CS Unplugged logo
English Deutsch Español Français Te Reo Māori 简体中文
Topics Printables About
  1. Home
  2. Topics
  3. Searching algorithms
  4. Music activity

Music activity

Performing Arts: Music

Heads up!

To do this activity it's expected you understand the content covered in the following:

  • Searching algorithms: How many guesses? (8 to 10)
  • Searching algorithms: Divide and conquer (8 to 10)

Play a note on a hidden instrument (e.g. a chime bar), and have a student try to find the note on the piano by guessing the note, and comparing it with the one being played. If the note on the piano is too high, explore the lower half, and vice versa. A kind of binary search can be used to narrow in on the note. You could also do a sequential search - keep playing notes until you hear one that is the same.

This activity relies on student being able to listen to two pitches and work out if one is higher, lower or the same. This can take some experience to be able to do it accurately, and if the timbre of the two sounds is too different, it may be even harder.

Looking for something for high schools? Check out the Computer Science Field Guide.

The primary goal of the Unplugged project is to promote Computer Science (and computing in general) to young people as an interesting, engaging, and intellectually stimulating discipline.

Read more about our principles here.

Useful Links

  • About
  • Topics
  • Printables
  • At home

Community

  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube
  • GitHub

Help

  • Search
  • Glossary
  • Feedback
  • Contact

English | Deutsch | Español | Français | Te Reo Māori | 简体中文

The CS Unplugged material is open source on GitHub, and this website's content is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. The CS Unplugged is a project by the Computer Science Education Research Group at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Icons provided generously by icons8.

7.3.0 - 182cfe8426b7a5cdf50a75e863c2decd344f2420

This definition is not available in English, sorry!