The World is a Piano!

Back in the distant mists of 2009, Andy Woodruff created Ohio is a Piano - an interactive map where the state’s 88 counties function as the 88 keys of a piano. Clicking a county on the map triggers a unique note, literally transforming the map into a playable instrument.

Now, in honor of Piano Day - fittingly held on the 88th day of the year - Ian Muehlenhaus has introduced Map Melody. It’s a worldwide stage where every country serves as a key, effectively acting as the expansive grand piano to Andy Woodruff’s Ohio recital.

How It Works

The map isn't just a random soundboard; it uses a thoughtful hierarchy to organize the world's "keyboard":

• The Scale: Larger countries by area are assigned to the more frequently played white keys.
• The Tuning: Each of the 88 piano keys is mapped to at least two different countries.
• The Sound: It utilizes a high-quality acoustic grand piano soundfont, giving the Equal Earth projection a surprisingly rich, professional tone.

Andy Woodruff's original Ohio is a Piano actually used a more data driven approach. Where Ian’s Map Melody uses physical size to dictate the keys, Andy Woodruff’s original allowed the music to be reshaped by Census data. In the 2009 version, the "pitch" of a county isn't fixed; it’s determined by the census attribute you choose - such as population or income. The higher the value in the dataset, the higher the note's pitch. This effectively turned the geography of Ohio into a living bar chart, where the melody changed based on the underlying demographics, allowing users to literally "hear" the data of the state.

Map Melody was created as part of the Map Design Commission's #365DaysofMaps campaign.

Link to Your Own Map Songs

The major omission from Map Melody is the ability to share your map tunes with friends. To solve this, I created a musical map that uses URL hash parameters, allowing you to share direct links to your own creations.

To create a tune, simply add note letters (C, D, E, F, G, A, B) separated by commas to the end of the URL hash, e.g. #C,C,G,A. For example 

https://mapsmania.github.io/globalbuilding/piano.html#C,C,G,G,A,A,G,F,F,E,E,D,D,C

plays a passing rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Here are some tunes you might like:

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Frère Jacques

Jingle Bells

Update: I've now added support for variable note lengths and pauses in the URL. Use - to insert a pause, and :1, :2, :3, etc. after a note to control its duration (longer numbers = longer notes).

For example, here is the URL for Happy Birthday with varied note lengths and pauses, which makes the melody much more recognisable:

https://mapsmania.github.io/globalbuilding/piano.html#C:1,C:1,D:2,C:2,F:2,E:4,-:2,C:1,C:1,D:2,C:2,G:2,F:4,-:2,C:1,C:1,C:2,A:2,F:2,E:2,D:4,-:2,A:1,A:1,G:2,F:2,G:2,F:4

And here is the start of Jingle Bells:

https://mapsmania.github.io/globalbuilding/piano.html#E:1,E:1,E:2,-:1,E:1,E:1,E:2,-:1,E:1,G:1,C:2,D:1,E:4

Update2: You can now also include chords in your map tunes by grouping multiple notes together with a + symbol. Instead of a single note like C, you can write a chord such as C+E+G, and it will play those notes simultaneously. Chords can also have durations just like single notes by adding :1, :2, :3, etc. For example, C+E+G:4 will play a C major chord for four beats. You can mix chords, single notes, and pauses (-) in the same URL to build more expressive and layered melodies.