How The Ichiban Ongaku Works
		The principle behind the Ichiban Ongaku is simple- it is used in many electronic devices such as phones and speakers.  Electronic pianios operate on the same princilple as well.  Basically, a speaker generates sound by rapidly vibrating a diaphram back and forth to compress air and produce a sound.  Varying the space between these vibrations will change the frequency of the compressions, thus changing the frequencey of the sound.  Electronically, the Ichiban Ongaku accomplishes this by utilizing a 555 TImer IC to produce an oscilation.  On the 555 TImer, changing the resistance on a particular node will modify the overall frequencey.  With this knowledge it is easy to see what the Ichiban Ongaku is doing.  The only difficulty comes in selecting the correct resistance to apply.  In this case the resistance happens to vary by aproxamately 100 ohms between sharps and whole notes.  Most resistors are not 100% accurate in resistance values, thus the pitch of  the Ichiban Ongaku is not perfectly matched pitch wise. This aside, the pitches are still fairly close to a professionally built xylophone or other insturment.                                                             BACK