So the tricky thing in your question is that thereās loads of different components. Thereās the circuit-design part; the manufacturing-boards part; and then if you want to make something digital, thereās writing code, writing code that works on MCU of choice, getting MCU into the world.
But: these are all components with small starting points. A breadboard and a bag of parts is not a bad way to begin; any Arduino starter kit will get you off the grounds in terms of thinking with voltages, and passive components, and beginning to write simple logic. The difference between āworking on a breadboardā and ānow how do I make this work in Euroā is not particularly high, the hard bit is getting the circuit right to begin with (and not screwing up the 'adding modular belt/braces).
Iāve prototyped stuff in software like Processing before turning it into firmware - ironing out the kinks in my logic. So you donāt necessarily need to dive into the whole dependency chain to start sketching the problem. Finding something you can think in is important.
The thing I definitely know, though, is having a goal makes this easier. Much easier to learn something if you know what you want to achieve. And foot-pedal interaction modules are actually pretty straightforward (I know, because Iām working on one). Itās basically just a button, and making a button do things is one of the first things you can learn. Massimo Banziās Getting Started with Arduino is really good on starting to think with microcontrollers and simple passive components like this.
