SevenStrings

Daily Music Puzzle: String the Pegs to Play a Tune

Tune is a daily music puzzle on a board of pegs. Run a string from a start to an end so that each stretch between pegs plays the next note of the tune, like plucking a real string: the longer the stretch, the lower the note.

How to play Tune

1. Look at the tune above the board: a row of notes, each with its own colour, from C (red, the lowest) to B (violet, the highest).
2. Drag from a starting point. The string catches on any peg it swings against and wraps round it.
3. Each straight stretch between two pegs plays a note set by its length, and takes that note's colour. Longer stretches play lower notes.
4. Swing back to free the string from a peg, or tap a peg on the string to take it back to there. Strings can't cross each other.
5. Bring the string to an end. If it plays the tune, note for note, the board is solved.
6. Three boards, each bigger with a longer tune: three notes, then four, then five.

Tips

• Use the key below the board: each note's bar shows how long its stretch must be. Learn roughly how far apart pegs must be for a C compared with a B.
• Work out the last note too. The final stretch runs to an end, so check which pegs are the right distance from one before you commit.
• Swinging the string round a peg is cheap: try a stretch, watch its colour, and swing back if it's wrong.
• Low notes need long stretches, so if the tune starts low, start from the starting point that has room to run.
• There's usually more than one way to play the tune. Any stringing that plays it counts.

Questions