Originally a post on THEORY GAMES, but now including so much more!

Oct 25th, 2011

Posted by Christine

I think there's a little of everything in this post: the usual game rundown, a contest, some science, and a host of new method presets.

Since music theory is so closely related to music notation, many of our note reading and visual interval games can be thought of as theory games. We also have four games that are devoted only to music theory topics.

Key Signature Snap is a card game. Though perhaps not the most exciting game in our collection, it can be used alongside our more entertaining scale games (Planets and Rock Climber), and students can put their knowledge of key signatures into action by playing Stars and Baseball with key signatures of up to four sharps or flats. Students who grow weary of identifying key signatures in Key Signature Snap may prefer to bop them in Boxing Glove instead. Having said that, I don't think too many of them will actually reach the point at which Key Signature Snap is too easy - it's horribly difficult at its most advanced setting. This wasn't on purpose - the game just worked out that way. Just for fun, I'm going to hold a little contest to see whether any teacher can get a perfect score on the most difficult version of the game (all key signatures, all keys and modes, fastest setting). The teacher to achieve the highest score (or the first to achieve 100%) between now and next Tuesday will win a free one-page piece of piano music (composed by me). Email the site at hello@tonictutor.com if you'd like to participate (I'll give you special login information so that we can track the results). I'm curious to find out whether we'll have any contestants!

Moving on: our other theory card game is Interval Memory, which should be self-explanatory. We have plans for another, more amusing game to test knowledge of terms and signs (and possibly other topics too) – I’ll post more information about that game in the future. The other game that tests terms is April’s seasonal game, Race the Rabbit, and the other two games that test signs are Boxing Glove and the summer game, Balloons.

The remaining theory games, Boxing Glove and Rock Climber, are two of our most popular ones. Boxing Glove can be used for testing notes (in any of four clefs), key signatures, note values, signs, and intervals. I wouldn’t suggest using Boxing Glove to teach new concepts though – it’s meant to reinforce topics that are presented in more detail in other games. Rock Climber, which has overtaken Jungle Journey to become our most popular Freeplay game, currently tests only scales and pentascales, although I have vague plans to include a setting for chords as well. If this would be of interest, please let me know.

And now for a scientific perspective: Will (my husband and the co-creator of Tonic Tutor) recently drew my attention to an article about a study "in which children aged 4 to 6 learned about music – the basics of rhythm, pitch and melody – in a computer-based cognitive training program that involved games and cartoon characters." Computer-based music games - hey, does that sound familiar? The study actually wasn't to determine whether computer music games help students with music, but apparently after twenty days "the children performed significantly better on a verbal IQ test compared to scores before the training." It's no surprise to music teachers that studying music has extramusical benefits, but the fact that computer music games in particular are found to be useful is an encouraging thought. You can find the complete article here (at least for the next little while).

I haven't got to the method presets yet - will this post ever end? I borrowed many method books from a colleague who has an impressive collection, and came up with presets for the following:
Alfred Adult All-in-One
Bastien Piano Basics
Succeeding at the Piano
Music Tree

I'll keep working at this preset project as I come across more method books. In the meantime, I welcome your feedback and suggestions, and am happy to make changes.