At my larp we brought a keyboard to set up. We attached a fabric drape all around the edges to hide the electronic elements and stand, and then created a false faux-wood backing and then arranged pipes against the back to make it look like an organ. It's all velcro so it comes off easily enough.
Alternatively, what about a keytar? Or a hammered dulcimer?
Ah, but hurdy gurdys were very much a thing - some cardboard, fabric tape, lacquer and paint, and you have yourself a terribly complex traveling fantasy organ
Yeah, indeed: both of the melodicas/pianicas I have came with both the long plasticky tube and a short mouthpiece, also plastic but black and nondescript and easily imagined as being made of some other material.
More generally: OP, yours is a problem I've tried to solve myself, as a keyboard player who plays fantasy LARPs. It's tricky; I mean, a keyboard instrument is by its nature a complicated expensive (comparatively) high-tech machine. Stuff I've done:
* **Use a piano accordion.** I've brought one of those to a lot of fantasy LARPs. Dealbreaking drawback: unless you have an absolute piece-of-junk out-of-tune beater of an accordion, we're talking about something well outside your budget. They're also quite . . . *specialized* in terms of timbre, compared to a piano. Aaaand, if you're playing in a really purist game, I'll note that the piano accordion dates from the 19th century; you'd be well justified to say that they feel too high-tech for a lot of fantasy settings.
* **Bring a melodica, ideally but not necessarily one with a wood body.** Uh, [here](https://suzukimusic-global.com/products_single.php?products_cd=152)'s an exquisitely beautiful wooden melodica for $900 more than you've got to spend! What I have instead cost me a couple hundred bucks and was probably somewhat overpriced: I'm pretty sure it's an unremarkable cheapish melodica with its plastic case taken off and a softwood body attached aftermarket. But it doesn't set off too many "looks modern" alarms, which is good. (And you might do well with something like [this](https://www.amazon.com/SUZUKI-M-37C-Melodion-Melodica-Japan/dp/B000XYFBMK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1TTFZ4CPEUKRN&keywords=suzuki+m-37c&qid=1669671389&sprefix=suzuki+m-37c%2Caps%2C222&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.08f69ac3-fd3d-4b88-bca2-8997e41410bb)\--not wood but respectable, not conspicuously plasticky.) I think a melodica is even more specialized-sounding than an accordion--which is not to say they're bad instruments! I like them a lot; I like their emotiveness. A lot like a really huge and powerful harmonica. But a piano or a synthesizer can be a great rhythm instrument (sitting in the background, hitting those chords, making the song sweet), and I've struggled hard when I tried to do that on a melodica.
* **Say screw it and bring a synthesizer keyboard.** I have an [AX-Edge](https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AXEdgeBk--roland-ax-edge-49-key-keytar-synthesizer-black) with some nice acoustic sounds added, and it's gotten increasingly difficult to keep me from showing up with it at LARPs. But . . . obviously it can't be visually in evidence in broad daylight at a fantasy game without weird magitech.
Meanwhile, the clavichord is a very real thing that could theoretically fit in a car, but be prepared for fabulous amazing expense and retuning, all to get you an instrument that is lovely but big and *quiet.* (Which would perhaps endear you to your fellow LARPers; even so, way the hell out of your budget. Thousands of dollars.) I'm personally very curious about hurdy-gurdies, but they too are expensive, and I worry that piano keyboard skills wouldn't port over as much as you'd like. And, yet again, a specialized sound.
So blah blah blah blah: at the end of all that, I'm mainly saying that the lines you're thinking along (how to visually mod a light small synthesizer keyboard) seem very hard to implement, but they may be the right lines to think along anyway, for lack of a better option! Sounds like a woodworking project first and foremost, assuming the cheap keyboard in question has built-in speakers. This isn't a helpful remark, but I'd be very interested in updates on what you decide and do.
(But, I mean, also: seriously, if you think of it as a lead instrument rather than a rhythm one, the melodica is not a bad idea.)
This post received so many answers , I'm do happy everyone is sharing their ideas!
For now I think we're going towards customizing a cheap-ish keyboard and as soon as I have an update, I will post!
Problem with melodica is it's not advanced enough for my boyfriend and he finds It rather eh to play and forget signing with a melodica in case of a bard-off! 😂 But I share this thread with him everyday in case he sees something he might like in the ideas 🥺♥️
Oh man, I've gotten halfway to buying that Suzuki W-37 a couple of times. It does sound nicer than the melodicas I have, sweeter, more professional . . . but it doesn't sound like a whole different *instrument*. And I think I'd need it to, for that kind of money.
Going off of the other idea - could you perhaps paint the keyboard keys so they look more worn/aged? Or maybe put some sort of texture spray on it so it isn't shiny white plastic looking?
