A few weeks ago I posted about learning the musical alphabet, and how we can use some games to get young kids ready for piano lessons.  Now that the little ones have a really good grasp of the order of the 7 ABC cards we need to read music, we are going to add a new game into the mix.

One concept that is really important in reading music is recognizing patterns, and the very first pattern we learn is that the musical alphabet repeats.  A lot.  Over and over, all the way up the keyboard.  Seeing this progression helps students to make sense of all those black and white keys and learn the assignments of the various letters to those keys.

Our next game is going to help your youngster learn how the musical alphabet repeats.  For this game, you will need at least 2 sets of our musical alphabet cards (but you can use as many as you want).  Have your child put the cards in order just like they have been doing, but this time, once they place the G, explain to them that the musical alphabet is really just a never ending, repeating pattern.  Then we show them that after the G, we put the A again, and continue the pattern from there.  Don’t get into the details with them, showing them will do most of the explaining for you.  Then, ask your child to put them ALL in order again, repeating the pattern ABCDEFG ABCDEFG over and over until all the cards are used up.  You can even begin to race them (I turn my cards upside down so it naturally slows me down and I don’t have to LOOK like I’m letting them get a head start).

Once your child has a firm grasp of this game, try starting the same game on a different letter (like D).  They can continue to build the musical alphabet from any letter, but the pattern never really changes.

Have some fun with these cards and repeating the pattern (I’ve been known to have a string all the way around my living room, over furniture, and even into the backyard!).  We’ll change the game up big time in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

Although philosophies vary from piano teacher to piano teacher, we all agree that at some point, your child will need to be able to recognize their ABC’s (up to letter G) and be able to put them in order starting on any letter.  This is a basic skill for school as well, and something that we, as parents, spend a lot of time focusing on during play time with our youngsters.  Think about it – how many toys are in your house RIGHT NOW that have at least A-B-C on them?  If your house is like mine, quite a few.

All young music students need to learn the musical alphabet, which consists of only 7 letters A-G.  Many small children can already identify A-B-C so if you think about it, you’re already almost half way there!  So how can you help your child learn to identify and order the letters of the musical alphabet?  By playing games!

What You Need:

A set of alphabet blocks with letters A,B,C,D,E,F,G

or

You can download and print a set of cards below:

Dinosaur Musical Alphabet Cards

Hippo Ballet Musical Alphabet Cards

New Review up by Skyler Edgar on GamingBits check it out.  I’ll post some of the review here, the score and review is on the site.

Review Summary:
Dj Hero offers a variety of music from Hip-Hop to Rock, which will suit any gamer old and new into music & rhythm games. The turntable controller feels very durable, however the crossfader on the controller will need some adjustment. It doesn’t seem to want to lock into the center very well, causing problems like missing notes, breaking your multiplier, etc. With online multiplayer, downloadable content, and some very challenging tracks, you should definitely give Dj Hero a spin, as it will provide hours upon hours of gameplay and excitement in your living room!

Read the review here: http://www.gamingbits.com/content/view/6862

Vib Ribbon is a PlayStation game (that needs a re-release in my opinion!) from madman Masaya Matsuura who created the Parappa franchise. Demented and genius in equal parts – you play your CD collection to make Vibri blossom into a winged dancer!

The Premise

You are Vibri – a kind of cute 2-D drawn rabbit. You must navigate an obstacle course of loops, pits and jumps that your CD track as generated and make it to the other side. Get it right, Vibri survives. If not, he de-evolves into a limp worm! I kid you not…

The Gameplay

As with most rhythm action games, the gameplay is simple yet tricky. You use four buttons, one assigned to each type of obstacle. The obstacles fly at you down a single wave line and you need to press the buttons at the right time to get over them. The speeds and angles can change and then obstacles combine themselves so you must press two buttons together. The only downside is sometimes it doesn’t always recognise you’ve pressed them together and you lose points and energy. If you get about 20 passes in a row you grow wings. If you get several wrong, you’ll end up with a line that shakes like crazy and eventually de-evolve back to a privative form. You can choose just one track from a CD or if you’re game, you can do the whole album.

The Graphics

These are plain, black and white with 2D single lined drawings. It is a line – no more and no less.

The Sound

The game comes with a couple of tracks from Laugh & Peace but after that its all down to your own CD collection.

The Replay Factor

Again limited to you CD collection and your patience (you will need it) this rhythm action game is fun but is best in short sharp bursts, like taking it in turns for a high score in a group.

