Music Brick

Introduction

Transform your LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 into a musical instrument!

Press my buttons message

Step 1

Open the ||brick:Brick|| Toolbox drawer. From the Screen section, drag out a ||brick:show string|| block onto the Workspace, and drop it into the ||loops:on start|| block. You should hear and see the block click into place.

brick.showString("Hello world", 1)

Step 2

In the ||brick:show string|| block, type the text "Press my buttons!" to replace "Hello world".

brick.showString("Press my buttons!", 1)

Step 3

Open the ||brick:Brick|| Toolbox drawer. From the Buttons section, drag out an ||brick:on button|| block anywhere onto the Workspace.

brick.buttonEnter.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Pressed, function () {

})
brick.showString("Press my buttons!", 1)

Step 4

Open the ||music:Music|| Toolbox drawer. Drag out 5 ||music:play tone|| blocks onto the Workspace, and drop them into the ||brick:on button|| block. Note: you can also right-click on a block and select “Duplicate” to copy blocks.

brick.buttonEnter.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Pressed, function () {
    music.playTone(262, music.beat(BeatFraction.Half))
    music.playTone(262, music.beat(BeatFraction.Half))
    music.playTone(262, music.beat(BeatFraction.Half))
    music.playTone(262, music.beat(BeatFraction.Half))
    music.playTone(262, music.beat(BeatFraction.Half))
})
brick.showString("Press my buttons!", 1)

Step 5

In the ||music:play tone|| blocks, use the drop-down menu to select a note to play for each block. You can also set the duration to play each note for.

Tone selector keyboard

brick.buttonEnter.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Pressed, function () {
    music.playTone(440, music.beat(BeatFraction.Half))
    music.playTone(494, music.beat(BeatFraction.Half))
    music.playTone(392, music.beat(BeatFraction.Half))
    music.playTone(196, music.beat(BeatFraction.Half))
    music.playTone(294, music.beat(BeatFraction.Whole))
})
brick.showString("Press my buttons!", 1)

Step 6

Now, plug your EV3 Brick into the computer with the USB cable, and click the Download button at the bottom of your screen. Follow the directions to save your program to the EV3 Brick.

You can add more ||brick:on button|| blocks to the Workspace and create other ||music:play tone|| melodies when different buttons are pressed to transform your brick into a musical instrument!