Eddy Jay
music.making
The Piano Atelier is a collection of pieces I have transcribed and arranged for discerning pianists who wish to curate their own repertoire rather than work through method books. Many of the students I work with are returning to the instrument after many years away, bringing a lifetime of listening and a renewed curiosity for music. The arrangements are tailored to each player's ability: rarely fast or virtuosic, but requiring patience, tone, phrasing, and the musical maturity to let the music speak naturally.
NoteFlow Brass is a visual approach to music learning designed for neurodiverse children. Rather than beginning with the abstract symbols of conventional notation, students learn through colour, shape, and space — recognising patterns, feeling intervals, and developing confidence before a single name is introduced. Every key is as approachable as any other. Every child can begin making music from their very first lesson.
NoteFlow Anglo brings the NoteFlow approach to the Anglo concertina — one of the most technically demanding folk instruments to learn. Upload any MusicXML score and the platform renders it with button positions and bellows directions shown directly on each note as colour-coded tiles: red for right hand, gold for left. Intelligent fingering algorithms — including a chord-conflict resolver for polyphonic repertoire — adapt the score to your layout, whether Wheatstone, Jeffries, or custom. Includes a pitch-detection practice tutor and PDF download with your settings baked in.
Josephine and Eddy Jay weave music and stories from around the world, celebrating a life less ordinary with the rich interplay of fiddle and accordion, heartfelt singing, and captivating storytelling.
JAYAI explores the intersection of human lyrics and AI-assisted music creation. This project brings poets, vocal recordings, and AI tools together to craft tracks from raw demos, celebrating both human creativity and technological collaboration.
Jay Concertinas represents my work as an instrument maker. What began during lockdown as a curiosity with 3D printing grew into a deep exploration of acoustics, design, and engineering. Today I build custom concertinas in Australia, selling them all around the world, combining traditional craftsmanship with modern innovation.
Built From Scratch is the next step in the making journey — a fully custom CNC router designed from the ground up in SolidWorks across ten iterations, with parts precision-machined in China and assembled by hand. Built specifically to cut tonewoods for violins and concertinas, it features ball screws on all three axes, dual linear rails on the gantry, and a 1.5kW air-cooled spindle. No kits, no compromises — every tolerance specified, every decision deliberate. The machine is the bridge between digital design and wooden instruments.
Music and making have always been my constant companions. I grew up in a house where music was never abstract; it was lived, worked at, and shared. My dad bought me my first accordion when I was eight, and by ten, I was performing in village halls and at weddings with my brothers—a small family band playing the jigs, reels, and folk songs that formed my foundation.
From those early stages, music carried me around the world. As a multi-instrumentalist in professional theatre, I lived by a simple rule: if a show required an instrument I didn't play, I learned it. I spent years transcribing scores, arranging for small touring line-ups, and covering multiple parts simultaneously.
That journey took me from local stages to Broadway and eventually to a partnership with virtuoso harmonica player Will Pound, where I backed him on accordion while covering four other parts. Those years taught me how to build music that holds up under pressure—a philosophy I carry into every arrangement and lesson I provide today.
Alongside the stage, I spent years composing library music for film and television. Crafting mood-driven pieces on real instruments taught me the art of precision—how to evoke a specific emotion or atmosphere to fit a story I might never see.
In recent years, my life as a performer intersected with my passion for making. During the lockdown, spurred by a dare from my father, I built a concertina using a 3D printer. What began as a curiosity grew into a deep obsession with design and acoustics.
Today, I am one of the few active concertina makers in Australia, specialising in my own custom designs, including an 80-button Hayden system concertina with extended bass chambers.
This craft even shaped my personal life. I met my wife, Josephine, when she travelled from the UK to help transport one of my instruments to Australia. We began playing together—her on fiddle, me on accordion—and for our wedding, I printed her a fiddle, which she played herself.
Now based in Albany, I am proud to be part of the local musical fabric. Whether I'm playing euphonium with the Albany Community Wind Ensemble, collaborating with Theatre 180, or coaching the Breaksea Children's Community Choir, I remain dedicated to the idea that music is something to be built, shared, and lived.