The Positives

~Random gameplay

~No two tracks will give you the same game

~Vibri is just so cute for a scribbled character

The Negative

~Long gaming sessions can frustrate, especially if you play an album and it all goes wrong on track 12 of 12…

The Verdict

Vib Ribbon is a fantastic game. Original, stylised and full of raw gameplay that’s ready to burst. It may not appeal to the gun totting crowd with their FPS’ but quite frankly I’d rather be bashing buttons with Vibri screaming at me when I’ve made him fall into a pit by accident anyday.

Who doesn’t love the chipmunks? This is a simple game to test your reflexes. Give it a try and check on your virtual harmonica skills!

Click on the picture to start the game!

Always wanted to write some music but don’t know how to? How about starting out with this online drum machine? Be your own DeeJay, groove to the music of your own choice and explore the sounds available. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the next school DJ!

Click on the picture to get to the game

OK, normally I’m skeptical of anyone who claims to have channeled the spirit of a dead celebrity, but this story out of Gi.biz has the ring of truth to it. According to this story, John Lennon and George Harrison would have approved of their music being translated into video game form in Rock Band. The beyond-the-grave quotes come from people with absolutely no financial stake in the success of the game — Sir Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison — so you know it must be true.

In all seriousness, though. I actually believe this. One of the things that gets lost in the Beatles status as hippie icons and early advocates for peace, love and flower power is that all of the Beatles were consummate marketers, savvy businessmen and technological pioneers. Many of their recordings, especially Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, were notable for the technological stunts they pulled during production — everything from back-masking to overdubbing to weird audio tricks they tried in the studio. They were also very good at anticipating trends in popular culture and making themselves over to appeal to what was hot in the zeitgiest. John Lennon took a notable left turn into the avante-garde when Yoko Ono attached herself to him like a lamprey but even on the albums they worked on together, Lennon’s pop music instincts never left him. That’s what making big chunks of Double Fantasy actually worth listening to and stuff by Ono not so much.

It stands to reason therefore that they would have approved of Rock Band. I don’t think anyone expects Paul McCartney to be a real gamer, but eventually he picked up on what it could mean for the Beatles’ music. The Beatles were ultimately a pop music band. In fact, the band practically defined what it is to be a pop music band in the modern era and they were multimedia before it even had a name. Pop music is meant to be spread wide and listened to by a broad swathe of the public. The broad swathe of the public is currently playing games.

Hey everyone!

In this podcast:

• Uncharted 2: Drake’s Fortune Review
• Brutal Legend Review
• Wet Review
• Arkham Asylum Revisited
• Sony + Netflix = Win
• Death of music games
• What to Purchase this Holiday Season
• Yu alienates all Valve, Uncharted 1 and Metal Gear Solid fans

Feel free to leave comments! Link to the podcast below:

http://accordingtoyu.podbean.com/mf/web/dfnk/AccordingToYu2.mp3

Also – Subscribe on iTunes:

iTunes!

This is a review I just submitted to Amazon as part of their Vine program:

When the Guitar Hero franchise burst onto the pop culture scene, flooding living rooms everywhere with fake plastic instruments, hip-hop fans could do nothing but look on enviously and ask if such a concept could ever apply to their favorite music. (Yes, Konami pioneered this concept with Beatmania, but it never really caught on with home console owners, and Activision’s marketing muscle means DJ Hero will be the first title to gain mass-market awareness.)

Activision has finally answered that call with — surprise! — DJ Hero, what is apparently a well-polished product that should boast the right combination of great music, addicting gameplay, and gorgeous presentation to earn it a spot in the ranks of great music games.

Now for some disclosures: I obtained a demo of the product through the Amazon Vine program. The bundle consisted of a wired turntable controller and a demo disc featuring five songs: one tutorial track, one multi-player track and three for the main game. While grateful for the chance to get my hands on the product early, the demo disc was far too limited to be able to truly write a well-informed review. Hence, the weasel words in this review, such as “apparently”, “should”, etc.

Another disclosure: I am not generally a fan of rap, hip-hop or dance music. Rock, be it of the classic, blues, southern, punk, alternative, or even country variety, is where my soul lies. So it’s a testament to DJ Hero that it managed to draw me in despite a near-total unfamiliarity with the genre. The game will grab many die-hard rockers right from the tutorial, which features a mix of Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”. While I’m hard-pressed to name the other tracks from memory, I found them fun and enjoyable.

Other reviews have expounded on the gameplay in great detail, so I’ll just say here that if you enjoyed having your dexterity and sense of rhythm challenged by any of the Guitar Hero or Rock Band games, you’ll probably get a kick out of trying to master the tricks of the turntable. The three finger buttons on the turntable look like the fret buttons on a guitar controller, but the similarity ends there. In the course of a song, you’ll be asked not only to hit those buttons, but to “scratch” the turntable, quickly crossfade from one part of a mix to another, and add your own effects in a way similar to the whammy bar in the Guitar Hero games. It’s an intriguing mix of actions that add up to a good challenge.

