The assignment is to build a polyphonic waveshaping synthesizer. The main point of the exercise is to practice two new concepts: using Pd's abstraction mechanism to manage and sequence four-voice polyphonic synthesis; and making a waveshaping instrument. There are complicated examples of how to do polyphony in the textbook. This one is comparatively simple. it should just play four notes at a time, controlled by a single message that contains a list of the MIDI pitches of the four, like this:
48 52 55 60
To make the patch:
48 52 55 60; 45 52 57 60; 41 50 57 62; 43 50 55 59; 45 50 57 60; 47 50 55 62; 48 55 60 64; 45 57 60 64; 41 57 60 65; 43 55 60 64; 44 53 59 62; 45 52 57 60; 41 53 57 62; 43 52 55 60; 43 50 53 59; 36 52 55 60;Then sending the numbers from 0 to 15 (via message boxes, or via a "radio button" control object from the "put" menu) to a "text get" object will set off the sequence. Your patch need not automatically go through all the messages, that can be controlled by hand. Clicking message boxes or cells of the radio button should make audible chords.
Your successful patch should sound something like this.