Source: https://mokxi.com/teachers/plans/build-guitar-controller
Updated: 2026-11-11

Lesson plan

# Build a guitar controller lesson plan

A rhythm game guitar on a Pro Micro in three short lessons: frets and a strum bar that never double-strums, a whammy and star power, and your own config.

2 chapters, 3 lessons, about 1 hours, on the SparkFun Pro Micro. Every lesson runs in the browser, with nothing to install.

Start a class from this course

The unit

## Objectives and materials

### By the end, students can

- Frets, a strum bar, a whammy and a tilt switch, each read cleanly.
- The config block, left-handed play, and the step to a real board.

### Materials for the whole unit

- Arcade button x 5
- Full-size breadboard
- Limit switch, lever microswitch x 2
- Potentiometer
- Pushbutton
- SparkFun Pro Micro
- Tilt switch

Every part is already on the simulator’s bench, so there is nothing to buy or hand out. The counts are the most any one lesson uses, if you build it on real breadboards too.

Chapter 1. About 40 min

## The inputs

Frets, a strum bar, a whammy and a tilt switch, each read cleanly.

Lesson | Time | What students do

Frets and the strum bar Five fret buttons and two strum switches on a Pro Micro, each on its own pin with the pull-up on, and a lockout that turns a bouncing strum into one note. | 20 min

- Run it
- Hold a chord, then strum
- One strum, one note
- The strum bar as a hat switch

The whammy and star power A whammy pot calibrated with a rest point and a deadzone, and a ball tilt switch that turns the neck going up into a button. | 20 min

- Push the whammy
- Rest and deadzone
- Tip the neck up
- Button 6

### Materials

- Arcade button x 5
- Full-size breadboard
- Limit switch, lever microswitch x 2
- Potentiometer
- Pushbutton
- SparkFun Pro Micro
- Tilt switch

### Check for understanding

Each student finishes "The whammy and star power" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go.

Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Button 6".

Chapter 2. About 20 min

## Your guitar

The config block, left-handed play, and the step to a real board.

Lesson | Time | What students do

Make it your guitar The config block at the top of the sketch: pins, left-handed play, lockouts and calibration, then what changes when you flash a real Pro Micro. | 20 min

- The config block
- Left-handed
- Strum with every fret
- On a real Pro Micro

### Materials

- Arcade button x 5
- Full-size breadboard
- Limit switch, lever microswitch x 2
- Potentiometer
- Pushbutton
- SparkFun Pro Micro
- Tilt switch

### Check for understanding

Each student finishes "Make it your guitar" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go.

Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "On a real Pro Micro".

Your class

## Teach this unit as a class

Start a class from this course and its 3 lessons are assigned in one go, in order. Students join with a six-character code or printed login cards, and each one’s work comes back to you.

The class tools are free for 30 days for one class of up to 20 students, with no card. The lessons themselves are free either way.

Start a class from this course See the demo class

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