Toy Piano

Splashery stretches a drumhead over this Splash's outline, twelve inches across, and finds the ways it can ring. Its lowest is 495.6 Hz, 94 cents flat of C5, the nearest tine on the comb. The next fifteen are its overtones, and each one draws its own figure: sand gathers on the lines that stay still.

Tap or drag along the keys to play them, or tap the case to play Twinkle, Twinkle.

A toy piano is a small piano with no strings. Each key works a tiny hammer, and the hammer strikes a metal rod held at one end, which rings like a little bell. Shorter rods sound higher, so the rods get shorter from left to right. Toy pianos were first made in the 1800s, and the composer John Cage wrote a whole suite for one in 1948.

This one has 18 keys, from C up to the F an octave and a half higher, and its back and lid are open so you can see inside. Tap a key and its hammer swings up and strikes its rod, which shivers as the note rings. Tap anywhere else to hear “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Pick its color in the Splash tab.

Made in Splashery. Its code is MIT.

This link opens it in the Playground. To put it on your own page, add the element and one script tag. Every option.