Mindas Musical Contraptions

Mindas Musical Contraptions
Survival 4
Project
Type	Noteblock contraptions/redstone, thematic builds
World(s)	Survival 4
Leader(s)	Minda905

Mindas Musical Contraptions refers to several noteblock songs/contraptions built by  Minda905 independently and in collaboration with other players on the Survival 4 world of the Dogcraft Server, presented in order of creation.

The main idea behind the project is to put music into the world with the main focus not being on the contraption itself, but for it to add to the theme and immersion of the surrounding builds and landscape.

The Christmas Wishing Well

The first noteblock contraption Minda built was a rendition of her own arrangement of the well-known Christmas tune “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. It was intended to be entered into the Christmas Decoration Competition in December 2020; however, she could not finish it in time and was therefore not able to enter her creation.

The wishing well, shaped like a candy-cane, resides in a snowy taiga forest. It sits in the garden of a tiny brown cottage alongside a Christmas tree and a sweet berry plantation. The snow golem Plonk II is there to act as the well’s guard.

To play the song, you simply throw something into the well, and make a wish.

The musical arrangement consists of two voices, characterised by the bell (gold block) and chime (packed ice) sounds, chosen to give the feel of listening to a music box.

The Christmas Wishing Well

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 111

Repeaters: 71

Length: 20s

Visit:

/phome The Christmas Wishing Well

Husky: 6650 70 -801

Pink Fluffy Unicorns

Around Valentine’s Day in February 2021 several players came together in a somewhat spontaneous way and started building what would soon become known as Pinksville. Just northeast of the area, Minda built a glass rainbow ending in a blackstone cauldron filled with gold. If you stand on the pressure plate on top of the cauldron, part of the tune “Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows” by Andrew Huang will play.

The cauldron and rainbow northeast of Pinksville on february 11th, 2021.

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 52

Repeaters: 32

Length: 6s

Visit:

Accessible via /phome Pinksville – look for the cauldron of gold by the end of the rainbow

Husky :-3796 69 3202

Intro to Barbie Girl

Soon after finishing Pink Fluffy Unicorns, Minda was approached by  Chriizsich and  ChargedBluey who asked if she could make the intro to Aqua’s Barbie Girl for the official /phome Pinksville - She gladly accepted the challenge. Arranging, test-building, material gathering, and construction was carried out over the span of five days.

View of Pinksville close to the /phome spot, visible in the left bottom corner, on february 25th 2021.

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 443

Repeaters: 427

Length: 17s

Visit:

/phome Pinksville

Husky: -3677 64 3346

Boccherini – Minuet

After contributing with a building in Gaia, Minda suggested to add some Italian classical music into the city, to fit its theme – namely an excerpt of the Minuet from the well-known String Quintet in E-major Op. 11 No. 5 by Luigi Boccherini, which she had previously constructed in a creative single-player world. Space was made in the theatre to house the contraption and above it is a concert hall with a grand piano, built by  DragonFire441.

Minda above the contraption that plays Boccherini's Minuet on March 28th, 2021.

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 646

Repeaters: 741

Length: 50s

Visit:

Accessible via /phome Gaia – find it at the theather

Husky: -1659 65 -557

Höstregn (Autumn rains)

Inspired by her previous creations around the server, Minda decided to make a dedicated music hall in her base (Ingrid Islands), featuring a great organ as a center piece. While looking for music to build in connection to the hall an old never performed composition of her own pen surfaced and was made into an interactive music contraption, accessible in a room just to the left of the hall.

Höstregn (Swedish for “Autumn Rains”) is a short loopable piece with four parts, each one represented by a different sound; contrabass (planks), guitar (wool), electric piano “pling” (glowstone), and flute (clay). The player can choose which parts they want to be played by activating any of the four levers in the entrance and can then press a button to start the music. While the music is playing it is possible to flick the levers again to change the sound of the following loop. To end the performance, the player can simply turn off all the levers.

To accompany the theme of the title is a room with colourful autumn trees along the walls, made in collaboration with  Chriizsich. The room also features a glass floor to show off the contraption below as it is playing.

Autum Leaves hall and with the noteblock contraption below, visible through the glass floor.

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 143

Repeaters: 163

Length: 12s (1 loop)

Visit:

Accessible via /phome Ingrid Islands – The music hall is located below ground via the tower stairwell

Husky: -808 31 3286

Notes:

This contraption, along with the Badinerie, was featured during the DC 1 Year Anniversary Stream on April 10th 2021.

