Re: squeakland Digest, Vol 99, Issue 5

Hi everyone!

I have been working with students on creating music lessons, and there is a gap in my knowledge of Etoys that is preventing them from going further in their projects.

Many of them would like a song to play (using the play frequency tile). The only way I can think to do this is to either create a variable counter that counts a beat or to use the playfield counter. Either way, it seems like Etoys ought to have a command that does something like "while counter > 5 and counter <10 play frequency 880" or even using a test in a similar way: "test counter > 5 and counter < 10".  I just can't figure out how to have a sound play for a specific amount of time - especially a few beats into the song. The first few we can fudge, but after that it gets too complicated. I need to help them find a better solution.

I've looked at both Pling and the chord game for suggestions, which helped with other issues but not this one.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated! I've been struggling with this since early May!

Thanks!

Christine

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  1. Fwd: [FIA58] del Official Google Blog (Carlos Rabassa)


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> From: "***PV***" <[hidden email]>
> Date: July 10, 2011 3:12:13 AM EDT
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> Subject: [FIA58] del Official Google Blog
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> Aunque no es usual en USA, aqu? Americas' significa Norte, Sur y Central, como lo dice m?s abajo.
>
> Pedro
> ___________________________________________________
> Official Google Blog
>
> Seeking the Americas? brightest young minds for a spot at Zeitgeist
> Americas 2011
> Posted: 07 Jul 2011 02:22 PM PDT
> This year, we?re mixing up our annual Zeitgeist conferences with the launch of Young Minds, a competition hosted by youth engagement agency Livity, supported by Google and hosted on YouTube. Starting this week, we?re searching for 12 inspirational young people who are making an impact on their world to attend Zeitgeist Americas 2011?our annual gathering of 400+ businesses and thought leaders from across the continent held each year in Paradise Valley, Ariz.
>
> The winners will be invited to the two-day event, where they?ll take part in a series of tailored master classes hosted by Google and meet some of the most powerful and thought-provoking people on the planet. We want the pioneers, changemakers and leaders of tomorrow to take their place alongside the greatest minds of today and use Zeitgeist as a springboard from which they can continue to do amazing things to make the world a better place.
>
> The Young Minds competition is open to people aged 18-24 from North, South and Central America. For your chance to win a slot at Zeitgeist Americas 2011, go to www.zeitgeistyoungminds.com before August 25 and upload a video that shows us how you?re making a positive impact on the world.
>
> Posted by Rachel Durfee, Google Blog Team
>
>
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Is there a way to play "instruments" other than tones, similar to http://www.squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=7826?  

Ie: How can I specify an instrument?  I can load midi files, but would like to be able to do something similar to Scratch where I can specify the instrument. and then have a script "Play the notes"

Stephen

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 10:37 AM, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Christine,

you can do "test counter > 5 and counter < 10" using two nested tests. The first would test for "counter > 5" and in its "yes" case there would be a test for "counter < 10". Of course that would be tedious for a whole song.

Here is a way to use the timer as suggested by Steve:

Each note is just a rectangle with an embedded text label. It has a variable for its frequency. Its width represents its duration. Many of them are put in a holder, and each can have their own frequency. The holder has a single variable, "until". This holds the timer value for the end of the currently playing note. When that time has passed, the next "until" is calculated from the width of the next note, and it is played.

It's very simple to make more notes, you just duplicate them, and if necessary change freq and width. You could make a parts bin with all the preconfigured notes.

This is similar to (though a lot simpler than) what I showed at Squeakfest. Ideas from that talk could be integrated as well - e.g., instead of playing the note right in the holder's script, each note could have a script that gets activated by the holder, and then could do more interesting things (like playing a rondo by repeating themes in ABACA form etc).

- Bert -

On 11.07.2011, at 14:34, Steve Thomas wrote:

1) You can use the timer in the playfield category (can change decimal places I believe accurate to milliseconds)

2) Use a "piano roll" and place notes on the roll and have a "needle" move across the roll (or the roll move) and when the "needle" touches the note, it will play that note.

You could have kids play a frequency based on it's y position and have them draw a score.  They could also have the note sustain based on its length.  You can also change the tempo by moving the needle at different speeds.

Stephen

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 7:04 AM, Christine Murakami <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi everyone!

I have been working with students on creating music lessons, and there is a gap in my knowledge of Etoys that is preventing them from going further in their projects.

Many of them would like a song to play (using the play frequency tile). The only way I can think to do this is to either create a variable counter that counts a beat or to use the playfield counter. Either way, it seems like Etoys ought to have a command that does something like "while counter > 5 and counter <10 play frequency 880" or even using a test in a similar way: "test counter > 5 and counter < 10".  I just can't figure out how to have a sound play for a specific amount of time - especially a few beats into the song. The first few we can fudge, but after that it gets too complicated. I need to help them find a better solution.

I've looked at both Pling and the chord game for suggestions, which helped with other issues but not this one.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated! I've been struggling with this since early May!

Thanks!

Christine
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On 11.07.2011, at 20:38, karl ramberg wrote:

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 6:04 PM, Steve Thomas <[hidden email]> wrote:

Is there a way to play "instruments" other than tones, similar to http://www.squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=7826?  