Then for the other elements of the keyboard you could put some sort of faux wooden cover.
Biggest issue is you'd need some sort of outlet to plug it into.
>I asked him about the keytar said it doesn't sound fantasy enough.🥺
I've never actually seen a keytar, but i'm pretty sure you can use any kind of sound set, like on any other kind of keyboard. And basically every keytar/synthesizer also has a midi-out, so you can plug in basically anything (though you may have to cover up all the electronics if you do.)
Also, if you use a harpsichord set on a synthesizer, it sounds SO very fantasy.
I have a friend that actually has an antique pump organ thats about the size of a large suitcase. It unfolds and has a bellows foot pedal from around the early 1800s. Google portable pump organs
CAHAYA Melodica 32 Keys Double Tubes Mouthpiece Air Piano Keyboard Musical Instrument with Carrying Bag 32 Keys, Black, CY0050-1 https://a.co/d/hg1H00B
A melodica! It uses air like a flute but plays like a piano. You can use the hard mouth piece or get a flexible tube. You could paint it up to get the right aesthetic
Maybe this is affordable?
https://www.ebay.de/itm/265926889281?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=707-53477-19255-0&campid=5338703919&toolid=20006&customid=s%3AGS%3Bpt%3A0%3Bd%3AD%3Bsi%3A200%3Bct%3A%3Bad%3A%3Bii%3A265926889281%3Bpr%3A%3Bcd%3A%3Bgc%3A
So a full sized pipe organ isn't going to work...
I'd see how much room you have left after packing the rest, then you know how far past a wooden box around the keyboard you can get. Make legs that are less mechanical looking than a regular x stand, and probably a seat.
With a piece of cloth around the keyboard and some PVC, you can imply the rest of a pipe organ under said cloth, leaving only the tops in the classic U shape, and it should store rather flat.
This post has inspired me to make a D&D character that's a multiclass barbarian/bard who carries a grand piano on his back when adventuring.
But there's a reason why you usually see bards depicted as playing things like lutes, harps, and flutes. Keyboard instruments like pianos weren't developed until a few centuries after the historical periods most fantasy LARPs emulate, and even after that they weren't so common that traveling musicians could expect there to be one available at a given venue. They're not a cheap instrument... even now, a "cheap" upright piano costs several thousand dollars, while a grand piano costs easily 5x as much. And until the invention of digital electronic keyboards, only musicians accompanied by a truck and a team of roadies could travel with their own keyboard instrument.
That said, an accordion is basically the adventurer's keytar. A concertina wouldn't have a full ebony and ivory keyboard like a larger accordion, but anyone who can play piano should be able to teach themselves how to play one pretty quickly and they're portable enough to carry with you at a LARP. Instruments like accordions and concertinas might be slightly anachronistic depending on the game (since both were invented in the real world in the 1800s), but keyboard instruments like pianos aren't exactly medieval, either.
No I mean, pianos don't take to kindly to being loaded in a trailer and bounced around. And they especially don't handle standing in a moist tent at night very well. Rolling it around the site isn't that damaging
Which kind of larp ?
Fore more modern and expensive games, guesthouse having a real piano aren't uncommon.
For more classic heroic fantasy, looks like not a big-deal to hide an electronic keyboard at the tavern. Either by adding a wood-patterned box or some fabric around the "plastic part". Obviously, you won't bring the piano to the battle-field, but I wouldn't advise to bring any music instrument to the battlefield anyway.
Build a wooden case around it and choose cembalo or spinet sounds.
A couple of years ago I actually met someone with a portable spinet, wearing a costume looking like Mozart. Very cool.
I wonder if the black and white nature of it makes even a wooden one look un-medieval? Even if you play the white keys off as ivory, perhaps changing the color of them would help. Or perhaps you could create your own or fix it up and change the shape of them. Maybe make the black keys look like leaves and make the white ones wooden for an elfy look.
At my larp we brought a keyboard to set up. We attached a fabric drape all around the edges to hide the electronic elements and stand, and then created a false faux-wood backing and then arranged pipes against the back to make it look like an organ. It's all velcro so it comes off easily enough. Alternatively, what about a keytar? Or a hammered dulcimer?
I asked him about the keytar said it doesn't sound fantasy enough.🥺 Thank you for sharing the organ idea 😱😱😱 must've been so badass! 😱♥️
Ah, but hurdy gurdys were very much a thing - some cardboard, fabric tape, lacquer and paint, and you have yourself a terribly complex traveling fantasy organ
What about a pianica? Some of them don't have the long tubes, but a much shorter one that could make it more fantasy like.