J.S. Bach – Badinerie

The second creation for the music hall had to be fit for the organ, but space was limited – and so an excerpt of a brilliant piece by J.S. Bach was chosen to go along with the theme; Badinerie from the orchestral suite BWV 1067 in b minor, featuring the flute as a solo instrument, in this arrangement depicted by the bell sound (gold blocks).

The music can be activated by tuning the noteblocks in the organ, or by pressing the buttons on the back.

Mindas Music Hall with the grand organ.

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 370

Repeaters: 269

Length: 14s

Visit:

Accessible via /phome Ingrid Islands – The music hall is located below ground via the tower stairwell

Husky: -824 29 329

Notes:

This contraption, along with Höstregn, was featured during the DC 1 Year Anniversary Stream on April 10th 2021.

Theme from How to Train Your Dragon

In March 2021  Chriizsich approached Minda with an idea for a secret largescale project – A scene from the Dreamworks movie “How to train your dragon” (2010), intended as a birthday present for  Karbloem.

The music arrangement was finished over the course of a week, and was made possible by looking to previous midi-arrangements by P. Pietchmann and C. Prato. Planning and building were carried out sporadically during April and May up until Karbloem’s birthday, when it was presented and later opened to the public.

The noteblock contraption is situated inside an island on Beagle built by Chriizsich. It features custom spruce trees, vegetable patches, a hut, and a mysterious cave. To the east of the island, you can see Toothless, the dragon, floating in the sky – designed and built mainly by Chriiz with some aid from Minda.

The music can be activated by stepping on the stone pressure plate located on the top of the island, which is also set as the location of the phome.

Toothless soaring in over the island in the sunset on May 12th 2021.

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 791

Repeaters: 659

Length: 1m 13s

Visit:

/phome Berk

Beagle: 436 83 -4416

Notes:

The build was featured on the official Dogcraft Twitter on the 14th of May 2021.

Cantina Band from Star Wars

As a birthday present, Minda offered to fix up a previous arrangement of the Cantina Band tune from Star Wars which  N1cM4tth3w63's had installed as a doorbell at his base, Sandstone Sights, in late May/early June 2021. The prior arrangement only featured the melody but was developed with additions of percussion and accompaniment parts.

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 309

Repeaters: 201

Length: 14s

Visit:

Accessible via /phome N1c apartments

Husky: -1834 65 -2419

Chorale

In the end of June 2021, while in conversation with  TrainerMoon, Minda mentioned she felt like she wanted a new music project to work on, and so the idea of featuring music in the Alina Cathedral was born. A few pieces by Bach as well as some choral works by different composers were considered, but in the end a Swedish sacral piece based on a folk tune from the region of Dalarna was chosen, originally scored for choir and organ by A. Öhrwall.

Arranging and sketch-building was carried out over a weekend. The contraption was put in place underneath the organ in the middle of July 2021.

View of the organ in the Alina Cathedral.

The music can be played by tuning the noteblock underneath the organ bench.

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 529

Repeaters: 862

Length: 1m 3s

Visit:

Accessible in the cathedral to the east of /phome Alina

Beagle: 3071 68 -51

Notes:

The arrangement is dedicated to DC staff, as a thanks for appointing Minda [Helper] during June and July in 2021.

Spooky Halloween Music Quiz

Joining in as a builder with the Events Team for the upcoming holidays of 2021 Minda got to realize her biggest noteblock project yet built in survival – The Spooky Halloween Music Quiz, with seven unique music examples for players to find and guess in a labyrinthic net of rooms and corridors built underneath the “Phantom Manor”.

The project was carried out during September-October 2021 and was finalized in about one and a half month, with help from several people taking on larger or smaller tasks - from digging and terraforming to building, designing interiors, and decorating:  Nonium,  colliecolie,  TheWhiteTigerNL,  eybwam,  RY44,  Princess223 and  Dutchsoccer.

The Phantom Manor residing over the Spooky Halloween Music Quiz.

The Quiz

Welcome to the Spooky Halloween Music Quiz!

Grab a book&quill, and perhaps a friend, then head through the iron door into the rooms and corridors below to find the 7 music examples.

Find and press the buttons to listen, then write down the song title in your book; three alternatives will be given for each example.

Remember to sign the book with your name and hand it in by the hopper at the end of the bubblevator :)

...Something something prize...

The prize for participating was a special guitar banner, and an additional prize of a miniblock pumpkin with a carved note on it was given to those who got 4-7 correct answers.

View of the Music Quiz during building on Sept 12th 2021

During the week after the event opened almost 80 entries were submitted.

