Lesson 11: Making Music
App Lab | Maker Toolkit
Overview
In this lesson students will use the buzzer to its full extent by producing sounds, notes, and songs with the buzzer. Students start with a short review of the buzzer's frequency and duration parameters, then move on to the concept of notes. Notes allow students to constrain themselves to frequencies that are used in Western music and provide a layer of abstraction that helps them to understand which frequencies might sound good together. Once students are able to play notes on the buzzer, they use arrays to hold and play sequences of notes, forming simple songs.
Purpose
This lesson allows students to get more creative with the buzzer by introducing the concept of a "note" and by using arrays to hold sequential collections of notes. Using notes rather than frequencies provides a layer of abstraction that makes it easier for students to identify sounds that can be used to make music. Arrays provide a way to group together sounds in sequence, so that they can be played as music. Using the playNotes block to iterate over an array of notes provides a conceptual foundation for working with for loops in the next lesson.
Assessment Opportunities
-
Create and modify an array
Code Studio: see rubric on bubble 9
-
Use the buzzer to produce sequences of notes
Code Studio: see rubric on bubble 14
-
Recognize an array as a list of elements that can be operated on sequentially.
Wrap up: Students should recognize that the
playNotesblock operates on each element of the notes array in sequence.
Agenda
Lesson Modifications
Warm-Up (5 min)
Activity (40 min)
Wrap-Up (5 min)
View on Code Studio
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Create and modify an array
- Use the buzzer to produce sequences of notes
- Recognize an array as a list of elements that can be operated on sequentially.
Introduced Code
Teaching Guide
Lesson Modifications
Attention, teachers! If you are teaching virtually or in a socially-distanced classroom, we have recommendations for alternate lessons that can be used for this unit on physical computing. Click Here to read our recommendations for Unit 6.
Warm-Up (5 min)
Maker App Updates
For Windows & Mac users: we've recently updated the way that students can log in with Google using the Maker App. Please see this forum post for more information about these updates and how to continue using Google to log in to the Maker App.
Color LEDs vs the Buzzer
Discussion Goal
Students may come up with many different ideas, but there are two aspects of this problem that should be highlighted before students move on to the activity. First, specifying frequencies is not the best way to indicate how high or low a buzz should be, since music only uses a limited number of frequencies, and other frequencies are considered "out of tune". Music is usually written down as specific notes on a scale, which makes it much easier to see which sounds will go well together. (Students with a musical background will likely have a much better grasp of this issue.) Second, students will need a way to string sounds, or notes, together to make a song. This second point should be more universally understood.
Prompt: We've been using the buzzer to make sounds, but those buzzes didn't always sound too great. What do you think you need to make real music on the buzzer?
Activity (40 min)
Making Music
Transition: Send students to Code Studio.
Wrap-Up (5 min)
Journal
Assessment Opportunity
Students should reconize that the playNotes block plays each note in the array in sequence, and extend that idea to other times when operating on each element of an array would be useful. This will prepare them to for the next lesson, in which for loops are used to operate on each element of a list in sequence.
Prompt: Today, instead of just choosing one element from an array, we used the playNotes block to do something to every element. Think back to the other arrays you have seen. How might doing something to every element in an array be useful there?
Share After giving students time to reflect in their own journals, have them share with a partner or in small groups.
- Lesson Overview
- Student Overview
Student Instructions
Circuit Piano
Look at the code below. You're not going to be changing it, but try to see what it does.
Do this
- Run the program and play with the piano on the screen.
Student Instructions
Making the Buzzer Buzz
The frequency of the buzzer determines how high or how low the buzzer will sound when it plays. The higher the number you give frequency, the higher the buzzer will sound.
Do this
- Right now the buzzer plays a high note when the left button is pressed. Make the buzzer play a low note instead.
Student Instructions
Making the Buzzer Buzz
Now that you can use the buzzer's frequency, try to make the buzzer play a high sound when the same button pops back up.
Do this
- Add another onBoardEvent block so the buzzer plays a high sound when the left button comes back up
Student Instructions
Piano Notes
This is the same piano that you saw at the beginning of the lesson, but there are some bugs!
Do this
- Edit the code so that all keys are using a
buzzer.note()block to play the corresponding note. - Make sure that all the values passed in to
buzzer.note()are notes, and not frequencies.
Hint: Remember to put quotes around the notes! e.g buzzer.note("A4", 100);
- Making Music
- Student Overview
Today you’re going to learn how to use and create functions.
Creating a function lets you make your own blocks! There are two parts to a function:
Making a newly named block that has all of the code you want to run inside of it. -xml of function definition-
The single green block itself that you use, or call, to run the function you created. -xml of function call-
Prepare to get familiar with functions, learn how to edit them, and create your own!
Student Instructions
Piano Panic
So far you’ve just been using the elements of an array. Now, you're going to change what's inside the array.
Our good friend the piano is back, except now it plays notes from two arrays: notes, which holds natural notes (C, D, E, F, G, A, B), and sharpNotes, which holds sharp notes (C#, D#, F#, G#, A#).
Do this
The sharpNotes array only has one item inside of it right now.
- Fix the array so that the sharp keys on the piano can actually play the right note.
