Learn to play the Les Paul Google Doodle

After getting much positive feedback on its playable guitar to honor guitar hero Lester William Polsfuss (Les Paul), Google left its doodle in its United States site for an extra day.

In a message on its Twitter account, Google cited "popular demand" in its decision to extend its latest Google Doodle for a day. "Due to popular demand, we're leaving the Les Paul doodle up in the U.S. for an extra day. Thanks for jamming with us!" it said. In the doodle that came out Thursday, hovering the mouse or pointing device over the strings would produce a specific note. Paul is credited for popularizing innovations such as delay effects, phasing effects and multi-track recording. While the doodle is accessible only in the US website, users outside the US can get to the digital guitar by by clicking on the "Go to Google.com" link. Inner workings An article on IBN Live said the doodle was made with a combination of JavaScript, HTML5 Canvas, CSS, Flash and tools like the Google Font API, goo.gl and App Engine. The IBN Live article added that of the last 10 Google Doodles, five included animations or were interactive. The Google Doodle first went interactive in May 2010 to celebrate the 30th birthday of the popular Pac-Man game. Meanwhile, musicians continued to post online their work using the Google Doodle digital guitar. PC Magazine said its creative director Chris Phillips, a musician, managed to put together the opening to "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles. "After toying around with the Doodle for a while, Chris figured out which keys corresponded to which notes. The Doodle works on all four rows of the keyboard starting at 1, Q, A, and Z. On the A row through the semicolon, you can play an octave plus two notes. With that knowledge, Chris set out to play something memorable. A Beatles song was a logical choice," it said. The key sequence was posted on PC Mag's site. PC World said Phillips agreed that this is probably Google's most distracting Doodle to date. It added Phillips agreed that Google should commemorate John Bonham with a fully interactive drum kit. "Time will tell if Google will do that," it said. Playable on keyboard too The digital guitar can be played using the mouse to hover over the strings; or the keyboard, with the Huffington Post offering a brief tutorial. Each note has a corresponding numerical key, starting at the low G string: 1 = G 2 = A 3 = B 4 = C 5 = D 6 = E 7 = F# 8 = G 9 = A 10 = B "Google guitar's keyboard function also works using corresponding letter keys down the rows of the keyboard, meaning that low G can be played using the 1, Q, A and Z keys, the low A can be played using the 2, W, S and X keys, and so on," it said. It also invited the guitar doodle users to send URLs of their compositions, saying it will post the best songs online. — TJD, GMA News