This Blog article is an extension of MaKey MaKey Piano Fun… just set myself a challenge to learn how to play “Happy Birthday” with my MaKey MaKey Potato Piano in preparation for my TechTalk radio segment on ABC Central Victoria. My mission was to extend the existing piano I had…
Setting to work I Googled “MaKey Makey Piano” and I learnt that one pathway to extend the basic piano that MaKey MaKey offers you is to use one of the many extended MaKey MaKey piano projects on offer in the Scratch Community.
Hoping to add more Potato’s to my line up to create extra keys, I soon realised that most of the Scratch projects used the computer keyboard for the extended notes. It made sense, there was only one spot left on the MaKey MaKey circuit board for an aligator clip to be connected to a Potato I followed their lead. NB: please refer to my extended notes below. I discovered after writing this blog that the MaKey MaKey has more inputs on the back of the circuit… so now I am full Potato Piano – no keyboard mum!
I choose – MaKey MaKey White Notes Piano by Greenalbatross24 and I was very happy – hats off to Green Albatross.
Understanding the basics behind “Scratch Community” I knew that the programmers “share” their work, so others can build on them. So I signed up to Scratch and then used Greenalbatross24 handy work as the stepping stone to create mine.
I decide play with it too much, just add a little branding to polish it off and have provided it below for you to use.
So with all the assets above you should be well on you way to playing Happy Birthday on your MaKey MaKey Piano – enjoy!
I purchased our MaKey MaKey from Education Technology Specialists online store
#ThinkDigital #DigitalClassroom #MakerSpace
EXTENDED NOTES
- Just found this Youtube Video that uses the extended connections on the back of the MaKey MaKey (I didn’t know they were there when I wrote this article) so happy with that discovery. So now you will be able to add extra bits of fruit and use a different input for the piano the FREE Virtual Midi Piano Keyboard (not Scratch). I have experimented for a few minutes and it worked. I just need a little more time to map the VMPK keyboard map with the MaKey MaKey and bingo!
- I noted that one of the inputs on the back of the MaKey MaKey was “W” which corresponded to “F” on my Piano… I connected a Potato to it using some of the extra wiring and sweet we are now full Potato, no computer keyboard required…
Further Exploration of MaKey MaKey
- MaKey Makey Potato Fun (Stage 1)
- Live Performance of MaKey Makey Potato Piano on ABC Central Victoria
Want to buy a real piano? Read a comprehensive guide to buying a keyboard piano here.
#thinkdigital #digitalclassroom #dadtime