[Testing] Tam Tam on the XO-3

Gonzalo Odiard gonzalo at laptop.org
Sat Jan 7 14:43:07 EST 2012


Thanks Caryl,
I take note of this comments.
When we have anything to play I will send to you.
The Manual is very good, we really need more work as this for other
activities.

Gonzalo

On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 2:47 PM, Caryl Bigenho <cbigenho at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  Hola Gonzalo.... ¡feliz año nuevo!
>
> Looks like you have really been thinking this through.... a couple of
> comments below...i*n italics so they are easy to find*...
>
> Carolina
> ------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 03:37:50 -0300
> Subject: Re: [Testing] Tam Tam on the XO-3
> From: gonzalo at laptop.org
> To: cbigenho at hotmail.com
> CC: cscott at laptop.org; testing at lists.laptop.org
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 2:57 AM, Caryl Bigenho <cbigenho at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>  Hi Scott,
>
> I would love to know more about the Simple Piano Activity. Unfortunately,
> I don't know how to get to it.  Gonzalo's notes say it is to use with Tam
> Tam.  It is hard to see how that would work. Is it a divided screen? You
> really should have access to the controls on the Tam Tam main screen while
> playing. Can you send me a screenshot?
>
>
> I think we can use it in TamTam MIni in this way:
> * Add a button in the toolbar with two states: show piano keyboard or not.
> * If not selected, the screen is like is today. the kid can select
> different instruments, and use the xo keyboard.
> If the user select show the keyboard, arrange the controls in the left
> side of the screen, in horizontal at the top of the screen
> and show the image of the selected instrument, and below add the keyboard.
>
> *Good.... I suggest you also make it so they can click on the chosen
> instrument icon and the instrument choices screen will appear. Then have it
> go back automatically to the screen with the keyboard when they click an
> "OK" or "done" button*
>
> I think will be useful for touch devices and to do easier to understand
> the use of the xo keyboard as a instrument.
> The keyboard in the screen can show  the letters in the xo keyboard,
>
> *The letters on the XO keyboard have no relation to the music note names.
> In fact they are in conflict. For example, C plays an E and B plays a G
> while D plays a D#, G plays F# ... pity the poor musicians in the crowd! No
> wonder they are confused.  If you want to relate the keyboards I suggest
> you do it with a blank XO keyboard with the notes used to play like a
> keyboard instrument colored in 2 contrasting colors... similar to the one
> in Sdenka Salas' book, but without all the confusing info. In fact, I have
> been trying to develop a cheap, simple keyboard overlay for the XO that
> would do just that... physically.*
>
>  the notes in the american (german) notation,
> or the notation used in spain, and south america (DO, RE, MI....)
>
> *The Do, Re, Mi... systen is very useful for people to learn.  That is
> one of the reasons I included it in my little FLOSS manual.  The concept of
> a "movable Do" is also useful... allowing singers to, in essence, transpose
> into any key. They should eventually also learn the regular note names and
> the concept of "tonic-dominant-seventh-etc" but that can come later.
> *
>
> Did you see my email about the Tam Tam FLOSS manual I have been working
> on? It has links so you can go take a look at it.  I'll forward a copy to
> all of you in a separate email.  It shows some of the things that can be
> done with Tam Tam.  I tried most of them with students at the Montana
> school where there is a small CP project and with a group of adults in a
> workshop at the SF Summit.
>
> The main difficulty with Tam Tam is actually the use of the XO keyboard
> with the letters on it that don't match up with the note names.
>
>
> Is true, but match the position of the keys in a piano keyboard.
> Try playing any melody in a computer keyboard using the letters as notes
> and is impossible.
>
> *Right!  Check out my little FLOSS manual!  *
>
> Gonzalo
>
> People with no musical experience have little difficulty. Musicians, even
> with just a few piano lessons, get very confused.
>
> This is the reason I haven't moved the FLOSS manual to the "publish"
> status yet.  My granddaughter (a 13-year-old violinist) suggested I add an
> Appendix with all of the musical examples written out in standard notation
> for people who already read music. I will have to wait until after SCaLE
> 10X to find time to do it.
>
> There is also a free CC copyright class right after SCaLE on Moodle for
> Wikieducators  that I thought would be useful to take before working on the
> musical examples.
>
> Keep me posted on what you decide to do with Tam Tam and other musical
> Activities. I am very interested!
>
>
>
> Thanks,
> Caryl
>
> > Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2012 22:55:34 -0500
> > Subject: Re: Tam Tam on the XO-3
> > From: cscott at laptop.org
> > To: cbigenho at hotmail.com
> > CC: cjb at laptop.org; testing at lists.laptop.org
>
> >
> > On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 11:35 PM, Caryl Bigenho <cbigenho at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > Hi Folks,
> > >
> > > I don't know exactly who to send this to, so maybe someone who reads
> it will
> > > know and pass it along.  While working on materials for playing songs
> on the
> > > XO-1 using Tam Tam Mini and Tam Tam Jam for a Contributors Program
> project I
> > > am helping,  it occurred to me that it should be fairly easy to
> provide a
> > > standard black and white piano-type keyboard screen image to use on
> the new
> > > XO-3.  This would eliminate the frustrating process of translating
> musical
> > > notes from their normal letter names (eg cdefgabc) to the names of the
> > > corresponding keys on the xo keyboard (eg zxcvbnm).
> > >
> > > So my question is... will the Tam Tam suite of Activities be included
> in the
> > > Sugar build for the XO-3?  Have you programmed a musical keyboard
> screen
> > > image yet?  If not, I strongly suggest one be included in your plans.
> >
> > I'm hacking on http://git.sugarlabs.org/simplepiano at the moment, but
> > I agree that Tam Tam is a better long term solution.
> > --scott
> >
> > --
> >       ( http://cscott.net )
>
> _______________________________________________
> Testing mailing list
> Testing at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/testing
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/testing/attachments/20120107/0980717e/attachment-0001.html>


More information about the Testing mailing list