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EarSketch: Customizing Your Song

A song at 120 beats per minute is a song at the default setting. This lab makes your song yours: you'll set its speed, comment your code so a stranger (or you, next week) can follow it, and add a sound that EarSketch doesn't even have.

Overview

We will customize our song's tempo — its speed in beats per minute — comment our code, and add a new sound from outside of EarSketch.

Before you start

Open your song script in EarSketch. This lab continues the song you started in Getting Started.

You've got it when…

  • setTempo() sets your song to something other than 120 beats per minute.
  • Your script has at least three useful comments.
  • Your song plays at least one custom sound you added from Freesound.

Collaboration & AI

Work: On your own.

AI — AIAS Level 1, No AI: Write your own code and your own comments. What the levels mean.

Tempo, Comments, and Custom Sounds

  1. Read the following EarSketch Curriculum sections and apply them to your song.

  2. Set a tempo to something other than 120 beats per minute.

  3. Have at least three useful comments.

    What makes a comment useful?

    A useful comment tells the reader something the code can't: why a section exists, not what the line does. # set the tempo next to setTempo(91) earns no points with anyone.

  4. Add at least one custom sound from Freesound (see Section 2.3).

Turn It In

Download your script from EarSketch and submit it:

  1. Click the toggle switch to expand the Content Manager.

    The Content Manager toggle switch on the left edge of the EarSketch window.

  2. Select the SCRIPTS tab.

    The SCRIPTS tab at the top of the Content Manager.

  3. Find your song's script in the MY SCRIPTS panel and click its Download button the Download button.

    The Download button next to a script in the MY SCRIPTS panel.

  4. Click the download button the script download icon next to the Script option.

    The download dialog, with the Script option circled.

  5. Turn in the downloaded Python (.py) file the way your teacher has asked for it (Google Classroom, your project notebook, or wherever this class collects work).

  • Your song's script (.py file), turned in as instructed.

How It's Graded

This lab is worth up to 4 points. One score covers everything you turn in.

Score What it looks like
4 — Excellent A tempo other than 120 that suits the song, three comments that explain why a section exists (not what a line does), and a custom Freesound sound that actually plays in the mix — the script reads like it has an owner.
3 — Above Average All three requirements present, with a freebie in the mix — a "# set the tempo" comment among the useful ones.
2 — Average Two of the three — most often the custom sound never made it from Freesound into the song.
1 — Below Average The song from last lab, resubmitted at 120 beats per minute.
0 — Failing Nothing turned in.