I'd like to play Taps (Musical Piece Played at Military Funerals) on a 8ohm Speaker! Could someone help me understand the notes of this riveting melody better? Thanks!
Notes of the scale are:
F ------------
E
D-------------
C
B--------------
A
G--------------
F
E---------------
If you play the song using the wiki site, you can watch the "seconds" counter to approximate the duration of the notes.
My guitar tuner says that the notes are in the range of 347 to 700Hz.....not sure if the frequency readings are correct.
that is a great idea! I have one of those, but did not think of using it until now. 
Using flat on my guitar tuner I got my frequency readings as 3G, 7B, 2B, 4D. I understand Middle C is 440Hz for B flat, however I don't know where to go from here. I want to translate my notes into integer frequencies. I tried understanding it thru google, but am still lost. Any help please? 
Hi,
I was looking at something similar today... You could try modifying the tone example with the following.. The notes are correct, but the timings are rough.
/*
Melody
Plays a melody
circuit:
* 8-ohm speaker on digital pin 8
created 21 Jan 2010
modified 30 Aug 2011
by Tom Igoe
This example code is in the public domain.
http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Tone
*/
#include "pitches.h"
// notes in the melody:
int melody[] = {
NOTE_G4, NOTE_G4, NOTE_C5, NOTE_G4, NOTE_C5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_G4, NOTE_C5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_G4, NOTE_C5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_G4, NOTE_C5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_C5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_G5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_C5, NOTE_G4, NOTE_G4, NOTE_G4, NOTE_C5};
// note durations: 4 = quarter note, 8 = eighth note, etc.:
int noteDurations[] = {
2,2,1,2,2,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1,2,2,1,2,2,1,2,2,1};
void setup() {
// iterate over the notes of the melody:
for (int thisNote = 0; thisNote < 24; thisNote++) {
// to calculate the note duration, take one second
// divided by the note type.
//e.g. quarter note = 1000 / 4, eighth note = 1000/8, etc.
int noteDuration = 1000/noteDurations[thisNote];
tone(8, melody[thisNote],noteDuration);
// to distinguish the notes, set a minimum time between them.
// the note's duration + 30% seems to work well:
int pauseBetweenNotes = noteDuration * 1.30;
delay(pauseBetweenNotes);
// stop the tone playing:
noTone(8);
}
}
void loop() {
// no need to repeat the melody.
}
The third-party polytonal Tone library has a list of frequencies you can use:
#define NOTE_B0 31
#define NOTE_C1 33
#define NOTE_CS1 35
#define NOTE_D1 37
#define NOTE_DS1 39
#define NOTE_E1 41
#define NOTE_F1 44
#define NOTE_FS1 46
#define NOTE_G1 49
#define NOTE_GS1 52
#define NOTE_A1 55
#define NOTE_AS1 58
#define NOTE_B1 62
#define NOTE_C2 65
#define NOTE_CS2 69
#define NOTE_D2 73
#define NOTE_DS2 78
#define NOTE_E2 82
#define NOTE_F2 87
#define NOTE_FS2 93
#define NOTE_G2 98
#define NOTE_GS2 104
#define NOTE_A2 110
#define NOTE_AS2 117
#define NOTE_B2 123
#define NOTE_C3 131
#define NOTE_CS3 139
#define NOTE_D3 147
#define NOTE_DS3 156
#define NOTE_E3 165
#define NOTE_F3 175
#define NOTE_FS3 185
#define NOTE_G3 196
#define NOTE_GS3 208
#define NOTE_A3 220
#define NOTE_AS3 233
#define NOTE_B3 247
#define NOTE_C4 262
#define NOTE_CS4 277
#define NOTE_D4 294
#define NOTE_DS4 311
#define NOTE_E4 330
#define NOTE_F4 349
#define NOTE_FS4 370
#define NOTE_G4 392
#define NOTE_GS4 415
#define NOTE_A4 440
#define NOTE_AS4 466
#define NOTE_B4 494
#define NOTE_C5 523
#define NOTE_CS5 554
#define NOTE_D5 587
#define NOTE_DS5 622
#define NOTE_E5 659
#define NOTE_F5 698
#define NOTE_FS5 740
#define NOTE_G5 784
#define NOTE_GS5 831
#define NOTE_A5 880
#define NOTE_AS5 932
#define NOTE_B5 988
#define NOTE_C6 1047
#define NOTE_CS6 1109
#define NOTE_D6 1175
#define NOTE_DS6 1245
#define NOTE_E6 1319
#define NOTE_F6 1397
#define NOTE_FS6 1480
#define NOTE_G6 1568
#define NOTE_GS6 1661
#define NOTE_A6 1760
#define NOTE_AS6 1865
#define NOTE_B6 1976
#define NOTE_C7 2093
#define NOTE_CS7 2217
#define NOTE_D7 2349
#define NOTE_DS7 2489
#define NOTE_E7 2637
#define NOTE_F7 2794
#define NOTE_FS7 2960
#define NOTE_G7 3136
#define NOTE_GS7 3322
#define NOTE_A7 3520
#define NOTE_AS7 3729
#define NOTE_B7 3951
#define NOTE_C8 4186
#define NOTE_CS8 4435
#define NOTE_D8 4699
#define NOTE_DS8 4978
Musical Note Frequencies -
Guitar and Piano
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/music/musical-note-frequencies.htm
Reading across the music:
G
G
C
G
C
E
G
C
E
G
C
E
G
C
E
C
E
G+
E
C
G
G
G
E
Note: G+ is an octave higher than the other Gs
Then you can convert those to pitch names:
NOTE_G4
NOTE_G4
NOTE_C4
NOTE_G4
NOTE_C4
NOTE_E4
NOTE_G4
NOTE_C4
NOTE_E4
NOTE_G4
NOTE_C4
NOTE_E4
NOTE_G4
NOTE_C4
NOTE_E4
NOTE_C4
NOTE_E4
NOTE_G5
NOTE_E4
NOTE_C4
NOTE_G4
NOTE_G4
NOTE_G4
NOTE_E4
You can put those in an array, make another array of note durations, and play them in a loop.
