beep-melodies

A collection of beep melodies for Linux, played through the pcspkr console speaker, with a preparation step for the module blacklist and a table of piano key frequencies.

The repository is a stack of beep melodies for Linux, meant to play through the console speaker rather than a sound card. The README treats the songs themselves as secondary to the setup, so the collection assumes you already know why you want a computer to beep out a tune. The project page simply calls it a collection of beep melodies and beep songs.

Before any melody plays, the pcspkr module has to load at boot. That means commenting out a line in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, where the module currently sits blocked. The blacklist file governs which kernel modules start normally, and once the speaker entry is taken out, the beep commands have a device to drive. It is a one time change, so after it is done the melodies can play on any boot.

The bulk of the documented content is a frequency table. It maps piano key numbers to note names and hertz values, starting at key 88 as C8, the highest note, at 4186.01 Hz, and working down past A4 concert pitch at 440 Hz to middle C at 261.626 Hz. Keys that sit between two notes carry compound names like A7/B7, since the table covers both the natural and the adjacent tone at each step. Both the high and the low ends of the piano get covered, so the table works for whatever register a melody lands in. Anyone composing or scripting a melody uses it to pick the right pitch for each note, which makes the table the practical reference for the whole collection.

• Source 1 · Project repository
• Source 2 · README