Which Pencil is Best?

First of all, you may not have realized until just now that there are different types of pencils that are classified by the hardness of their lead. Your normal run of the mill #2 pencil you find everywhere is a balanced, middle of the spectrum HB pencil. From there the spectrum extends out by 6 levels in terms of H for harder consistency that draws in a lighter thinner line and B in the other direction for softer that tends to be used for bold darker lines.

When presented with a question, the best thing to do is test and explore possible answers to that question. For example, is something conductive? 

Watch this video:

Draw Your Circuit AKA Playable Instrument

Get your 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper and use a graphite pencil (artist "6B" pencil works great to draw a design.) to draw your own playable instrument! 

What will you create? A robotic piano? A space ship trombone? Your name as a tone generator?

Goals:

1. Assign a minimum of three sounds to three keys on your keyboard

2. Connect your Makey Makey and your drawing to control those sounds. Your materials for this project are paper and pencil.

3. Record Audio on our Sampler App or play sounds with our Piano App.

In case you need a prompt to get started:

• Draw your name where each letter will be a note on the piano.

• Draw a picture of a musical instrument - one you play, would like to play, used to play.

• Draw a holiday card.

Drawing Tips

• Make separate drawings for each soundbite

• Make your drawings dark and thick to optimize them for Makey Makey.

• Draw to the edge of your paper.

• Draw a wider line at the edge of your paper for the alligator clip to clip onto.

Hook each section of your drawing to an alligator clip to match the sound you want to play.

Troubleshooting if your drawing isn't working

• Are the lines dark enough?

• Do the lines cross over each other?

• Usually beginners are recommended to keep their lines separate so that each line makes one distinct sound.

• Is the alligator clip touching the pencil drawing nicely?

• Are somebody’s hands just too dry?

• Try putting out a damp sponge for people with dry hands. Have you clicked on the piano to bring browser focus to the piano?

• Is your sound turned on?

• Try pushing the arrow keys directly on your keyboard and watch the piano on the screen.

• Is the Makey Makey plugged in USB?

• Are you drawing on a smooth, hard surface (like a clipboard)?

• Are you grounded? You have to be touching ground AND touching the arrow input both at the same time.

Connecting to Apps

Now that you know about the conductivity of pencil lead, and have a playable drawing ready... let's find some piano apps you can use with Makey Makey! You can use any app, webpage, or Scratch project that works with key presses. 

Here are a few to try: 

Piano
Our piano designed for Makey Makey. Play a melody with the arrow keys and space bar (and click, too).

MK-1
A sampling synth made by Eric Rosenbaum for Makey Makey. Record your own sound, use preset scales, and set the keys to play just the notes you want. 

New Adjustable Piano App

The new Makey Makey Piano App is the culmination of a lot of learning and play on our end. We took our tried and true piano app that we created with the launch of the Makey Makey and took it up a level. The new piano app has a number of features we think you will like:

New Piano App Features

• Selectable Instruments - Yes! You can choose from a number of different instruments instead of just a piano.

• Octave Choice - We give you the choice of what octave to play music in.

• Number of Keys- Want more keys? Or, less? You can change the number of keys on your piano!

• Scale and Starting Note - Want to start with a different note? Not a problem!

We designed this piano app to give you flexibility and creativity when building different musical instruments with the Makey Makey. We wanted to give you you an app that was plug and play with the Makey Makey out of the box that inspires you to jam out and create a whole Makey band!