Make

A guitar is a plucked stringed musical instrument. Normally, the guitar is an expensive instrument, but here we create a cheap and convenient DIY instrument that can help you enjoy and play real chords on an electric micro:bit guitar. Have fun and enjoy playing the micro:bit guitar by shifting the pitch up and down octaves.

How it Works?

When you touch pin 1 or pin 2 and GND it will play a broken chord, but now you can move the chord down an octave (lowering its pitch) by pressing button A and move it up an octave (raising its pitch) by pressing button B.

The pitch (frequency) of a note doubles when you move up one octave: middle A has a frequency of 440Hz (440 vibrations per second), high A has a frequency of 880Hz. This is why making the vibrating part of guitar strings different lengths with your fingers changes the pitch of the note being played.

Materials you need

• micro:bit and optional battery pack
• 4 crocodile clip leads
• cardboard, scissors, glue, tin foil
• headphones, buzzer, or powered speaker

How to build and play your electric guitar

Watch this video to see how to make your electric guitar and play it:

You can connect the electric guitar to some headphones with some crocodile clips you attach to the phone jack.

Here are two pictures of the finished electric guitar with its connections:

Let’s go on to code the guitar!

Code