In a stroke of genius by developer FreeStyleGames, a second person can join using a guitar controller to play the guitar bits of the mixes. This is a great way to get other people to jump in since there’s a good chance you or someone you know already has a guitar controller. It not only up the game to rock-oriented folks who aren’t interested in working a turntable, but it also allows people to play together without requiring another pricey turntable accessory.

A word about the turntable. Rarely does a new controller boast this level of sturdiness and attractiveness. It’s a handsome little unit that turns heads and feels solid and well-built. The on-screen visuals are also top-notch, featuring different house-party and club settings from around the globe. Again, since this review was limited to a demo disc, I was unable to check out the bulk of locales and playable characters. In another nice touch, the game also features an autoplay mode that will just play the music for a party or whatnot. That’s a great feature and one that needs to come to Guitar Hero. Hopefully it will also support tracks you add via download.

So in the end, does DJ Hero work? It does, and it will be interesting to see if the title can succeed in expanding music games to other genres, attracting new audiences and fans as people tire of the rock-based games. If you are a fan of hip-hop who couldn’t get into “Guitar Hero”, this is could be your game. If you’re a huge fan of music games in general and want a fresh challenge, this could be your game. And if you’re simply looking for something to liven up your next party, this could be your game.

Another music game! This one really tests your keyboard and note reading skills. Are you up to the challenge?

Click on image to start game

The demo scene has really just one title on PS3 and it really left people a bit confused and wanting for more. The team that gave us “Linger in Shadows” now give us “.detuned” – a funked up demoscene project.

The Premise

Well I’m not sure there is one! Basically you control a poor guy in a chair and to the music of your choice, manipulate him into all kinds of objects and get him to dance. That’s it – its just a demoscene afterall.

The Gameplay

What little gameplay there is, is basic and uninvolving. You can zoom the camera about and choose four different objects to inflate the man’s up into and once you’ve inflated them all and made him dance around his chair you’ve seen it all. It’s a step back from at least the look and find effort with Shadows…

The Graphics

The graphics are fluid but less impressive than Shadows (I keep comparing the two but as the only demoscene games on the PSN, it is inevitable). As there’s not a lot to do, I found myself looking at the surroundings which are nice but I wished there was more to it and maybe some animation to it.

The Sound

Well, the one track included is a good funky floor stomper so I can’t complain there to be honest, but the game wants you to use your own mp3 collection to see what happens but I’ve not seen any changes.

The Replay Factor

Literally, grab the trophies and come back to it for a post drink cheap laugh in a few weeks and it may seem fresh but you couldn’t get away with more than that.

The Positives

~Good single track of music

~Elephant heads!

The Negatives

~Not enough variation of the theme

~Lacking visually and in terms of gameplay

~For an extra pound of money you can have some absolutely fantastic PSN titles instead.

The Verdict

Shallow, limited and containing no element of fun after five minutes, “.detuned” is a missed opportunity. A big combo system to get new moves, unlock new characters and even change environments could have seen this become a niche game that I’d have come back to. As it is, it feels completely unfinished and not worthy of your money when for less than a pound more, you can have a blast on Noby Noby Boy or Trash Panic or pay £1.50 and have Numblast. Now those are real games that take a concept and run with it…

The publisher have been talking up the game’s importance for some months, executives waxing lyrical on how the new music genres encapsulated in the game can expand upon Guitar Hero’s audience.

“With the kind of diversity DJ Hero offers, we expect it to appeal to people who may not have yet discovered the Hero franchise,” Activision’s Ian McClellan tells MCV.

“The key is that the music – which comprises of over 90 mashups that are unique to DJ Hero – is still very accessible. This game will grow the category, so retail should expect this title to bring even more music-lovers into their stores – some of which may not have bought a music game before.

“Again, the investment behind this title will be at the level that they have come to expect from the Hero franchise. We believe trial is going to be very important. We are planning some heavyweight ways to introduce people to DJ Hero.”

Source: http://play.tm/news/27149/music-games-to-get-boost-from-dj-hero/

Jewel Notes

 I like to use a variety of seasonal grand staves in private and group lessons for dictation,  learning note names, steps and skips, etc.

Recently my husband presented me with these stones he found. My husband is not a musician, but he loves all my games and is always trying to help me think of new ones.  I was so excited to get these stones because I love the color and they feel so good in the hand. I promptly made this staff and called it Jewel Notes. The stones are flat on the bottom and sit very nicely on the paper.

I used it in various ways with my group lessons. With one group I played a short group of notes that were stepping,  skipping, and repeating and the students took dictation using the stones. For older groups I made the dictation more difficult.  With another group I had students come and play a short pattern and the students wrote it with their stones. My students shared my enthusiasm for the stones!

