How to Play Ohio like a piano - Time Waster

Here's an interesting fact: The state of Ohio has 88 counties. You know what else has 88 components? A piano keyboard. Andy Woodruff was thinking about those two facts this summer and he decided to take the obvious next step and create a map of Ohio in Flash that assigns a musical note to each key.

The result is Ohio is a Piano. Click on any county and you'll hear a musical note.

Of course, a piano keyboard is laid out in a logical fashion making it easy to create music by placing your fingers over the proper keys. Ohio's districts weren't exactly drawn with music in mind, and it's a bit tricky to pluck out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. But the map has a few built in songs that you can trigger like a player Ohio piano. Just hit the play button and each county will flash as its note is played.

You can also rearrange the notes based on various geographic and demographic data including county name, population, age, sex, and so forth. One of the neatest features lets you plot a course from one area of the map to another and listen to the tune that plays as you pass through each county.

Musically, Ohio is a Piano isn't that interesting. But conceptually it's pretty cool and for some reason I can't make myself stop rearranging the notes.

[via Neatorama]

Tags: maps, music, ohio, ohio-is-a-piano