Musical Beat Notation Clock

There are so many ways to represent numbers for a clock. The usual variations are mixed amongst “Regular” Numbers, a fancier Roman Numerals, or even binary numbers. But this clock is something different entirely. Musical note beat notation is used to represent each number.

My wife teaches piano, and several years ago I made her a clock like this for in the studio. Now when students look up to check the time, they unconsciously reinforce the musical theory that they are learning. 

In December, our niece Rachel stayed over at our place for a night. Our usual tradition for these is to put together an Instructable. (Follow these links to see her award winning Game, or the Nice-n-Quik Chocolate syrup.) After reading the list of available contests and seeing what was still upcoming, we decided to make this clock and put together an Instructable and share the files so you can too. It is a fast and simple project, easily accomplishable with minimal amount of tools. Rachel made this one as a gift for her mom, and you can also make one of these for somebody special. Particularly handy if you need a present for or a music teacher in your life!

This is a fast project, taking little more than an hour. Materials are very easy to get, and you probably already have all of the basic tools at home. It is designed to be easy to replicate.

Supplies:

·       Analog Clock with a 6.5 inch face (We bought ours from Walmart Canada. This is the exact model, and is 8.75” total diameter. If you buy this one online, you can then print this file and directly copy this project. If yours is a little bit bigger or a little bit smaller though, you might have to either scale the print out up, or else cut it a little bit larger or smaller.) 

·       Full sheet shipping labels. (These are 8 1/2 by 11 inch and have an adhesive back that can be peeled off. We used this exact product from Staples.)

Tools:

·       Black and white printer

·       Scissors

·       Fork

·       Phillips screwdriver

·       X-acto knife or razor knife and cutting board

 (Note: we do not have any affiliate links or commissions that we make from these materials; these are just links to the exact materials that we used for ours so you can order and copy.)

We headed over to our local Walmart and Rachel picked out the clock. Luckily for us, there was also a McDonald's on the way so we also got a treat. Bonus!

The clock is packaged by being screwed directly to a cardboard holder. We removed those screws, then located the back screws that held on the front bezel. The bezel is a ring that clamps the glass onto the front of the clock. Rachel carefully removed all of the screws with a Phillips head screwdriver.

We carefully flipped the clock over, and then Rachel removed the bezel by lifting it straight up. The glass underneath was tilted off the clockface as well. (Be very careful handling this glass, as the edges are sharp and unsanded since the manufacturer never meant for it to be disassembled.)

Before we could replace the clockface, the hands all needed to come off of the clock. These are friction fit onto a set of diminishing size shafts. They are made from very thin metal, and so you do need to be very careful when removing them. The easiest method is to use a table fork as a lever and start with the inner hand and work your way down. Once they are all removed carefully set them to the side with the rest of your parts.

Rachel made very careful measurement of the inner clock face. This was the section we wanted to cover with our new design. As long as your ruler or measuring tape passes directly over the centre pins, you will get a true diameter. Ours was 6.5 inches.

Rachel and I figured out a design for our clock. We then scaled it to match the 6.5” size she had measured. Instead of using numbers, we used musical notations. For those of you who are unfamiliar with music, this is what they each mean and how the numbers are counted.

•        In the one o'clock position, we have a solid note with a vertical stem. This is called a “Quarter” note, and represents one beat. That's why it is at the 1:00 o'clock position.
•        In the two o'clock position, we have a hollow note with a vertical stem. This is called a “Half” note, and represents 2 beats. That is why it is at the 2:00 o'clock position.
•        In the three o'clock position, we have Quarter note and a Half note together. This adds up to become a total of three beats, which is why it is in the 3:00 o'clock position.
•        In the four o'clock position, we have a hollow note with no stem. This is called a “Whole” note and represents 4 beats, which is why it is in the 4:00 o'clock position.
•        From five o'clock through seven o'clock, we just combine Halves, Quarters, and Whole notes to create the correct number of beats to represent each of those numbers. 
•        The 8:00 o'clock position is a special type of note called a “Breve”. It looks like a Whole note with a set of parallel lines on either side of it. It represents 8 beats, which is why it is in the 8:00 o'clock position.
•        From 9:00 o'clock through 12:00 o'clock, we just combine all four of the note types already used (Breves, Wholes, Halves, and Quarters) to create a representation for each of those numbers using beats. For example, 11:00 o'clock is made-up of a Breve (8 beats), Half (2 beats), and Quarter (1 beat).

Once we had the design finalized, we went online and looked up quotes about music. We found one that fits the timing theme. “The music is not in the notes, but in the silence in between.” Who knows who originally wrote it, but it is most likely attributed to Claude Debussy. It is also sometimes attributed to Mozart. Regardless of who wrote it, we added this onto the clockface to take up some of the white space.

Once we had it designed, we printed it onto the shipping label paper.

Before the adhesive backing was peeled, the entire thing had to get trimmed from the sheet it was printed on. Rachel took care of that with a set of scissors. Along the way she taught me that there is a proper term for trimming something down roughly and then finishing to the actual cut edge from that. This is called “bubble cutting”, and it was something that I did not know before. Once the outside was trimmed, I did the inside with a sharp new razor blade.

Once you begin to lay your new clockface in, you will no longer be able to see where the 12:00 o'clock mark was. Because the manufacturer has this orientated with the hanging nails, you want to have this marked somewhere along the edge so you can match it. Rachel trimmed out a small triangle from the scrap shipping label and we fastened it onto the outside bezel ring so we would have something to align with in the next step.

This step is a little bit tricky, so I helped with it. Rachel peeled the adhesive, and then very carefully I centred this and laid it into the clock body. We smoothed it out by working from the centre towards the outside. Once it was completely flat and down with no bubbles, we went around the exterior edge with the fork handle just to press down into the corner where our fingers would not fit.

Look Out! Be very careful with this next step. It's not hard, but must be done correct or else your clock will never keep proper time.

Start to press fit each of the clock hands back into the shafts that they came from. As you are doing so, it is imperative that you keep every single one of them perfectly aligned with the 12:00 o'clock mark on the clock. Don’t worry about the position they were in before as that won’t matter. If you align them in random positions the time keeping of your clock will be all messed up.

There is a very good chance that during the original glass removal, or moving stuff around in your work area, you might have touched the glass and left fingerprints. Before you put the glass back in you want to get rid of them so that they are not sealed inside. Holding the glass carefully by the edges, clean the glass and then put it carefully back into the housing. Then align the bezel back to the face.

With the bezel plate lined up, Rachel refastened all of the screws. Do this like you would for changing a flat tire, always tightening in crisscross sets so that you don't end up with any unevenness. Once that is finished, give the front glass a good cleaning once again.

That's it! We took a few more pictures of the finished clock, then Rachel put it back in the original box and took it home for a Christmas present for her mom. Now it hangs on the wall in her mom's office where she can see it every day.