Musicians could soon have a new instrument to play – their phone. Motorola is patenting a cellphone (guitar phone) that displays the layout of a guitar neck on its screen, and allows its keypad to be "plucked" or "strummed" by a user. The resulting guitar sounds can be played through the phone's speaker or can be inflicted on a friend at the other end of the line. The phone has the usual four rows of keys, but switching to music mode turns the keys into a set of virtual strings that respond to pressing. Turning a control knob shifts the scale of the selected chord up or down – like a guitar capo – or switches between different types of chord, like major and minor.
The guitar phone can be played live, to adoring fans, or a melody can be composed in private and stored in memory for use as a ring tone or meeting reminder. Motorola says the phone could even be converted into a banjo or violin at the flick of a switch, with strings automatically retuning.
