Raspberry Pi Piano

Connect 12 buttons to GPIO pins.

1. Place 12 buttons on a breadboard in a row (representing piano keys).
2. Connect each button with a pull-down resistor (button → 3.3V, other side → GPIO pin + 10kΩ resistor to GND).
3. Wire buttons to GPIO pins 2-13 (one button per pin).
4. Arrange buttons like a piano: 8 white keys (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C) and 4 black keys (C#, D#, F#, G#) between appropriate white keys.

Set up Python library for audio playback.

1. Open a Terminal on Raspberry Pi.
2. Install pygame: sudo apt-get install python3-pygame
3. Wait for installation to complete.
4. Connect a speaker or headphones to the Pi's audio jack.

Get or create .wav files for each note.

1. Create a directory: mkdir ~/piano
2. Download piano note sound files (.wav format) for notes C4-C5.
3. Or use pygame's tone generation capabilities.
4. Name files: C4.wav, C#4.wav, D4.wav, D#4.wav, E4.wav, F4.wav, F#4.wav, G4.wav, G#4.wav, A4.wav, A#4.wav, B4.wav, C5.wav.
5. Place all sound files in ~/piano directory.

Create Python code to map buttons to notes.

1. Create a Python file: nano ~/piano/piano.py
2. Copy the complete piano code below.
3. The code uses gpiozero for button detection and pygame for sound.
4. Save and exit (Ctrl+X, Y, Enter).

import pygame
from gpiozero import Button
from signal import pause

pygame.mixer.init()

notes = {
    2: "C4.wav",
    3: "C#4.wav",
    4: "D4.wav",
    5: "D#4.wav",
    6: "E4.wav",
    7: "F4.wav",
    8: "F#4.wav",
    9: "G4.wav",
    10: "G#4.wav",
    11: "A4.wav",
    12: "A#4.wav",
    13: "B4.wav"
}

sounds = {}
for pin, note in notes.items():
    try:
        sounds[pin] = pygame.mixer.Sound(f"/home/pi/piano/{note}")
    except:
        print(f"Could not load {note}")

buttons = {}
for pin in notes.keys():
    buttons[pin] = Button(pin)

def play_note(pin):
    if pin in sounds:
        sounds[pin].play()
        print(f"Playing {notes[pin]}")

for pin in buttons.keys():
    buttons[pin].when_pressed = lambda p=pin: play_note(p)

print("Piano ready! Press buttons to play notes.")
pause()

Test all keys and play music.

1. Run the script: python3 ~/piano/piano.py
2. Press each button to hear its note.
3. Try playing simple melodies like 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' or 'Twinkle Twinkle'.
4. Adjust volume using the Pi's audio settings if needed.