Learning music with Microbit

CPI A XUNQUEIRA

Open in-person activity

blmoreno@edu.xunta.gal

English

Avenida Mar, 15500, Fene, A Coruña, Galicia, ESP

LEARNING MUSIC WITH MICROBIT V2.

This activity is aimed at Music subject, although it could be worked on others such as Mathematics, Technology or Programming.

Levels

This activity is aimed at Secondary school students and the last courses of Primary.

What objectives are trying to achieve?

-    The main objective is to practice musical rhythm with students and develop computational thinking.

-      In addition, the mental calculation is worked and the history of programming is reviewed through the chosen song and the previous activity. As it is developed in English, so the students work on vocabulary related to these subjects.

-  Introduce and understand the basic operation of some basic blocks in programming, such as waits, loops and repetitions.

 Duration

2-3 hours depending on the age and previous knowledge of the students.

Activity 1: Some history.

"Daisy Bell" was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892. In 1961, the IBM 7094 became the first computer to sing, singing the song Daisy Bell. Vocals were programmed by John Kelly and Carol Lockbaum and the accompaniment was programmed by Max Mathews.

This performance was the inspiration for a similar scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do I'm half crazy all for the love of you It won't be a stylish marriage I can't afford a carriage But you'll look sweet upon the seat Of a bicycle built for two.

(If you wish, you can work more about cinema or history of programming history)

https://youtu.be/41U78QP8nBk

https://youtu.be/Yh97FsULbS0

Activity 2: We understand the notes of the score and measure the times.

It is important that students know the values of the different musical figures. If they do not know them, we will teach them or remind them (if we consider that they have seen them before).

Activity 3: We programm the Microbit board

Once we have thought about the melody times, we can start programming them with MakeCode.

It consists of adding music programming blocks with the different notes and times. We will set the white ones at 2 beats, the black ones at 1 beat, etc.

 All these blocks are in the music tab 

Before downloading the code to the Microbit, or if we do not have the board, we can check how our composition sounds by clicking the “play” button on the simulated board we have on the left side of the screen.

If you know to see the development of this teaching unit step by step, click on the link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11vGR5kVVJUqw5QYpbcppqRCwM2IgjB3a/view?usp=sharing

Other activities

We can enrich this activity by proposing to the students some modifications. For instance:

-      Change the initial button.

-  Draw something on the screen while the song is playing.

-      Program your favourite melody.

http://www.edu.xunta.gal/centros/cpiaxunqueira/