Google is paying tribute Thursday to legendary inventor and guitar virtuoso Les Paul, who would have been 96 today. The company put up a “Google Doodle,” the name of the long-running series of images the company used to commemorate special events, with an abstract guitar you can actually play.
In the image below you’ll find the ten string guitar in the Google Doodle. Each string plays one note, and in this particular screenshot we used a mouse to play a six-note chord. Better yet, you can record your compositions, and Google will give you a URL you can use to play them back.
Google Doodle Tribute to Les Paul
But wait, there’s more: Users can also use their keyboard to play — if you click the record button, you can play up to six notes at once by using any of the first ten keys in the four main rows on your keyboard. Each row is tuned the same (there’s only the ten notes), but the ability to access each note in one of four rows makes it easier to play the notes you want.
Not surprisingly, it doesn’t work on the touch-screen versions of Safari on iPhone and iPad.
The video below is one of the better recordings we found on YouTube.