The raindrops orchestra is a magical experience, where children of all ages can create music together on colorful drops of rain!

The interactive dream show “Head in the clouds”, was created in 2018 by the “Svironi Fantasy Theatre” based in Tel-Aviv, Israel.

The show consists of four main attractions, and I (Johnny Tal) am in charge of the one called “The Raindrops Orchestra”.

Inside my tent, kids can come up and take a seat at their own cloud.
Each cloud has five raindrops attached to it, which the kids can play by touching it.

The clouds are all equipped with “Makey Makey” cards that are plugged to my laptop, which runs a JS program I developed to convert inputs to sounds of musical instruments. It also allows me to choose and change sounds live, for each individual cloud and drop.

The notes are all in the pentatonic scale and each cloud represents its own instrument - kalimba, flute, xylophone, etc.

Each group that enters the tent consists of six kids, who has about 15 minutes of guided activity.
I explain how to close a circuit by holding hands, play music on noses, how to listen to each person playing a solo and pay attention to the conductor when he points to a certain player of the orchestra.

It's a magical experience, kids come back often and love making music with the drops!

The full concept was developed by myself and Michal Svironi. I developed the software, designed the sounds and conducted the orchestra, while Michal was in charge of the visual design, and Leonid Alisov is credited for sewing the clouds.

During the pandemic we developed an outdoor version, where we carry the clouds with us on a special hanger and bring the clouds to the kids instead of having them come to us…
Of course they had to first put “magic gel” (or “alco-magic”) on their hands to make the drops work :)

The show was sponsored by Israel's ministry of culture and by "Mifal HaPais" Council for the Culture and Arts.

Side story When the kids first enter the tent I tell them to touch the drops and see if they play.
They touch, but the drops won't make a sound...
then I tell them it's because they didn't put on the magic bracelet -

The magic bracelet will take some of their pulse and transfer it into the cloud, that is what gives life to the drops!

Some kids seem skeptical... but then they put on the bracelet, try again - and the drops starts playing!

The drops are all connected to 'plus', they won't work without closing a circuit with the bracelet, which is connected to the 'minus'...