If you go to the Google home page today, you’ll see something that looks like this:
You can pluck the strings and play some awesome electric guitar, and even record what you play (the site gives you a URL for playback.) The NPR blog tells you how to use it, and shows a guy playing a passable version of “Hey Jude.” (Press the black rectangle at lower right to activate “record,” and then use your keys to play the strings.)
The explanation: today is Les Paul’s 96th birthday (though he died in 2009).
Oh– so *that’s* what the button-thingie is for… I wondered. Was very surprised yesterday to pull up my homepage and see that come up– and even more surprised when I accidentally ran the cursor over it. Ooh–music 🙂
Most embarrassed to admit to playing with that doodle all day.
Damn! I saw it and didn’t know you could play it, and now it’s gone.
Not gone yet, at least in Chicago!
It’s archived! They all are. Links here, including playing instructions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/09/google-doodle-archive-how_n_874468.html
Paying it forward via Cathy Newman.
Thanks, Ophelia! I was in the same boat as Shuggy.
You have to disable “Instant Search” or your keystrokes will activate search.
Thanks, Google, for the very cool reminder that I have no musical ability whatsoever.
You aren’t alone…. i can’t make anything like a pleasurable noise out of this thing…although there must be someone somewhere who can…
I leave the music to others, and focus on the chemistry!
http://goo.gl/doodle/Yzwb6
Cheers,
b&
clap, clap clap!
Cool, Ben!
Ah thankyou. Thankyouverymaaahch.
b&
Best toy ever.
Almost as time-consuming as when the logo was a game of Pac-man.
I’m embarrassed that I learned how to play real guitar. I practiced on a real instrument for hours at a time.I even got a degree in it. What a waste. Right?
Ruined your life too?
Nahhh… it got you laid, right?
I suspect it depends on the college. I studied guitar in college before dropping out. 90% of my classes were irrelevant to becoming a better musician. They just wasted my time and my folk’s money.
Music is a trade. There’s a fair amount of theory one needs, but that can mostly be learned by oneself. If anything, one can get by by studying with a good teacher for a few years until they can learn to teach themselves.
Maybe it would be better described as an apprentice-ship than an academic discipline. I mean, one can study the history of music, but I was a performance major and that stuff was just superfluous.
Now, if I could have had the opportunity to study at Berklee I’d take it in a second.
Hey, it coulda been worse. Your degree could have been in orchestral trumpet performance, for example….
b&
True. One does not need college to learn music.
But these kind of ‘virtual instruments’ like this and ‘rock-band’ games annoy me.
You can learn to strum 3 chord songs in a month of practice. Easily.
I figured out “The Last Steam Engine Train.” Just hit it really fast up and down.
I used some of my time at work yesterday on this thingie (not a lot … well not a very BIG lot of time) And I played Frere Jacques and almost Stairway to heaven – sans the highest note though 😉
The trouble is you need to unlearn what you know about actually playing guitar or piano. I wonder what they’re doing for Leo Fender’s b-day?