“Composing with piezo” is the artistic research done within the DocArtes program, at the Orpheus Institute, in Ghent (BE). The research concerns the composition of instrumental music implemented with a specific use of piezoelectric microphones – low cost and low fidelity contact microphones. I’m exploring this technology not only to disclose and amplify the instrumental sound but also to produce new sounds, through a reinterpretation of some instrumental gestures, such as glissando, tapping, scraping, etc, produced by playing with the microphone directly on the instrument. The low-fidelity quality of these microphones present limits and different degrees of controllability and predictability, which lead to a reflection on the nature of the sound matter and on the different possibilities of controlling it within the compositional process. Pieces created within the context of this research are Sistema di Prossimità, Residual, PianoMusicBox_1.