Ie: How can I specify an instrument?  I can load midi files, but would like to be able to do something similar to Scratch where I can specify the instrument. and then have a script "Play the notes"

It's all there under the hood waiting for someone to do the Etoys interface...

Music gets quite technical fast and it's a big job getting the tools right.

Here is a howto for the daring:

Try the do it (that is paste this text into Etoys select it and press ctrl and d.)

| n score | n _ 3.

score _ (MIDIScore new tracks: ((1 to: n) collect: [:i | Array new]);

trackInfo: ((1 to: n) collect: [:i | 'Instrument' , i printString]);

tempoMap: nil; ticksPerQuarterNote: 96).

ScorePlayerMorph openOn: score title: 'empty score'

You can select instruments, click where it says 'flute1', and a menu pops up.

Click PianoRoll and you get a piano roll :-)

Click on the piano roll and a menu pops up.

Select 'add keyboard' and you get a piano keyboard that you can add notes to the piano roll.

Karl 

If the score player had a menu item to add a track then we could do this without Smalltalk code, right?

- Bert -

Stephen

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 10:37 AM, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Christine,

you can do "test counter > 5 and counter < 10" using two nested tests. The first would test for "counter > 5" and in its "yes" case there would be a test for "counter < 10". Of course that would be tedious for a whole song.

Here is a way to use the timer as suggested by Steve:

<PastedGraphic-12.png>

Each note is just a rectangle with an embedded text label. It has a variable for its frequency. Its width represents its duration. Many of them are put in a holder, and each can have their own frequency. The holder has a single variable, "until". This holds the timer value for the end of the currently playing note. When that time has passed, the next "until" is calculated from the width of the next note, and it is played.

It's very simple to make more notes, you just duplicate them, and if necessary change freq and width. You could make a parts bin with all the preconfigured notes.

This is similar to (though a lot simpler than) what I showed at Squeakfest. Ideas from that talk could be integrated as well - e.g., instead of playing the note right in the holder's script, each note could have a script that gets activated by the holder, and then could do more interesting things (like playing a rondo by repeating themes in ABACA form etc).

- Bert -

On 11.07.2011, at 14:34, Steve Thomas wrote:

1) You can use the timer in the playfield category (can change decimal places I believe accurate to milliseconds)

2) Use a "piano roll" and place notes on the roll and have a "needle" move across the roll (or the roll move) and when the "needle" touches the note, it will play that note.

You could have kids play a frequency based on it's y position and have them draw a score.  They could also have the note sustain based on its length.  You can also change the tempo by moving the needle at different speeds.

Stephen

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 7:04 AM, Christine Murakami <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi everyone!

I have been working with students on creating music lessons, and there is a gap in my knowledge of Etoys that is preventing them from going further in their projects.

Many of them would like a song to play (using the play frequency tile). The only way I can think to do this is to either create a variable counter that counts a beat or to use the playfield counter. Either way, it seems like Etoys ought to have a command that does something like "while counter > 5 and counter <10 play frequency 880" or even using a test in a similar way: "test counter > 5 and counter < 10".  I just can't figure out how to have a sound play for a specific amount of time - especially a few beats into the song. The first few we can fudge, but after that it gets too complicated. I need to help them find a better solution.

I've looked at both Pling and the chord game for suggestions, which helped with other issues but not this one.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated! I've been struggling with this since early May!

Thanks!

Christine
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On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 9:38 PM, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:

On 11.07.2011, at 20:38, karl ramberg wrote:

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 6:04 PM, Steve Thomas <[hidden email]> wrote:

Is there a way to play "instruments" other than tones, similar to http://www.squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=7826?  

Ie: How can I specify an instrument?  I can load midi files, but would like to be able to do something similar to Scratch where I can specify the instrument. and then have a script "Play the notes"

It's all there under the hood waiting for someone to do the Etoys interface...

Music gets quite technical fast and it's a big job getting the tools right.

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 3:56 PM, karl ramberg <[hidden email]> wrote:

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 9:38 PM, Bert Freudenberg <[hidden email]> wrote:

On 11.07.2011, at 20:38, karl ramberg wrote:

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 6:04 PM, Steve Thomas <[hidden email]> wrote:

Is there a way to play "instruments" other than tones, similar to http://www.squeakland.org/showcase/project.jsp?id=7826?  

Ie: How can I specify an instrument?  I can load midi files, but would like to be able to do something similar to Scratch where I can specify the instrument. and then have a script "Play the notes"

It's all there under the hood waiting for someone to do the Etoys interface...

Music gets quite technical fast and it's a big job getting the tools right.

A single tile added to the sound category to let you specify the instrument would be great.

Optionally some way to add instruments if you have a midi file.

I would introduce this to kids without using the Score Player.  I would have kids build their own score players where they place the "notes" onto a playfield and the "?needle?" (That red line that moves across the piano roll) is used to play the note as long as it overlaps it.  They could then do as Bert suggested and create their own rondo's by turning off "fence enabled" and having the "needle" wrap.

Stephen