Hint: Modifying arrays is much easier in text mode. You can always switch between block and text mode by clicking the button at the top right of your code workspace.
Student Instructions
Random Song Generator
You're going to make a random song generator. When you press a button, a random note should play. Press it enough times, and you have yourself a beautiful arrangement of bleeps and bloops.
You used randomNumber() to select an element from an array in the previous lesson, so this should be familiar.
Do This
- Add code to randomly select a note from the
notesarray and play it. - Run the program and press the left button to hear your buzzer sing its beautiful tune.
Assessment Opportunities
Create and modify arrays.
Extensive Evidence
A new array is created and stored in a variable, and the elements of the array are randomly accessed to play when the right button is pressed.
Convincing Evidence
A new array is created and stored into a variable, but there may be unrelated errors that prevent a note from being played when the right button is pressed.
Limited Evidence
A new array is created, but it is either not stored in an element, or it is empty, so the program cannot work as described.
No Evidence
There are no arrays in the program.
Student Instructions
Making New Arrays
Now that you can change arrays, it's time for you to make your own.
Do this
- Make a new array with whatever notes you want. They can be in different octaves, arranged in a certain key, etc. Anything you want!
- Have the buzzer play a random note from your array when the right button is pressed.
- Modifying Arrays
- Student Overview
Today you’re going to learn how to use and create functions.
Creating a function lets you make your own blocks! There are two parts to a function:
Making a newly named block that has all of the code you want to run inside of it. -xml of function definition-
The single green block itself that you use, or call, to run the function you created. -xml of function call-
Prepare to get familiar with functions, learn how to edit them, and create your own!
Student Instructions
Make a Prediction
Look at the code below. What do you think it's going to do?
Give it a guess and run the code to find out!
Student Instructions
Making Songs
You can make and play full songs with buzzer.playNotes(). It takes two parameters: an array of notes to play, and a tempo at which to play the notes. In previous bubbles you created arrays of notes and played through them randomly, but buzzer.playNotes() plays each note consecutively instead.
Do this
- Pull out a
buzzer.playNotesblock and change the starting array inside. - Make sure the new array you give it has at least two pairs of notes that are next to each other in the list (Example:
["A5", "A5", "G4", "G4"])
Hint: Don't forget that you can always switch back and forth between block and text mode.
Student Instructions
Null Notes
You may have noticed that if you put the same note side-by-side in the array, the buzzer just plays that note as one long sound instead of as individual notes. In music we often want a break (or rest) between notes. You can get your buzzer to play a rest by sending it the value null.
null is a special value that represents emptiness in computer science. playNotes plays each note for the same duration, so a null element in the array is just telling playNotes to play nothing for the same duration as everything else.
Do this
- Run the code to hear what it sounds like first.
- Examine the array inside
buzzer.playNotes(). - Put a pause between notes that are the same and side-by-side, and any other place you deem appropriate.
Tip: null references a value, just like a variable name. Make sure you don't put it in quotation marks!
Assessment Opportunities
Create and modify arrays, develop software to control a variety of physical devices.
Extensive Evidence
The program works as described, with at least four board events each triggering a different series of notes.
Convincing Evidence
The program plays a series of notes when triggered by a particular board event, but there may be errors in the code that prevent it from working exactly as described.
Limited Evidence
There is code in the program that could product a series of notes on the buzzer, but the code cannot be triggered by a board event, or significant errors in the code prevent the notes from playing.
No Evidence
There are no sequences of notes in the program, or there is no code to produce buzzer output.
Student Instructions
Sound Board 2.0
You can now play sounds, notes, and songs! With this new knowledge, you can even turn your board into a sound board.
In the toolbox you have all of the buzzer and led-related blocks at your disposal. See what cool stuff you can come up with!
Do This
- Use all of the button related board events (up, down), to play a unique sound or song at each event.
- Are there any other events you could use to play even more sounds/songs?
Student Instructions
Challenge: 2D Arrays
Arrays can hold all sorts of data, like numbers, strings, and even other arrays. When we put an array inside another, this becomes a 2D array. The buzzer.playSong() block can be used to play songs that sound more precise with 2D arrays.
The structure that you've been using to play notes looks like this:
buzzer.playNotes( [array of notes to play] , tempo of the whole song);
The main difference with buzzer.playSong() is each element inside the [array of notes to play], is an array with two elements: the note you want to play, and the duration of the note. Sometime you'll want a quarter note in your song, other times you'll want a full note, or maybe somewhere in between. A full song might look something like this:
buzzer.playSong([
["G3",0.25],
["C4",0.25],
["E4",0.25],
["G4",0.125],
[null,0.375],
["E4",0.1875],
["G4",1]
], 120);
Do this
- Use the
buzzer.playSongblock to make a different song. - When you get comfortable with the structure, add more notes to the song.
Student Instructions
Stopping the Music
Sometimes you need to be able to stop the music when you want, like in the code below. Duration wasn't specified so now the note plays continuously. Luckily, the buzzer.stop() method is here to save your ears.
Do this
- Find a way to get the note to stop playing with
buzzer.stop(). - Celebrate your win over the endless note!