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These musical games are a fun and effective tools for learning useful concepts and skills.

Orchestral 2048 Infinite? – Kickstarter

August 2nd, 2014

Wow! We are totally overwhelmed with the generous support our backers have shown in our Kickstarter. Thank you all so much! Special thanks to our two $80 backers who’s generous contributions have driven this Kickstarter well beyond where we thought it could go.

We have gotten above the $700 stretch goal, which means that Upbeat Bird and Rudiment Rock-It are coming to Android!

Orchestral 2048

We only have 30 or so hours left, but we may as well use them! The third and final stretch goal is to get 2048 Infinite to sound like a full orchestra. Violins, trumpets, bassoons, all of it. Each square will play a different set of instruments with logical orchestrations and top notch synths. If this gets $295 more before it closes tomorrow evening, we will build an orchestral 2048 Infinite.

And it will be free.

Double Stroke Roll – Lessons from Rudiment Rock-It

August 1st, 2014

In percussion technique, a double stroke is two rapid taps in a row from one hand. The double stroke roll is two rapid taps from each hand consecutively, back and forth. This can yield a much faster speed than the single stroke roll, but only when done cleanly and correctly. Two problems have to be overcome. The weaker hand needs to be able to perform a double stroke roll as quickly as the dominant hand. Then, the second tap from each hand needs to sound just as strong as the first tap. While there are some tricks to be learned with sticks, the most important part of the technique is the raw ability to tap like a machine! The second pattern in Rudiment Rock-It develops this skill in a unique and entertaining way.

Buddy Rich knew how it’s done! Skip to 1:00 in the video.

The game measures the amount of time taken between each tap. It then penalizes inconsistency by making the rocket off course. Going too far off course results in the rocket leaving the screen and the player loses. Also, the amount of displacement differs depending on whether the first or the second tap is being performed. Otherwise only the first tap from each hand would need to be consistent. The game forces the player to be steady all around.

As for the problem of the strength of each tap, the game keeps the player honest by touch screen limitations. If a tap isn’t strong enough it is generally because the stick or hand didn’t come far enough off of the drum to make a good sound. It’s the same when tapping a mobile device. If the player’s hand doesn’t get enough distance from the screen to detect a release, it will not respond the second time. The rocket will quickly begin to go off course. But the player has the opportunity to slow down and regroup before they lose entirely. This is extremely useful for getting overconfident students to slow down and practice correctly!

Single Stroke Roll – Lessons From Rudiment Rock-It

July 30th, 2014

The Single Stroke Roll is deceptive because it’s very easy to learn but takes years to master. Everyone has done it before at some point. A drum roll to prepare for an announcement. Tapping along to a sweet song. Nervously waiting for something. It’s just tapping back and forth. Easy. Until you’re forced to do it evenly and quickly. Us right handers hastily realize how stupid our left hands are, and left handers gloat over their obvious (but not complete) dominance o’re our lesser evolved species.

Evelyn Glennie knows how it’s done! Skip to 4:00 in the video.

A problem I’ve encountered as a teacher is that students genuinely perceive that they are even and steady. Even with a metronome! And yet the student is obviously executing a perfectly swung 32nd note and just doesn’t know the difference. Rudiment Rock-it will quickly drive this from a student of percussion (or music in general). Any unevenness in tapping each side of the mobile device will be met with losing the game very quickly.

Single Stroke Roll – Slowly and Correctly

The object of the game is to get the rocket to the top of the screen without allowing it to touch the sides of the screen. The game keeps track of the time between the right and left taps. If the time is unequal, the player is penalized by going off course. If the player notices that they are off course, they have the opportunity to slow down and regain control before going off of the screen. They can then make another attempt at playing the single stroke roll quickly and evenly enough to win at the selected difficulty (levels 1-99).

Initially, only the first 20 difficulty levels are available. If the player wins, higher difficulties and new patterns are unlocked. This gives the game a challenge that encourages the player to continue becoming proficient at the selected pattern. There has never been a better way to get a student to practice the single stroke roll!

Android – Upbeat Bird and Beyond – Kickstarter

July 26th, 2014

Who’s pumped for Upbeat Bird on Android!?

Our 2048 Infinite Kickstarter broke $500 today, so we are giving all “$10 or more” backers magnets in addition to stickers! But that was just stretch goal number one. We need $198 more dollars in the next 8 days to meet our next stretch goal, which is Upbeat Bird and all future games to be published on Android! If you want this to happen (and I know a lot of you guys do) this Kickstarter getting to $700 is the fastest way. This will also include Rudiment Rock-It and a tuning game I’m going to start working on next week.

New, Improved, and for Android

With this, we’ll also optimize Upbeat Bird to run more smoothly. While making Rudiment Rock-It, we learned a lot about optimization. We plan to take what we learned and reapply it in this game. Upbeat Bird will be less offbeat than ever!

But even if we don’t meet our second stretch goal, we are still very excited to get started on the iPhone version of 2048 Infinite – The Circle of Fifths.

Offbeat or Upbeat? – An Ambiguous Disambiguation

July 24th, 2014

When talking about the adjective versions of each word, it quite obvious what the difference is. When something is offbeat, its strange or unseemly. A search for the word yields synonyms such as “funny” and “weird.” Upbeat is peppy and cheerful! Ambiguity of either makes for some cheeky musical humor.

Musically the two words are actually related to their respective adjective forms. Offbeat is most often a criticism of accuracy. It’s a very broad musical term that literally means “off the beat”. You can refer to a specific one in some cases: the second sixteenth note in beat three would be considered an offbeat. But really, an offbeat can mean any part of the beat that’s not on the beat. This includes all of the wrong places to play a note. So when your music instructor says that you are offbeat, it’s probably not a good thing. Or even worse (or better for some of us), you’re just an odd creature who’s also inaccurate. But don’t take it too personally. Everyone’s offbeat in both ways at the same time at some point in their life. Just check out this trombonist’s sneeze. Offbeat and offbeat. It happens to the best of us. (Cheeky, yeah?)

Upbeat is more specific. An upbeat is always an offbeat, an offbeat is not necessarily an upbeat, an upbeat is never offbeat, and offbeats are rarely upbeat. Upbeat refers to a moment as far away from two downbeats as possible. Tap your foot. Clap. Tap again. Clap. Tap. You’re clapping upbeats (unless you’re offbeat). Sometimes upbeat can also refer to the imaginary offbeat an upbeat conductor gives to give his offbeat musical group to come in on the downbeat (or sometimes the next upbeat if the offbeat group is playing very upbeat music).

On that note, take a look at Upbeat Bird which is only as off the beat as you make it.

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