and imagine a world without the piano – it’s odd, right? In our imaginary, parallel universe, what instrument would piano heroes like Elton John, Nina Simone and Nicholas Mccarthy be playing instead?
The piano is, of course, a staple of the music world, which we pretty much take for granted. But cast your mind back a few centuries, and it’s easy to forget there were early objections to the piano; even esteemed composer Johann Sebastian Bach thought it could use some tweaks.
But if even the piano had a bumpy start in life, what chance does a new instrument have in 2025?
Launching a new instrument into the world in any century is challenging. A lot of things need to happen to establish your new instrument within the existing musical landscape. People may understandably struggle to work out where and how this new instrument is supposed to fit in with what they already do.
This conundrum becomes harder still when the new instrument in question is digital, rather than the more familiar acoustic kind. For people not used to playing them, ‘digital instruments’ can equal ‘music tech’, which can equal ‘complicated’. I fully appreciate that, but equally, what is a Steinway grand piano if not an impressive piece of technology to try and get your head around? It’s just that we are now used to playing it.
At this point, let me introduce the Clarion to you: an accessible, digital instrument we developed at Open Up Music, which is now available to buy in the UK for the first time. Played on iPad or Windows devices, tablets and PCs, the Clarion is an instrument you download as an app. Musical notes are shown on the screen as colourful shapes which can be arranged into patterns to play using your fingers, eyes or head motion. To experience the Clarion today, download the free trial version or visit the website at /theclarion.uk/.
Photo credit: Giulia Spadafora/NOYO
We are lucky enough to have some ‘Clarion heroes’ to celebrate at this early stage: you can watch Alessandro, Clarion soloist for the National Open Youth Orchestra (NOYO), performing Soaring Through Sparks; or Ibrahim, performing the melody to Walking in the Air in his school’s Open Orchestra. The Clarion already has a small but devoted fanbase in special schools’ education circles, but it now needs to spread its wings and become a staple of mainstream schools and ensembles as well.
A question remains – and it’s a slightly brutal one – why should people care about this new instrument? Author Simon Sinek provides us with a possible answer in his famous TED Talk about the company Apple, called The Golden Circle. Sinek invites us to wonder why Apple are more successful than their competitors, before revealing the answer: people don’t buy what you do, but why you do it.
Expanding on this idea, why should you ‘do’ Clarion? The answer is that the Clarion is more than an instrument. At every stage of its development, it was informed by the direct input of disabled musicians. This means it will enable you to teach music in a way that works for disabled musicians, embracing the powerful ideas at the heart of the social model of disability, whilst also adhering to some fundamental musical ones too:
Photo credit: National Open Youth Orchestra
The Clarion is a real-time instrument
With Clarion, you play notes, exactly as if you were playing an acoustic instrument. Play the ‘right’ notes, it sounds good; play the ‘wrong’ ones and you’ve made a mistake (a feeling every musician experiences from time to time!). Every note has to be played by you, nothing is automated.
You can play the Clarion straight away
The simplest Clarion pattern is a single note on the screen, meaning anyone can start playing quickly. That is a big win in the classroom – there’s no programming involved. Clarion patterns are like graphic scores you can actually play, there’s no need to use standard notation.
Clarion can be changed to suit you
Most conventional instruments are fixed and can’t be changed – just try taking a piano apart! Clarion isn’t fixed, and every element can be adapted to suit a musician’s playing style, interests or access needs. The Clarion fits around you, not the other way around.
With ongoing input from young musicians, who remember are digital natives, we designed a digital instrument that anyone can play, that can fit right into any musical situation, and that requires the same basic musical skills and effort to play as any acoustic instrument. You can also realistically take the Clarion home to practice on, which is a game-changer.
If you’re nodding along in agreement, then great – you are likely already working inclusively where you are! Otherwise, you might have these questions: ‘Who will play the Clarion?’ and ‘Who will teach it?’
Photo credit: Open Orchestras
For the former question, our advice is straightforward: the Clarion is great for anyone who simply wants to play it, or needs to because conventional instruments are inaccessible to them. Don’t think of the Clarion as an instrument to offer only as and when disabled musicians get in contact with you. Make it front and centre the whole time. The responsibility shouldn’t be on disabled musicians to come forward and advocate for themselves. The Clarion should ideally be part of a universal offer of instruments, so anyone who has access needs doesn’t feel they are ‘other’.
The latter question – Clarion teachers – is a work in progress, but this is where you have a key role to play. Our 60 Open Orchestras contain many Music Leaders who are now confident Clarion players, and teachers of the Clarion to their students. You can help to share this knowledge! Ensure you create opportunities for these fantastic ‘Clarion Champions’ to share their knowledge via school and Music Hub INSET days. And if you don’t have them yet, then get started. To achieve equity in music, the Clarion and other expressive digital instruments need to find their way into curriculum Music lessons, like any other instruments.
At Open Up Music, we are playing our part by running free regular online training sessions for the Clarion – you can sign up for sessions on the Clarion website. Our ambition is to develop a more formalised ‘peri’-style training course which will enable Music Leaders to teach Clarion like any other instrument. We will call upon you to share your experience with it. We need to do this together.
In 20 years’ time, we hope we can again invite you to close your eyes, but this time imagine a world without the Clarion: it’s odd, right?
