Coding & Computers Creating Makey Makey Instruments

Creating Makey Makey Instruments

Up to 1 hour

All ages

What Will You Learn?

Learn how to make a musical instrument using Makey Makey and Scratch!

Prototyping

Things to Consider before Building

What type of instrument are you going to make?
Can you used recycled materials?
What sounds do you want your instrument to make?
Are you going to use available sounds/music or create your own?
Where will the Makey Makey fit on your instrument (is it attached, or just sitting beside your instrument)?
How may sounds will it make (remember the amount of outlets you have available on your Makey Makey)?

Building

Step 1

With the materials available to you, sketch out a design of what you instrument might look like. What will you attach the clips to (paper fasteners, paper clips, other conductive material)? Consider where the connections are going to be placed on your instrument. Do they need to be close to each other so you can reach them? How do the wires affect how you play your instrument?

Step 2

BUILD IT!! (or you can wait until you code your instrument in the next section)

When adding your contact points on your instrument, don’t forget to include a spot (or consider how you will hold it) for the Earth/Ground wire from the Makey Makey to complete the circuit!

Creating Sounds in Scratch

Step 3

Open a new project in Scratch.We aren’t worried about the view pane because we are looking at making sounds, not what Scratch the Cat does on the display pane.

Step 4

Find/Record your music. You are able to upload music, or use Scratch’s pre-loaded music sounds for your instrument.

When using a long piece of music, and you only want each Makey Makey button to play one note or part, we will be using the sound editor that is built into scratch.

Coding your instrument in Scratch

Step 5

Once you have your music loaded and cut into notes/sounds, it’s time to program the scripts. We will simply two scripts. Events: When _____ key is pressed and Sounds:play sound ___. (you may also look to use the “play sound” until finished) (Image 1)

UPDATE: Now we can also use the new Makey Makey extension blocks on Scratch 3.0. Add the extension at the bottom left of the coding blocks on Scratch and click on the Makey Makey extension. (Image 2)

Step 6

Now it’s time to assign your sounds to the Makey Makey inputs. You will also have the option of choosing to play the sound whenever the button is touched, or playing the sound until it is done (I will often choose play sound as sometimes I need the sounds to happen quickly).

Attaching the Makey Makey to your Instrument

Step 7

Connect all the alligator clips and jumper wires to the assigned inputs on your Makey Makey.

To help with this process, use the Makey Makey planner provided to write down which Makey Makey output wires are connected to your instrument (and what sweet sounds they will play).

Step 8

Attach the other ends of the alligator clips to your instrument on the contact point (this would be anything conductive that you will touch to play the sounds)

Step 9

Time to test, redesign, test again!!

Book a jam session to show off your instrument to others!

Makey Makey Classic Inventor's Kit

The original Makey Makey Classic – Named one of Consumer Reports’ “Best Tech Toys of 2014,” “Best of Toy Fair 2014” by Popular Science, and a finalist for Toy of the Year 2016.

Makes STEM Education fun! Start out easy with a banana piano. First setup takes seconds. Then make game controllers, musical instruments, and countless inventions. Advance to additional inputs and multi-key remapping up to 18 keys. Ages 8 to infinity.

Turn everyday objects like bananas into touchpads!
Connect the world around you to your computer! Setup takes just seconds.
Just plug, clip, and play! No programing knowledge needed. No software to install. Works with Mac and Windows.
1000s of possibilities! Draw your own game controller, sneak a cat selfie, and dance like never before.
Ages 8 to infinity.

Visit the Makey Makey website for tons of projects, educator resources, apps and more.