Set tempo for "Play a" block

John Kauffman

Is there a way to assign a beats per minute to duration values in a set of "Play a" blocks?

Ken Gracey

Are you using the S3 or Activity Board block type?

John Kauffman

Scribbler S3

Whit

@John,

Could you use the play tone block and use the duration to achieve the same thing? For instance, at 120 BPM, each beat would be 500 ms (1/2 second)? This could make a very interesting lesson in math and music. The block could be used for rests (or with a wait block).



See this great resource at wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo

Whit

If you prefer the configuration of the play note block look and configuration - You could change the play tone block to an inline configuration as shown below. Both blocks are shown for comparison.

John Kauffman

Sure, no problem to achieve goal with play tones block. I use it for a student extension to investigate both duration and the physics of frequency.

But for play block, having a duration doesn't have a meaning in music without a tempo (or as the DJ's say: beats per minute). I don't know if it would be easy to have a block that sets tempo. I think there might be one in Scratch.

Whit

I know that one was being experimented with at one time...

Here is something fun that could be Saved As to start a new bit of code or appended to code.

http://blockly.parallax.com/blockly/editor/blocklyc.jsp?project=15299#

John Kauffman

Thanks, Whit.
Sometimes brute force is a fine solution.

Whit

I know that one was being experimented with at one time...

BlocklyProp Code for S3 - BPM Set and Volume Set for S3 Play Tone Block - http://blockly.parallax.com/blockly/editor/blocklyc.jsp?project=15299