The new and more logical musical stave I proposed yesterday could also form the basis for a fun musical toy. It would consist of a set of bars of various lengths representing various intervals, with the length proportional to the logarithm of the frequency multiplier (so maybe 15cm for an octave, 8.8cm for a fifth, 4.8cm for a major third and so on) and a set of connectors into which one or more of these bars can be plugged.
Each of the connectors would have a button on it which, when pressed, makes a sound. One of the connectors has its frequency fixed at (say) 440Hz (or maybe is tunable with a potentiometer) - the frequencies of the other connectors depend on how far away they are from the fixed connector (which in turn depends on which interval bars are plugged in. The connectors are built in such a way that if two bars are plugged in to opposite sides, their ends touch.
The result would be a sort of "build it yourself piano keyboard" which would help children (and adults) learn about musical intervals and tuning systems.
[...] been thinking about how to create the interval bars instrument/toy as a sort of sequel to the physical tone matrix. Here’s some of the design space I’ve [...]
[...] – code and simulator for my intervals bar toy that is in [...]