Top Ten Google Doodles for Music Education

One of my favorite things that Google does - and has done for over 25 years - is celebrate various holidays, inventors, composers, cultures, sports legends and historical figures through changing their well-known logo on their search page to something noticeably different - adding artwork that hints at what they are highlighting or celebrating. They have posted a very interesting history of Google Doodles - including the very first one that celebrated the Burning Man Festival back in 1998. They have created over 5,000 since then and every once in a while they create something truly special for music and music educators. What follows is my personal list of the top ten Google Doodles for music education. There have been WAY more than 10 - but this I chose the ones on this list based on their usability as a teaching tool, their interactivity, and the sheer fun factor. Here they are in no particular order. If you have some that haven’t made this list, please feel free to add them to the comments section. Enjoy!

Les Paul’s 96th Birthday: Google offers an interactive tribute that brings Les Paul’s inventiveness to life. The Doodle recreates his spirit of experimentation: users can strum guitar strings, trigger notes with keys, and even record 30-second tracks. Paul’s innovations—like multitracking and tape delay—are embedded in the experience. It’s more than an homage to one of the music industry’s most important inventors; it’s a classroom tool, inviting students to think like an inventor and composer as they play, share, and explore sound.

Celebrating Johann Sebastian Bach: Google presented its first AI-powered Doodle with this one, inviting users to compose a two-measure melody, then hear it harmonized in Bach’s signature four-voice style (with a playful Bach-80’s rock mash-up Easter egg). Built using the Coconet model trained on 306 Bach chorales, and powered in-browser via TensorFlow.js, it showcases both Baroque harmony and cutting-edge machine learning. A really fun way for your music classes to explore counterpoint, harmony, creativity, and tech in composition.

Celebrating the Ukulele: This Doodle honors the ukulele’s Hawaiian roots and its role in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander heritage. The Doodle traces the ukulele’s origin to small Portuguese instruments, highlights its evolution in Hawaii, and spotlights its role in cultural celebrations, music, and community. It notes traditional materials like koa wood, regional instruments like the ukarere, and characteristic strumming styles. More than an instrument, it’s presented as a symbol of aloha, creativity, and gathering. As SO many school music programs now include this easy to playinstrument, I’m sure your students will love this one.

A personal favorite, Robert Moog’s 78th Birthday, is one that honored Bob Moog by turning the logo into an interactive synthesizer. Users can play on virtual keys, tweak knobs and sliders (like filters, oscillators, envelope), record up to four tracks, then play back and share their music. It celebrates Moog’s invention of the analog synthesizer—his work that shaped many 1960s sounds—and showcases the fusion of technology, creativity, and sound design. This is one that your students will love playing around with regardless of age and understanding.

In Clara Rockmore’s 105th Birthday, Google honors the virtuoso theremin player who literally made music from thin air. Originally a violin prodigy, she turned to the theremin when injury made bowing difficult. Rockmore helped Leon Theremin refine the instrument—extending its range, increasing responsiveness—and performed with major orchestras. The interactive Doodle lets users “play” a virtual theremin, shaping pitch and volume with hand-motions, and includes lessons from Rockmore using Saint-Saëns’ “The Swan”. Lots of fun and VERY cool.

Celebrating Mbira highlights Zimbabwe’s national instrument and the Shona people’s thousand-year musical tradition. The interactive Doodle allows users to explore mbira sounds, pluck digital keys, and follow a child’s journey of discovery. It also provides some background and history of the instrument. Music teachers can use the Doodle to introduce students to world instruments, spark rhythm and improvisation activities, and connect global traditions to classroom creativity.

Celebrating Ludwig van Beethoven’s 245th Year is an interactive Doodle that invites users to help Beethoven reach the symphony hall by reassembling scrambled pieces of his music—works like Moonlight Sonata and Ode to Joy. It mixes biographical info (his struggles, his hearing loss) with artistic imagery to help students understand his life and music. Teachers can use it to illustrate form, theme recognition, listening skills, and history: students can explore how Beethoven’s life influenced his compositions, then try arranging musical fragments themselves.

Celebrating Salsa Music is the most recent one (last week). It’s a video-style Doodle marking Hispanic Heritage Month. It honors Salsa—a genre rooted in Afro-Cuban, son, mambo and Latin rhythms—by remixing five iconic songs (Pete Rodríguez, Héctor Lavoe, Celia Cruz among others), and spotlighting clave, conga, güiro, piano and brass instruments. Vibrant animation pairs with dance, community, and joy. Teachers can use it to illuminate genre fusion, rhythm patterns (clave especially), cultural identity, and to inspire students to compare Salsa’s evolution with their own local musical styles.

Another personal favorite of mine, Oskar Fischinger’s 117th Birthday is an interactive Doodle that honors the abstract animator and filmmaker famous for visual music. Users can compose their own visual-audio piece: plotting notes, choosing from different instruments, visual shapes/colors that move in sync with sound, and applying effects like delay or phaser. It’s basically a pattern sequencer similar to other left to right visual music making tools. Teachers can use this to explore sound-visual relationships, composition, timbre/texture, and encourage students to visualize music in creative ways.

Another really recent one, Celebrating House Music honors Chicago’s community origins of house music as part of Black History Month. The video Doodle traces the genre’s rise in the late ’70s/early ’80s from clubs like The Warehouse, names pioneers like Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, Jesse Saunders, and highlights defining features: looping, sampling, electronic drum programming. Its global influence is shown. Teachers can use it to explore musical form & structure, the role of DJs & producers, rhythm & beat-making, and connect students to social & cultural contexts of genre evolution.

Lastly, here are ten honorable mentions that could have easily made this list, but the top ten drew the line at a smaller sampling.

Celebrating the Accordian

Celebrating Steelpan

Hugh Masekela