Project: Musical Instrument

Objectives and Overview

This experiment is open-ended. The goal is to combine a variety of components with the piezo element with the goal of creating an instrument.

Lesson Objectives

• Combine at least two input sensors with the piezo element to create a musical instrument.

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Project Overview

Think of the piezo as being the required output, and that you can choose from all of the sensors you’ve used as the input.

Remember, you can use more than one input! Think about what you would want your instrument to do and then work backward from there.

Base Activity

The base activity for this is to create an instrument using at least two sensors for input, and the piezo element for the tone output.

The sensors that you use are up to you. Think of this experimenter challenge as a way of building on that basic concept and extending it by including more than one input source.

Supplies

• Uno board and breadboard
• Jumper wires
• Piezo element
• Additional sensors of your choice!
  • Suggestions: photoresistor, potentiometer, FSR, tilt sensor, pushbutton
  • Make sure to use correct resistors where needed! Consult the project guides for each component if you’re unsure.

Steps

Much of this project is open-ended. You’ll be designing and building your own instrument, so make sure to plan out the functionality of your instrument and then determine what components are necessary to realize your vision!

Circuit

The circuit will depend on what you’d like to include in the instrument. However, you’ll want to start with either the basic theremin or the example project from the Sound lesson. Here is the circuit sketch from that lesson.

Refer to this fritzing diagram for the circuit setup:

• Connect the Arduino 5V to the + rail on the breadboard.
• Connect the Arduino GND to the – rail on the breadboard.
• Connect one leg of the piezo to the – rail on the breadboard.
• Connect one leg of the piezo to a digital pin on the Arduino. In this example, the connection is to digital pin 9.

Sketch

Here’s the sketch from the example project in the sound lesson:

/*
* Adafruit Arduino - Lesson 10. Simple Sounds
* Note (from Jonathan): This will continue to play the loop while
* the Arduino has power! The idea is to introduce the tone command.
* If you're tired of the sound and just want it to play ONE time,
* see if you can figure out what to uncomment.
*/
 
int speakerPin = 9;
 
int numTones = 10;
int tones[] = {261, 277, 294, 311, 330, 349, 370, 392, 415, 440};
// mid C C# D D# E F F# G G# A
 
void setup(){
  // add any setup code you may need
}
 
void loop(){
  for (int i = 0; i < numTones; i++){
    tone(speakerPin, tones[i]);
    delay(500);
  //noTone(speakerPin);
  }
}
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

If you need a refresher on how to attach sensors to this project, refer to how the photoresistor was added to the theremin.