LED (Light Emitting Diode) and LDR (Light Dependant Resistor, or photoresitor) arrays are used to play musical notes using the Raspberry Pi Pygame MIDI sequencer. There are 15 paris of LED & LDR (12 for a full octave of notes, 1 to go up and octave, 1 to go down and octave, and 1 for menu). When the light between LED and LDR is broken, music is played through the Pygame MIDI sequencer. When the light between the Octave Up or Down LED/LDR is broken, all the other notes are shifted up or down an octave. The Pygame MIDI supports over 75 musical instruments and 128 notes per instrument (10 octaves). The menu key can be used to switch instruments. The Raspberry Pi, breadboard, and speaker are within a 20 inch x 30 inch wooden piano that looks like a miniature grand piano.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
