Our new tutorial explains how to develop a cool musical drop down menu (html5 + css3). This menu has css3 animation effects (neat hover effectfor  menu elements). And this is the awesome part: we also used the html5 Audio element in order to add music to this menu. If you are ready, let's start.

Final result

Here are the samples and downloadable package:

Live Demo

download in package

Step 1. HTML

As the first, we should prepare HTML layout of our menu. Each menu element (which actually is a unordered list item) has anchor, or nested level.

<ul id="nav">
    <li><a href="#">Menu element</a>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="#">Submenu element</a></li>
            .....
        </ul>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#">Menu 4</a></li>
    .....
</ul>

Step 2. CSS

Here are the CSS styles of our menu:

#nav,#nav ul {
    list-style: none outside none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}
#nav {
    font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode",Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;
    font-size: 13px;
    height: 36px;
    list-style: none outside none;
    margin: 40px auto;
    text-shadow: 0 -1px 3px #202020;
    width: 700px;

    /* border radius */
    -moz-border-radius: 4px;
    -webkit-border-radius: 4px;
    border-radius: 4px;

    /* box shadow */
    -moz-box-shadow: 0px 3px 3px #cecece;
    -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 3px 3px #cecece;
    box-shadow: 0 3px 4px #8b8b8b;

    /* gradient */
    background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left bottom, left top, color-stop(0, #787878), color-stop(0.5, #5E5E5E), color-stop(0.51, #707070), color-stop(1, #838383));
    background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(center bottom, #787878 0%, #5E5E5E 50%, #707070 51%, #838383 100%);
    background-color: #5f5f5f;
}
#nav li {
    border-bottom: 1px solid #575757;
    border-left: 1px solid #929292;
    border-right: 1px solid #5d5d5d;
    border-top: 1px solid #797979;
    display: block;
    float: left;
    height: 34px;
    position: relative;
    width: 105px;
}
#nav > li:first-child {
    border-left: 0 none;
    margin-left: 5px;
}
#nav ul {
    left: -9999px;
    position: absolute;
    top: -9999px;
    z-index: 2;
}
#nav ul li {
    background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #838383;
    box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
    width: 100%;
}
#nav li a {
    color: #FFFFFF;
    display: block;
    line-height: 34px;
    outline: medium none;
    text-align: center;
    text-decoration: none;

    /* gradient */
    background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left bottom, left top, color-stop(0, #787878), color-stop(0.5, #5E5E5E), color-stop(0.51, #707070), color-stop(1, #838383));
    background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(center bottom, #787878 0%, #5E5E5E 50%, #707070 51%, #838383 100%);
    background-color: #5f5f5f;
}

/* keyframes #animation */
@-webkit-keyframes animation {
    0% {
        -webkit-transform: scale(1);
    }
    30% {
        -webkit-transform: scale(1.2);
    }
    100% {
        -webkit-transform: scale(1.1);
    }
}
@-moz-keyframes animation {
    0% {
        -moz-transform: scale(1);
    }
    30% {
        -moz-transform: scale(1.2);
    }
    100% {
        -moz-transform: scale(1.1);
    }
}
#nav li > a:hover {
    /* CSS3 animation */
    -webkit-animation-name: animation;
    -webkit-animation-duration: 0.3s;
    -webkit-animation-timing-function: linear;
    -webkit-animation-iteration-count: 1;
    -webkit-animation-direction: normal;
    -webkit-animation-delay: 0;
    -webkit-animation-play-state: running;
    -webkit-animation-fill-mode: forwards;

    -moz-animation-name: animation;
    -moz-animation-duration: 0.3s;
    -moz-animation-timing-function: linear;
    -moz-animation-iteration-count: 1;
    -moz-animation-direction: normal;
    -moz-animation-delay: 0;
    -moz-animation-play-state: running;
    -moz-animation-fill-mode: forwards;
}
#nav li:hover ul {
    left: 0;
    top: 34px;
    width: 150px;
}

When we hover over a list item, we will animate (scale) it once to emulate a beat effect.

Step 3. HTML5 JavaScript

Now, it is time to add music here. In the beginning, we should prepare a new empty array (to keep our Audio objects), and then, when the page is ready, initialize the music:

// variables
var aLoops = []; // sound loops

// initialization
addEvent(window, 'load', function (event) {

    // load music files
    aLoops[0] = new Audio('media/background.ogg');
    aLoops[0].volume = 0.3;
    aLoops[1] = new Audio('media/button.ogg');
    aLoops[1].volume = 1.0;
    aLoops[2] = new Audio('media/button_click.ogg');
    aLoops[2].volume = 1.0;

    aLoops[0].addEventListener('ended', function() { // loop background sound
        this.currentTime = 0;
        this.play();
    }, false);
    aLoops[0].play();
});

And voila, we have finalized it.

Live Demo

download in package

Conclusion

Hope that you’ve enjoyed our new menu. Good luck!