Amongst the projects I've drawn inspiration from, I have decided that I will be constructing a micro:bit piano keyboard.
The materials I intend on using, currently, are the micro:bit (no brainer), several alligator cables, a potentiometer, a speaker or headphones, a battery pack, tin foil, a sticky substance, and some sort of ground and cut-outs of a certain material to create the keyboard and keys. Each material's purpose is listed below: (P.S.: Still not exactly sure how I'm going to do this nor do I have an idea if the materials, and their purposes, will change throughout several trials to its finalization.)
Potentiometer - If I can, I would like the dial to determine the pitch of the notes being played.
Alligator cables - Connects the tin foil to the micro:bit
Battery pack - Allows us to power the micro:bit without plugging a usb directly to our computer
Speaker or headphones - Confirm that we are given the sound we want. (Impossible to work or complete without this)
Tin Foil - Placed under the paper/cardboard/wood/plastic/etc. keys at a perpendicular angle; will determine which note comes off of our piano. This is because, while our keys are connected to power or 3V, each strip of foil is connected to a digital input on the bit.
Our pieces of the material, to be determined, that we choose for the keys and the board itself will connect to each of the three strips with a sort of sticky substance, probably glue or a strong tape of some sort. Furthermore, the micro:bit will read and allow the note to play by giving a value of one for each key. For example, if one of our keys is pressed down to one strip and another key is pressed down on another, the micro:bit will be able to read which note is being played by sensing which strip is being covered (value of 1) and which strip is not (value of 0). Also, it will take several amounts of coding to determine which notes are read and what sound they exhibit. This is pretty obvious, but it must be stated.
It may all sound confusing because I am still getting it together myself. Eventually, come due date, I think my imagination will come to fruition. I must share the video and information that inspired a lot of this work. The link to it will be displayed at the bottom of the page.
Additionally, I am going to try to get the potentiometer to portray the pitch to which I find suitable (depends on what mood I'm in and what I want my music to sound and feel like).
Even further, I may even add a sensor to the analog so I can clap on this device. Like clap on lights, I would like to double clap to turn on our homemade keyboard. Who knows though...this could be left up to imagination if I can't get it to work to the standard that I have in mind.
We shall see.
Here is the link to the video that inspired this project: