Legos have made their way in multiple aspects of life, and music being one of them ain’t a surprise. We have seen more and more musical instruments made of Legos. However, we never saw a Lego microtonal guitar, which is now in existence thanks to the father and son duo’s efforts behind the build.
Microtonal musical sounds could be more often heard in the Eastern and Anatolian genres of music. It began to be used in Western music, too, once the western composers started experimenting with it soon after the 1900s. It basically uses tones in intervals different from standard semitones of a scale or a tuning system.
Tolgahan Ço?ulu is a well-known musician and is famous for his adjustable microtonal guitar, which he invented to play microtones in a world where not many people can do so.
The guy brought his 10-year-old son in the game, too, by bringing his ‘Atlas’ fun guitar idea to life. The Duo has now stepped into the finals of the Georgia Tech University 2021 Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Design Competition and has proven to be strong contenders to win the championship. The little boy Atlas is a musician by heart, just like his dad. Once he mastered playing the piano for years, he learned guitar as his next musical instrument.
The Lego guitar’s idea came to Tolgahan Ço?ulu when once he entered his son’s room and found him playing with his Legos. Moreover, the guy told the TRT world that they started working on the microtonal Lego guitar by making a copy of the fretboard and placing it on top of the guitar.
They worked as a team amazingly, and step by step, got closer to their final build. For the first part, they 3D printed a Lego platform and started placing Lego pieces on it. While advancing, they determined the notes and microtones places, and the Lego pieces were an indication of the curtains placements.
Hackaday, while reporting on the fun musical instrument, said the duo 3D printed new pieces and placed them on the point where microtones coincide, enabling them to achieve microtonal sounds.
The strings were also connected once the platform was assembled into a real guitar case. Afterward, the world’s maiden LEGO microtonal guitar was at last set to be played.
The video below has Ço?ulu and Atlas explaining their amazing musical build in their own words. Check out the duo’s mesmerizing musical instruments playing talent.
Ço?ulu said that learning how to play guitar can be easier all credits to the removable LEGO frets.
Now, LEGO microtonal guitar is taking part in the same competition Ço?ulu took part six years ago and became the world champion.
Ço?ulu said to Hürriyet Daily News, “In 2014, I took part in that contest with an adjustable microtonal guitar. I played A??k Veysel’s ‘Kara Toprak’ and won the world championship. Six years later, Lego microtonal guitar is taking part in the contest thanks to Atlas. And we got excited as a team when we were announced as the finalists. Maybe the world will witness a young champion soon.