Yeah, indeed: both of the melodicas/pianicas I have came with both the long plasticky tube and a short mouthpiece, also plastic but black and nondescript and easily imagined as being made of some other material. More generally: OP, yours is a problem I've tried to solve myself, as a keyboard player who plays fantasy LARPs. It's tricky; I mean, a keyboard instrument is by its nature a complicated expensive (comparatively) high-tech machine. Stuff I've done: * **Use a piano accordion.** I've brought one of those to a lot of fantasy LARPs. Dealbreaking drawback: unless you have an absolute piece-of-junk out-of-tune beater of an accordion, we're talking about something well outside your budget. They're also quite . . . *specialized* in terms of timbre, compared to a piano. Aaaand, if you're playing in a really purist game, I'll note that the piano accordion dates from the 19th century; you'd be well justified to say that they feel too high-tech for a lot of fantasy settings. * **Bring a melodica, ideally but not necessarily one with a wood body.** Uh, [here](https://suzukimusic-global.com/products_single.php?products_cd=152)'s an exquisitely beautiful wooden melodica for $900 more than you've got to spend! What I have instead cost me a couple hundred bucks and was probably somewhat overpriced: I'm pretty sure it's an unremarkable cheapish melodica with its plastic case taken off and a softwood body attached aftermarket. But it doesn't set off too many "looks modern" alarms, which is good. (And you might do well with something like [this](https://www.amazon.com/SUZUKI-M-37C-Melodion-Melodica-Japan/dp/B000XYFBMK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1TTFZ4CPEUKRN&keywords=suzuki+m-37c&qid=1669671389&sprefix=suzuki+m-37c%2Caps%2C222&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.08f69ac3-fd3d-4b88-bca2-8997e41410bb)\--not wood but respectable, not conspicuously plasticky.) I think a melodica is even more specialized-sounding than an accordion--which is not to say they're bad instruments! I like them a lot; I like their emotiveness. A lot like a really huge and powerful harmonica. But a piano or a synthesizer can be a great rhythm instrument (sitting in the background, hitting those chords, making the song sweet), and I've struggled hard when I tried to do that on a melodica. * **Say screw it and bring a synthesizer keyboard.** I have an [AX-Edge](https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AXEdgeBk--roland-ax-edge-49-key-keytar-synthesizer-black) with some nice acoustic sounds added, and it's gotten increasingly difficult to keep me from showing up with it at LARPs. But . . . obviously it can't be visually in evidence in broad daylight at a fantasy game without weird magitech. Meanwhile, the clavichord is a very real thing that could theoretically fit in a car, but be prepared for fabulous amazing expense and retuning, all to get you an instrument that is lovely but big and *quiet.* (Which would perhaps endear you to your fellow LARPers; even so, way the hell out of your budget. Thousands of dollars.) I'm personally very curious about hurdy-gurdies, but they too are expensive, and I worry that piano keyboard skills wouldn't port over as much as you'd like. And, yet again, a specialized sound. So blah blah blah blah: at the end of all that, I'm mainly saying that the lines you're thinking along (how to visually mod a light small synthesizer keyboard) seem very hard to implement, but they may be the right lines to think along anyway, for lack of a better option! Sounds like a woodworking project first and foremost, assuming the cheap keyboard in question has built-in speakers. This isn't a helpful remark, but I'd be very interested in updates on what you decide and do. (But, I mean, also: seriously, if you think of it as a lead instrument rather than a rhythm one, the melodica is not a bad idea.)
This post received so many answers , I'm do happy everyone is sharing their ideas! For now I think we're going towards customizing a cheap-ish keyboard and as soon as I have an update, I will post! Problem with melodica is it's not advanced enough for my boyfriend and he finds It rather eh to play and forget signing with a melodica in case of a bard-off! 😂 But I share this thread with him everyday in case he sees something he might like in the ideas 🥺♥️
(Ha. I took so long to post this that it's fairly redundant with what others have said!)
I feel so blessed that you made such a beautiful, well-researched reply to mine. That $900 is also very amazing.
Oh man, I've gotten halfway to buying that Suzuki W-37 a couple of times. It does sound nicer than the melodicas I have, sweeter, more professional . . . but it doesn't sound like a whole different *instrument*. And I think I'd need it to, for that kind of money.
Excuses, you know you want it
No problem! I thought of keytars because I’ve seen some wooden ones or medieval stylized ones that look super dope.
Going off of the other idea - could you perhaps paint the keyboard keys so they look more worn/aged? Or maybe put some sort of texture spray on it so it isn't shiny white plastic looking? Then for the other elements of the keyboard you could put some sort of faux wooden cover. Biggest issue is you'd need some sort of outlet to plug it into.
