Final Project - Modular midi keyboard with falling notes display¶
Introduction¶
I really like playing the piano but I currently can’t find time to learn notes properly (and actually when I was a teenager it prevented me from learning it).
But recently I started playing it again but tried a different approach. I just learn with below videos and found out with those, what series of notes sounds good to me and is fun to play. And so I continued to learn with those videos and also try and error my self to find fitting note-combinations and just learn the physical skill to play the piano. And this approach keeps me going, I continue to sit on my keyboard and play stuff, that comes to my mind.
But learning this way is not that great, I need to pause the Youtube videos, look whats played, rewind, etc.
There is also software like Synthesia which simplifies this process but a hardware-implementation would be the nicest solution to learn.
What is does¶
Modular midi keyboard -> assemble as many octaves as you need
Falling notes display for showing the notes of a loaded midi-file to learn keyboard without needing to learn the notes
So the hardware-implementation of this:
Here are some software-tools for learning:
Synthesia - A software to use above visualisation approach to learn playing
Linthesia - The open-source fork of Synthesia
Piano Booster - A software which taught notes sequentially while playing
Also I can try to come up with a solution to combine this learning approach with learning notes.
One idea would be an integration in Piano Booster or maybe also a hardware-module.
Target Group¶
For everyone who:
want’s to learn playing the piano but don’t really have time to learn the notes (learning the skill is hard enough)
want a compact, modular keyboard they can extend as they need
Design-Sketch¶
With modular I meant that I can choose, how many octaves I need, can transport it easily in my backpack and extend its use with additional buttons/modules.
So designed like this Kickstarter project I took inspiration from.
Here some first sketches:

Project Plan¶
I’ve split the project into 4 spirals:
MIDI keyboard
Goal
create one module with a functioning mechanical keyboard which sends and works with usual MIDI-software (e.g.: Fluidsynth)
Modular MIDI keyboard
Goal
build another module and connectors and program them to work together no matter which one is connected to the PC
MIDI Keyboard with LED Display
Goal
build the LED Display module, load the MIDI file on to the keyboard, play it, show and react on key presses
(a big spiral)
Modular MIDI keyboard with LED Display
Goal
build multiple of those modules and program them to work together