The examples were as follows:

1. Spooky Scary Skeletons

2. The Addams Family Theme

3. Chopin - Funeral March

4. The Piano Duet (from Corpse Bride)

5. This is Halloween (from The Nightmare Before Christmas)

6. Ghost Busters Theme

7. Michael Jackson - Thriller

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 1694

Repeaters: 1342

Length: totally 2min 20s

Visit:

/phome Halloween2021

Husky: 42714 54 19887

Notes:

 Renthedog himself played the music quiz during a festive Halloween community Stream on October 30^th, 2021. After finishing the quiz (with 6/7 correct answers) and singing along, he praised it highly, saying-

"Ten out of ten would recommend and do again. That was just, amazing, amazing work. Wow! I’ve never seen anything like this in Minecraft, that was just, fantastic, amazing work.

Headmod  Scooberson built one of his signature Hidey Holes in connection to the game, which was also shown on stream.

Halloween Gallery

• 

  Entrance of the Spooky Halloween Music Quiz

• 

  The dining room where the skeletons happily dance on the table

• 

  The gloomy livingroom, viewed from the entrance

• 

  The gloomy livingroom, viewed from the exit

• 

  The cathedral room, viewed from the entrance

• 

  The cathedral altar, front view

• 

  The cathedral altar

• 

  The monster piano bar, viewed from the entrance

• 

  The monster piano bar, viewed from the exit

• 

  The monster piano bar

• 

  The pumpkin field, viewed from the entrance

• 

  The pumpkin field

• 

  The slimy hotel corridor

• 

  The cinema street, viewed from the entrance

• 

  The cinema street

Christmas 2021

The Christmas Toy Parade

For the Christmas Event of 2021, an arrangement of Shubert's Military March Op. 51 No. 1 (chosen based on it's use in Disney's Silly Symphonies - Santa's Workshop from 1932) was put in place underneath the toy parade marching out on the street from the scavenger hunt area, put together by Minda with  PerskyPuff and  R0bstar. The latter also made addition of three armour stands jumping up into the air along with the cheerful ascending scales in the music, bringing more animation and life to the area.

The Christmas Toy Parade marching out on the street from the scavenger hunt area at Xmas 2021.

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 1449

Repeaters: 918

Length: 1m 4s

Visit:

Accessible at the notice board in the christmas area at /phome Xmas2021

Husky: -47022 65 4987

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Upon request from  Nonium, the arrangement of We Wish You a Merry Christmas (previously built at The Christmas Wishing Well the year before) was added into Santas Mansion at the Xmas 2021 area. Minda having learnt how to make more complex and compact music contraptions over the course of a year, was able to make this rendition take up significantly less space, but still play exactly the same.

Visit:

Accessible in Santas Mansion at /phome Xmas2021

Husky: -46856 73 4983

Sankta Lucia

For the Christmas Build Battle 2021, on the theme of "Christmas Around the World", Minda decided to depict the Swedish tradition of celebrating Lucia (occurring on December 13th each year), which fittingly is a very musical tradition.

Built to represent this was a statue of a female figure Lucia in the traditional white dress, a red ribbon around the waist and a candle crown on top of the head.

Neatly fitted in underneath the 20x20 plot is the music contraption that plays the most famous a-capella choir arrangement associated with the celebrations, "Sankta Lucia". It can be activated either by reading the book in the lectern at the plot, or stepping on the pressureplate hidden inside underneath the hem of the skirt.

The Statue of Sankta Lucia

Buildfacts:

Noteblocks: 341

Repeaters: 560

Length: 39s

Visit:

Plot 17 at the build battle by /phome Xmas2021

Husky: [coords coming]

Gallery

• 

  Redstone and noteblocks underneath the Christmas Wishing Well.

• 

  The redstone and noteblocks that make up the Intro to Aqua's Barbie Girl.

• 

  The Boccherini Minuet noteblock contraption.

• 

  Toothless flying in over the island of Berk on Beagle on May 12th 2021, built in collaboration with  Chriizsich.

• 

  Minda looking over at the finished noteblock contraption of "How To Train Your Dragon", residing inside the island of Berk.

• 

  Theme from "How to train your dragon" in noteblock form.

• 

  The Concert Hall in Gaia Theather on July 26th 2021.

• 

  The concert hall's grand piano built by  DragonFire441.

• 

  View of Gaia Theather on July 27th 2021.

• 

  The noteblock contraption that resides underneath the organ in Alina Cathedral.

• 

  The noteblock contraption of Shubert's Military March.

Listen

Some of the contraptions have been uploaded by Minda to her YouTube channel, and you can listen to them there if not able to visit them in person on the server.

Intro to Barbie Girl

Boccherini's Minuet

Theme from How to Train your Dragon