Creating a Melody with an Arduino and a Piezo Buzzer

Are you interested in playing melodies using your Arduino board? In this article, we'll explore how to create a melody using a piezo buzzer. The code provided can be found on our GitHub repository.

Before we begin, I want to disclaimer that I don't have formal musical training, so if you notice any discrepancies between the buzzer performance and the original Beethoven piece, please feel free to send corrections to our GitHub repository.

Understanding Musical Pieces

In a typical musical piece, there are usually many parts that are repeated after a while. These parts can be stored in multiple arrays, which is important for microcontrollers like the Arduino Uno that have limited SRAM availability (only 2048 bytes).

For this article, we've partially translated Beethoven's 'Für Elise' into pitches and durations. A typical musical piece only uses a part of the available notes, so it would be wasteful to define the notes as a single C array.

Advantages of Using Macro Definitions

To minimize memory usage and have more space for the actual song, we can use macro definitions to store our musical notes. This approach also has a low memory footprint, making it suitable for microcontrollers with limited resources.

Defining Musical Notes

We can define our musical notes as C macro constants using a helper file. For example:

```

#define NOTE_C 262

#define NOTE_D 294

#define NOTE_E 330

// ...

```

These definitions enable us to easily switch between different frequencies and durations, making it simpler to play melodies on the Arduino.

Using the tone() Function

To generate a square wave of a specified frequency (31-65535 Hz for Arduino Uno) with an optional duration in milliseconds, we can use the `tone()` function. For example:

```

tone(8, 200, 250);

```

This code will generate a wave with a frequency of 200 Hz and a duration of 250 ms on pin 8.

Playing a Note

To play a note using our Arduino board, we'll use the `tone()` function. The circuit diagram below, created using Fritzing, provides a clear representation of how the components are connected:

```

Using a suggested potentiometer wired in series with the buzzer, you can adjust the volume by increasing the resistance of the circuit.

Components Needed

To repeat this experiment, you'll need the following components:

* Arduino board

* Piezo buzzer

* Potentiometer (optional)

* Breadboard

These optional components will enhance your musical experience, but are not required to create a melody using an Arduino and a piezo buzzer.

Arduino piezo buzzer melody