Art Practice A2.2: Use computing to create interactive art that is responsive to viewer inputs (Activity)

In this activity, you will create a major scale. Then, you will compose an original melody using the scale you made. Before we get started, let's define scale as it relates to musical theory.

A scale is a set of musical notes ordered by frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale. Each of the scales before ascend before they descend. Listen to both of them before answering the questions below.

Listen to the C major scale:

Listen to the A minor scale:

The notes of a scale can be represented as letters or sounds represented by two-letter words. See the image above for how notes of a scale are represented on a keyboard. Keep this in mind during the next step of this project when you code a scale.

On this step you will create a scale using an online tool for coding called Makecode. The program linked below will bring you to an incomplete scale program that you will need to organize using the "play tone" blocks in the coding workspace. Complete the list below to create your first scale in Makecode.

1. Go to the incomplete program here
2. Click the "Edit" button to enter the coding editor
3. Click the A button on the simulator to hear what this program plays currently.
4. Your task is to add more blocks into the code stack so that the program plays the entire scale when the A button is pressed.

Rhythm is dictated by the number of syllables in a melody. In this step, you will use Makecode again to code a familiar melody.

♪ Twinkle, Twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are? ♪

This popular melody can be translated into the notes: do-do-so-so-la-la-so fa-fa-mi-mi-re-re-do

1. Go to makecode.microbit.org and select "New project"
2. Name your new project "Twinkle Twinkle"
   
3. From the Input menu, add an [on button A pressed] block to your code workspace
4. From the Music menu, select the [play tone] block and place it inside your [on button A pressed] block.
5. Click on the whitespace in the [play tone] block to edit the note that is played for 1 beat when button A is pressed.
6. Add more [play tone] blocks to your code stack so that the Twinkle Twinkle melody is played when you press the A button. Remember, this melody has 14 syllables!

At this point, you have wrote a scale and a melody. Now it's your turn to compose your own melody! To do this, you will first write lyrics for a melody that is exactly 16 beats long. Use lyrics from a melody you like or create your own. Once you have your lyrics, you will go to makecode.microbit.org to code and play your new melody that you can sing over.