Tic Tac Tunes - Now with Tic Tac Beat Box

Step 7 Musical Notes

I've no formal musical training and this is a compressed version of what knowledge I've picked up over the years. If anyone finds errors, or has further ideas, please leave a comment.

The PicAxe can produce musical tones across three octaves, which in a full chromatic scale (with the sharps and flats) is 36 notes. Because of the way the waveforms interact and the way the brain interprets this, some notes will sound 'wrong' when played next to each other.

Other scales have developed around the world which use a selection of these notes, and some of these don't allow the disharmonies of the full scale. The pentatonic (5 note) scales are like this. I've chosen a minor pentatonic of A C D E G.

The blues scale is similar, but usually has 6 or 7 notes and combinations of these are harmonious, but do give a sense of tension and resolution in certain combinations. I'm using C Db E Gb Ab Bb.

The chromatic scale is what you would use to play 'proper' tunes from written music, but the lack of definite note positions on TicTacTunes makes hitting the right note difficult. The positions could be marked, but it will take a better musician than me to play a recognisable tune. Improvisation with one of the harmonious scales is the way to go with this gadget.

On the title page are sound files recorded using other selections of 6 notes from the octave which characterise the sound of music from various areas of the world.

Comments

[woken]

I agree with cohara4 a pocket keyboard would be very entertaining and fun and people would pay for them

[Cohara4]

I would pay at least pay over $50 or 45 Pounds for something as ingenious as this. You should make quite a few of these then sell them on Ebay. I know a lot of people who would pay big money for this. Consider my advice. Thank You for taking the time to read this comment.