There are hundreds of ways to use a grand staff, because, after all, if you don’t understand the staff, you can’t read music. You can use this to find landmark notes, learn the name of notes,  take music dictation, and even just to learn lines and spaces. It can be used with beginners to high school students. This is a great way to review for the ear-training portion of the Texas State Theory Test.

If you want to use this, print it in landscape and laminate it. If you don’t have any little glass stones, make some with construction paper or find something creative. I think it would be fun to have different colors of “jewels” and let the students choose.

On my website I have grand staves for various holidays as well as a plain black one. The idea is you can use seasonal items, such as candy, for your notes. This one doesn’t look much like October, but there is one on my website that is orange and you can use Candy Corn as the notes.

Yet another DeeJay game. Click on any possible button you see and hear the difference for yourself! This is cool!

Click on the picture to start the game

Great news for Cambridge, MA based Conduit Labs…the company has raised an additional $3 million in a second round of funding, according to paidContent. Conduit is the company behind Loudcrowd, a virtual world/ social game and community of music-lovers.

With The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 released earlier this month, several musicians have spoken their minds about music games. And I wish they hadn’t.

To recap: Last week, singer Courtney Love decided to sue Activision when she realized how her late husband, ex-Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, was being used in Guitar Hero 5. When letting Activision use Cobain’s likeness, Love didn’t realize that in-game characters can perform in any song, resulting in a rather troubling video of Cobain rapping and singing 80s metal. The rest of Nirvana then added their disapproval, and so did, of all people, Bon Jovi.

Earlier, former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason expressed their disdain for music games, based on the tired belief that these games kill the motivation to learn a real instrument (Mason said he was open to a game based on Pink Floyd, simply to make money).

Topping it all off, Paul McCartney admitted that he hadn’t yet played The Beatles: Rock Band. His rationale? The former Beatle can play an actual concert any time he wants.

McCartney’s dismissal, however justified, is disheartening, and I’m saying that as a fellow musician. Having played guitar and drums since childhood, I initially pooh-poohed Guitar Hero as well. But then I tried it, with people who aren’t musicians, and everything clicked.

What Guitar Hero offers musicians is the ability to enjoy music with everyone, not just for the words and beat, but for the musicality and the intricacies that become most apparent when you’re performing. It’s too bad McCartney, Mason and Wyman can’t see that.

Courtney Love’s case is a bit different, but the underlying issue, that she obviously hasn’t spent time with the game, is the same. Instead of experiencing why Guitar Hero and Rock Band are special, these musicians only see two potential rewards: relevance and money. Ideally, music should be about neither.

A Harmonix vai faturar milhões com essa história de Rock Band dos Beatles, e quem tem os direitos das músicas deles também, já que isso vai impulsionar as vendas de álbuns com os novos fãs de Beatles que vão se criar a partir do jogo. Sem falar que as músicas do Quarteto Fantástico logo estarão disponíveis, legalmente, no formato digital. Isso foi só uma introduçãozinha para o assunto principal, a Rock Band Network!

As ferramentas para a criação de músicas para o Rock Band serão disponibilizadas online e você, que tem uma bandinha podre em casa fresno, nx zero, e toda essa modinha emo poderá mandar suas canções direto pra lá e vendê-las virtualmente numa espécie de iTunes Store, com preços variando entre U$0,50 e $3,00. Mas não é fácil assim, as músicas passarão por um crivo afiado e deverão ser gravadas em estúdio profissional mesmo. Também será possível ajustar as animações de palco e fazer a banda padrão do RB parecer com a sua, no palco. O único problema é que isso só funciona para Xbox 360, por usar uma tal plataforma não compátivel com os outros consoles, o que é uma peninha, mas é um caminho.

Partindo para a parte séria, esse é um novo meio de explorar o mundo musical, os games, e pelo jeito, está se consolidando mesmo, o Guitar Hero, da Activision, já está na sua quinta edição, sem contar os extras para o Aerosmith, Metallica e 80’s (esqueci algum?), o Rock Band lançou duas versões e agora vai quebrar a banca com a edição dos Beatles. Se abriu um novo canal para a distribuíção de músicas independentes com a Rock Band Network, e tudo graças a nossa amiga, a Internet. A RBN ainda não está funcionando, mas dá pra por o e-mail ali e ser avisado quando a história toda começar. Foda que é uma péssima notícia para as gravadoras, mais um jeitinho de se fuderem se divulgar o que produz em casa, ter um alcance mundial, e ainda ganhar uns trocados (que podem ser milhares, visto que um aplicativo que reproduz sons de peido no iPhone custa U$0.99 e já vendeu milhões).

abaixo o maravilhoso VT do RB dos Beatles.