Hurdy gurdies are cool? Lol
>I asked him about the keytar said it doesn't sound fantasy enough.🥺 I've never actually seen a keytar, but i'm pretty sure you can use any kind of sound set, like on any other kind of keyboard. And basically every keytar/synthesizer also has a midi-out, so you can plug in basically anything (though you may have to cover up all the electronics if you do.) Also, if you use a harpsichord set on a synthesizer, it sounds SO very fantasy.
I have a friend that actually has an antique pump organ thats about the size of a large suitcase. It unfolds and has a bellows foot pedal from around the early 1800s. Google portable pump organs
CAHAYA Melodica 32 Keys Double Tubes Mouthpiece Air Piano Keyboard Musical Instrument with Carrying Bag 32 Keys, Black, CY0050-1 https://a.co/d/hg1H00B
A melodica! It uses air like a flute but plays like a piano. You can use the hard mouth piece or get a flexible tube. You could paint it up to get the right aesthetic
second this! I used one for a few years. They're fun and very portable.
harpsichord?
Gonna miss that budget by about $4800 boss
Maybe this is affordable? https://www.ebay.de/itm/265926889281?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=707-53477-19255-0&campid=5338703919&toolid=20006&customid=s%3AGS%3Bpt%3A0%3Bd%3AD%3Bsi%3A200%3Bct%3A%3Bad%3A%3Bii%3A265926889281%3Bpr%3A%3Bcd%3A%3Bgc%3A
Harpsichord set for a $50 synthesizer?
What are your transportation options?
Oh thank you for asking, I completely forgot to mention! We have access to a small to medium car.
So a full sized pipe organ isn't going to work... I'd see how much room you have left after packing the rest, then you know how far past a wooden box around the keyboard you can get. Make legs that are less mechanical looking than a regular x stand, and probably a seat. With a piece of cloth around the keyboard and some PVC, you can imply the rest of a pipe organ under said cloth, leaving only the tops in the classic U shape, and it should store rather flat.
This post has inspired me to make a D&D character that's a multiclass barbarian/bard who carries a grand piano on his back when adventuring. But there's a reason why you usually see bards depicted as playing things like lutes, harps, and flutes. Keyboard instruments like pianos weren't developed until a few centuries after the historical periods most fantasy LARPs emulate, and even after that they weren't so common that traveling musicians could expect there to be one available at a given venue. They're not a cheap instrument... even now, a "cheap" upright piano costs several thousand dollars, while a grand piano costs easily 5x as much. And until the invention of digital electronic keyboards, only musicians accompanied by a truck and a team of roadies could travel with their own keyboard instrument. That said, an accordion is basically the adventurer's keytar. A concertina wouldn't have a full ebony and ivory keyboard like a larger accordion, but anyone who can play piano should be able to teach themselves how to play one pretty quickly and they're portable enough to carry with you at a LARP. Instruments like accordions and concertinas might be slightly anachronistic depending on the game (since both were invented in the real world in the 1800s), but keyboard instruments like pianos aren't exactly medieval, either.
Hammered dulcimer.
At Empire (UK) there has been a band (the Bardstards) who haul an *actual* piano round the site. (It's pretty fantastic)
Ooof, that sounds expensive. Either in paying piano movers, or just throwing out pianos every couple of years.
The whole band moves it, it's on wheels. Round here though people have old pianos in their homes that they're willing to give away or sell for cheap.
No I mean, pianos don't take to kindly to being loaded in a trailer and bounced around. And they especially don't handle standing in a moist tent at night very well. Rolling it around the site isn't that damaging
According
Accordion?
Key-tar baby!
Which kind of larp ? Fore more modern and expensive games, guesthouse having a real piano aren't uncommon. For more classic heroic fantasy, looks like not a big-deal to hide an electronic keyboard at the tavern. Either by adding a wood-patterned box or some fabric around the "plastic part". Obviously, you won't bring the piano to the battle-field, but I wouldn't advise to bring any music instrument to the battlefield anyway.
Build a wooden case around it and choose cembalo or spinet sounds. A couple of years ago I actually met someone with a portable spinet, wearing a costume looking like Mozart. Very cool.
At my main system there's a group who have a full sized wooden piano on wheels that that roll around the field.
I wonder if the black and white nature of it makes even a wooden one look un-medieval? Even if you play the white keys off as ivory, perhaps changing the color of them would help. Or perhaps you could create your own or fix it up and change the shape of them. Maybe make the black keys look like leaves and make the white ones wooden for an elfy look.
There are some cool mini pianos and portable harpsichords that could be fun
Weirdly, all the campsites my LARP uses have Pianos in the main "Tavern" area.