software resources for science and technology education
Christmas Music Project from Mr Bit
Make your micro:bit play a Christmas tune.
Mr Bit shows you how to take a tune from a music score and enter the notes into a program for the BBC micro:bit.
Whether loud or soft, fast or slow, sad or happy, a tune always has a series of notes, one after another. A note can be high or low in pitch or short or long in duration. To make music with your micro:bit all you have to do is to put notes in the right order and specify the pitch and duration of each note.
What you need:
- BBC micro:bit
- Battery connector
- 2 crocodile clip leads
- Earpiece or headphones
- Insight Mr Bit software or a micro:bit code editor
The notes on a music score show all that you need to know about pitch and duration.
Pitch is shown by the height of the note on the 5-
Duration is shown by the style of the note and its stalk.
The most common note is the crotchet, a solid blob with a plain stalk. When a tune has a regular beat, this is the note that shows the beat. Most tunes have between 60 and 120 beats per minute making the duration of a crotchet typically between 1000 milliseconds and 500 milliseconds.
In our Christmas tune, as well as having crotchets, we have two other types of notes:
Quaver: this has half the duration of a crotchet, so 2 quavers last as long as one crotchet.
Minim: this has twice the duration of a crotchet, so 2 crotchets last as long as one minim.
The quaver looks like a crotchet with a tail.
The minim looks like a crotchet with a hole in the blob.
Skip this bit if you are familiar with music notation.
Scientific notation of pitch
Since the letters for notes are used in a repeating cycle, at several different pitches, we need an additional code to give a unique indication of pitch. Scientific notation does this by adding a number to indicate in which octave (sequence of 8 notes) the note occurs. C4 is middle C on a piano; C5 is an octave above; C3 is an octave below. The octave number increases by one every time you go from B to C. Insight Mr Bit uses this notation for pitch.
Pitches of notes you can program with Mr Bit:
That’s enough explanation. Let’s get started on our tune “We wish you a Merry Christmas”
Step 1 – Prepare the tune
To prepare for making your program, the first step is to write underneath the stave the letter name for each note:
You now have a choice of coding editor:
Mr Bit MakeCode MicroPython
Step 2 – Select the control blocks
To build and program the control system with Mr Bit:
- Select a piezo sounder from the list of devices.
- Select a Simple control module.
- Tap the module and drag a link to the piezo sounder.
The dialogue for coding the tune now appears.
Step 3 – Type the tune notation
- Type the letter of the first note (D) to set the pitch.
- Type the crotchet button to set the duration to 4 units.
- Type the letters for the remaining notes using the rule to set the pitch.
When a different duration is needed, type the new note value.
When the note is F, type a sharp # as well.
Step 4 – Program button A to start and stop the music
- Tap the module to show the editing tabs
- Drag a link from the WHEN tab to the button
- Choose the setting “gets pressed”
- Repeat this for the UNTIL tab.
The control program should read “When button A gets pressed, switch on the piezo sounder, until button A gets pressed again.”
Step 5 – Prepare the micro:bit
To hear the tune, you need to connect an earpiece or headphones to pins GND and P0. You can use crocodile clip leads as shown here.
Step 6 – Select ‘Control’ mode
You are now ready to play the tune:
- Tap the communicate button and select ‘Control’.
Taking it further
You can extend the control system to show a “Merry Christmas” message on the LEDs while the tune is playing:
- Select a block for the LEDs
- Tap the module to show the editing tabs.
- Drag a link from the OUTPUTS tab to the LEDs.
- Select Display type ‘Message’
- Type “Merry Christmas”
Mr Bit rule for duration: The next note will have the same duration, unless you choose a quaver (2 units) or a minim (8 units).
Mr Bit rule for pitch: The next note will have the same octave number, unless you choose the up (á) button or down (â) button.
Christmas carols
Download these scores to create more Christmas tunes.
Away in a manger 
Hark the herald angels sing
O come all ye faithful
Once in royal David’s city
Silent night
© 2024 Insight Resources