Assignment: Final Project 1: Progress Report
Collaborators:
Assignment: Final Project 1: Progress Report
Collaborators: janani, neha
String-a-ling
Janani Vasudev, Jinyoung Baik and Neha Kumar
Janani Vasudev, Jinyoung Baik and Neha Kumar
Motivation
Our aim is to create an interactive and collaborative music-learning experience for children so that they may obtain first-hand knowledge of how notes combine to form melodies, and how variations in volume and tempo can make for a richer musical experience. Strings are the medium we use for connecting notes and displaying these variations.
Concept
There are 12 notes on the musical scale [from C to B], each of which will be represented by a peg. Further, each peg will have three pitches for each note associated with it - e.g. low C, middle C, high C. These pegs can be inserted into a grid as shown below, in arbitrary order. To create music, children will pass a string through one of three holes in the peg (like a thread is passed through a needle). The sequence of pegs that the string is passed through will determine the melody. The beginning and end points of a melody will be marked by carabiners (also to prevent the string from falling out of a peg). Carabiners of different strings can be linked together to make longer melodies, or to make a loop of melodies.
There are 12 notes on the musical scale [from C to B], each of which will be represented by a peg. Further, each peg will have three pitches for each note associated with it - e.g. low C, middle C, high C. These pegs can be inserted into a grid as shown below, in arbitrary order. To create music, children will pass a string through one of three holes in the peg (like a thread is passed through a needle). The sequence of pegs that the string is passed through will determine the melody. The beginning and end points of a melody will be marked by carabiners (also to prevent the string from falling out of a peg). Carabiners of different strings can be linked together to make longer melodies, or to make a loop of melodies.
Board/Grid
This 16 ft x 16 ft board on the floor that has a 8 x 8 grid. The diameter of each slot will be 5". The distance between the slots is about 1.5 ft so as to enable the children to walk around the slots as they try to connect the pegs and create melodies.
This 16 ft x 16 ft board on the floor that has a 8 x 8 grid. The diameter of each slot will be 5". The distance between the slots is about 1.5 ft so as to enable the children to walk around the slots as they try to connect the pegs and create melodies.
Pegs
There are 12 different kinds of pegs each denoting C, C#, D and so on. Each peg is about 3 ft high and has three holes that are associated with three notes (lower C, C, higher C). All the pegs are colored black/white to not confuse the children with additional mappings of color with sound.
There are 12 different kinds of pegs each denoting C, C#, D and so on. Each peg is about 3 ft high and has three holes that are associated with three notes (lower C, C, higher C). All the pegs are colored black/white to not confuse the children with additional mappings of color with sound.
Strings
Each string is about 10 ft in length. They are differently colored strings to differentiate between melodies, but are all of equal size. Pulling the string decides the following:
- The direction in which sound travels is determined by the direction in which the string is pulled at.
- The volume of playback (or how far the sound travels) is determined by the force with which the string is pulled.
- The tempo of playback is determined by the how fast or slow the string is pulled.
How to play?
The board comes with some pegs plugged to random slots (just like letters in a crossword). The child can choose to either start with these pegs or use different ones. Once he/she decides which pegs to place in the slots, he/she can wire them together passing the string either through the low, middle or high holes in each peg. For example, wiring a 'C' peg through the lowermost hole plays low C, the middle plays middle C and the topmost plays high C and so on. Each peg can therefore be wired to a maximum of three strings. Once the pegs have been wired, the child can pull the string to play the melody. The melody plays in the direction in which the string is pulled at.
The child can also create loops by connecting the free end of the string to a carabiner. How long the loop plays back depends on the force with which the string was pulled at.
This figure shows the pegs plugged into the slots in the grid and the strings wired through them. In this case, the string passes through low E, high D, low C, low D and finally through middle E. The peg that is currently playing is shown glowing. The carabiner indicates the beginning of the melody which is played when the string is pulled at.
Note: We are also considering having the string connecting two pegs light up when they play to give the child visual feedback on which note is currently playing, how long it will play, etc.
Proposed Prototyping Materials
Elastic different colored Strings
Wooden/Acrylic Pegs roughly 3ft tall.
Carabiners
Plastic/Acrylic Board for grid
Wooden/Acrylic Pegs roughly 3ft tall.
Carabiners
Plastic/Acrylic Board for grid
LEDs
