LilyPad Development Board Activity Guide

Contributors: Gella

5: Play a Tune

The microcontroller on the LilyPad Arduino Simple can turn its outputs on and off very quickly. If you carefully choose the frequency at which you're turning an output on and off, and send that signal to the buzzer on the LilyPad Development Board, you can create tones and simple musical tunes.

LilyPad Boards Used in This Activity

• LilyPad Arduino Simple
• LilyPad Buzzer

New Concepts Introduced in This Activity

Making Tones

You'll use the tone() and noTone() commands to drive the buzzer at specific frequencies.

A tone’s pitch is what we perceive when we think of a note as being very high (screams, forks scratching plates, etc.) versus very low (like earth-rumbling bass). The pitch of a tone is very closely related to the frequency played through a speaker. If we toggle a pin from HIGH-to-LOW then LOW-to-HIGH 440 times per second, for example, it produces a 440 Hz (hertz) frequency - a “middle A” pitch. Humans can hear frequencies ranging from 20 (low-pitch, bass) to 20,000 Hz (high-pitch, “ow, my ears”).

Example Code

To open the code, go to:

File > Examples > LilyPadDevelopmentBoard_ActivityGuide > LPD_05_Tune

You can also copy and paste the following code into the Arduino IDE. Hit upload, and see what happens!

language:c
/*
LilyPad Development Board Activity 5: Play a Tune
SparkFun Electronics
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11262

Play musical notes through the buzzer on the LilyPad Development Board

Follow the tutorial at: 
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/lilypad-development-board-activity-guide/5-play-a-tune

Uses frequencies from "melody" by Tom Igoe: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/toneMelody

This code is released under the MIT License: (http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

******************************************************************************/

// Create an integer variable naming the pin we'll use for the buzzer.
// On the LilyPad Development Board, it's on 7.

int buzzer = 7;

// Map musical notes to their frequencies by creating variables for them.
// You can find the frequencies for higher and lower notes at:
// https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/toneMelody

int NOTE_C5 = 523;
int NOTE_CS5 = 554;
int NOTE_D5 = 587;
int NOTE_DS5 = 622;
int NOTE_E5 = 659;
int NOTE_F5 = 698;
int NOTE_FS5 = 740;
int NOTE_G5 = 784;
int NOTE_GS5 = 831;
int NOTE_A5 = 880;
int NOTE_AS5 = 932;
int NOTE_B5 = 988;
int NOTE_C6 = 1047;

// We'll also create a variable for how long to play each note in milliseconds.
// If you make this smaller, the notes will play faster.

int tempo = 500;

void setup()
{
  // Set the buzzer pin to be an output:

  pinMode(buzzer, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
  // This code will play a simple scale from C5 to C6.

  // The tone command takes two parameters: a pin number and a frequency.
  // The tone will play until we stop it with the noTone command.
  // Each of the below blocks plays one note; the note plays during the delay command.

  tone(buzzer,NOTE_C5);
  delay(tempo);

  tone(buzzer,NOTE_D5);
  delay(tempo);

  tone(buzzer,NOTE_E5);
  delay(tempo);

  tone(buzzer,NOTE_F5);
  delay(tempo);

  tone(buzzer,NOTE_G5);
  delay(tempo);

  tone(buzzer,NOTE_A5);
  delay(tempo);

  tone(buzzer,NOTE_B5);
  delay(tempo);

  tone(buzzer,NOTE_C6);
  delay(tempo);

  // A longer delay at the end pauses the sound before looping again.
  // Here we're delaying four times the "tempo" value:

  noTone(buzzer);
  delay(tempo * 4);

  // Try writing your own song using the noted defined at the top of the program!
  // You can change the note duration by multiplying or dividing the "tempo" value
}

What You Should See

Once the code uploads, the buzzer will begin playing a simple musical scale over one octave, pause, and repeat.

Understanding Your Program

Program Overview

1. Define variables for the audio frequencies we'll be using, and the tempo (speed at which we'll be playing).
2. Configure the sew tab connected to the buzzer to be an output.
3. Play a series of notes using the tone command.
4. Pause and repeat.

Code to Note

Coding Challenges

• This program plays a simple scale. Can you change the program to play an actual song?

• In this program we used a variable called tempo to change the durations of all the notes. In actual music, notes have different durations, and rests (periods of no sound) are important as well. Can you change the durations of individual notes by adding math to the delay values? Hint: If tempo is the duration of a whole note, tempo / 2 would be the duration of a half note, etc.