Here is what I came up with! Please like on YouTube! Let me know if you see any room for improvement in the code. Thanks!
Code Used:
/*
Melody
Plays a melody
circuit:
* 8-ohm speaker on digital pin 8
created 21 Jan 2010
modified 30 Aug 2011
by Tom Igoe
modified by Evan Johnson Jan 2013 "Taps" melody and 3 fading leds.
This example code is in the public domain.
http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Tone
*/
#include "pitches.h"
// notes in the melody:
int melody[] = {NOTE_G4, NOTE_G4, NOTE_C5, NOTE_G4, NOTE_C5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_G4,
NOTE_C5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_G4, NOTE_C5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_G4, NOTE_C5,
NOTE_E5, NOTE_C5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_G5, NOTE_E5, NOTE_C5, NOTE_G4,
NOTE_G4, NOTE_G4, NOTE_C5};
// note durations: 4 = quarter note, 8 = eighth note, etc.:
int noteDurations[] = {2,4,1, 2,4,1, 4,4,2, 4,4,2, 4,4,1, 2,4,1, 2,2,1, 2,4,1};
int redLedPin = 3; // red LED connected to digital pin 3
int whiteLedPin = 5; // white LED connected to digital pin 5
int blueLedPin = 6; // blue LED connected to digital pin 6
void setup() {
// fade in from min to max in increments of 5 points:
for(int fadeValue = 0 ; fadeValue <= 255; fadeValue +=5)
{
// sets the value (range from 0 to 255):
analogWrite(redLedPin, fadeValue);
analogWrite(whiteLedPin, fadeValue);
analogWrite(blueLedPin, fadeValue);
// wait for 30 milliseconds to see the dimming effect
delay(40);
}
// iterate over the notes of the melody:
for (int thisNote = 0; thisNote < 24; thisNote++) {
// to calculate the note duration, take one second
// divided by the note type.
//e.g. quarter note = 1000 / 4, eighth note = 1000/8, etc.
int noteDuration = 2500/noteDurations[thisNote];
tone(8, melody[thisNote],noteDuration);
// to distinguish the notes, set a minimum time between them.
// the note's duration + 30% seems to work well:
int pauseBetweenNotes = noteDuration * 1.05;
delay(pauseBetweenNotes);
// stop the tone playing:
noTone(8);
}
// fade out from max to min in increments of 5 points:
for(int fadeValue = 255 ; fadeValue >= 0; fadeValue -=5)
{
// sets the value (range from 0 to 255):
analogWrite(redLedPin, fadeValue);
analogWrite(whiteLedPin, fadeValue);
analogWrite(blueLedPin, fadeValue);
// wait for 30 milliseconds to see the dimming effect
delay(40);
}
}
void loop()
{
}
That's pretty cool. 8)
Great job, thanks for sharing.
The note timings need some work. The dotted half note should be the same length as three quarter notes (the dot means 'half again as long". But to get that you would need a divisor of 4/3 which is not an integer.
Perhaps you could store the note durations as number of 16th notes:
int noteDuration = (2500 * noteDurations[thisNote]) / 16;
Then the durations would be:
// Number of 16th notes per note:
int noteDurations[] = {3,1, 12,3,1, 12,2,2, 4,2,2,4,2,2, 12,2,2, 8,4,4, 12,3,1, 12};
It may be my imagination but some of the early notes seemed an octave high.