craft tips for a beginner?

I am very new to this, I have a few years of laser cutting experience so I have the rough draft idea of the design I want and a semblance of an idea on how the instrument should work, I still need to learn how to code tho. Planning on using an arduino nano with 1 craft but am open to multiple. Basically want a keytar with keys on the neck and a 4 wire touch screen as an xyz on the base(like a misa/mosi). I would like pitch bending per note and vibrato/portamento if I could combine those in one (think of an artiphon instrument 1 for example). I dont think I could combine those as I have read in a separate thread there is only variance with how much the skin contacts the area so with that, I am thinking 0.75 inch keys for a total of 25 keys in a thin line that ends in a stacked pile for each key (think of the emoji but upside down ig lol) and a switch to do those different modes for that extra variance such as aftertouch, vibrato, pitch bend, portamento, etc. It would be with copper foil as a prototype before Id get a pcb made. I would like the xyz controller to be able to do multiple modes with a switch as well to do stuff like strum, tap mode, a regular mode with velocity tied to z, mod would still be y and have an extra x for whatever else but would be happy with it just being a mod and extra effect if I cant achieve that, any advice or tips for a beginner would be greatly appreciated!