Flash-card type identification game for TwinNote

[Paul Morris]

Hi everyone,

I made a draft/prototype of a flash card type game/tool for learning to
identify notes and intervals in TwinNote. You can check it out here:
http://twinnote.org/labs/note-and-interval-identification-game-for-learning-twinnote/

It's still kind of rough around the edges, but already works pretty well
I think.

Also, you can see a few variations on "TwinNote 5L" (the five-line
version) here:
http://twinnote.org/labs/alternative-versions-of-twinnote/

Cheers,
-Paul

[Keislar, Doug]

I found this surprisingly addictive! It was informative to do the interval identification and get a feeling for identifying intervals in a system where I don't have all the note names memorized. Instead, I found myself using the approximate interval size (based on knowledge of TN) and then adjusting inward or outward by a semitone as needed, based on knowledge of which intervals are found in whole-tone scales.

I didn't find it rough around the edges at all!

The TwinNote 5L stuff is interesting, but I prefer the regular TwinNote.

BTW, I noticed that in Safari on an iPad, the "Loading Audio..." button apparently stays that way forever.

Doug

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Subject: [MNP] Flash-card type identification game for TwinNote

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[Paul Morris]

Keislar, Doug wrote:
> I found this surprisingly addictive! It was informative to do the interval identification and get a feeling for identifying intervals in a system where I don't have all the note names memorized. Instead, I found myself using the approximate interval size (based on knowledge of TN) and then adjusting inward or outward by a semitone as needed, based on knowledge of which intervals are found in whole-tone scales.

Thanks for trying it out Doug. The interval sizes in TwinNote do line
up approximately with their sizes in TMN, give or take a semitone. So
that makes the intervals easier if you're already familiar with TMN (or
if you're switching back and forth between them).

> I didn't find it rough around the edges at all!

Thanks! Thenext steps I'd like to do are to have a count down timer,
maybe 60 seconds per game, and then keep a tally of how many you get
right and wrong, and subtracting the number wrong from the number right
to get an overall score. Then the game has a start and an end, and
people can get a sense of how they improve over time. (This would make
it even more like the games at http://musicteachersgames.com )

> The TwinNote 5L stuff is interesting, but I prefer the regular TwinNote.
>
> BTW, I noticed that in Safari on an iPad, the "Loading Audio..." button apparently stays that way forever.

That's good to know. I'll have to look into it, but my understanding is
that support for HTML5 audio on Safari on iOS is pretty poor. (Apple
would rather you build proprietary iOS apps,and sell them in their app
store because that's the only way to get them to users, and pay them the
annual apple developer fees to do that ($100 I think?)-- so they have
some disincentives when it comes to supporting HTML5 audio.)

-Paul M

[Doug Keislar]

Hi Paul,

No problem, everything else worked fine on the iPad. (I just thought
that maybe the "app" could detect that the browser doesn't support HTML5
audio and in that case not even display the Loading Audio button, which
gives the user the false impression that the game is not ready to be
played yet.)

In any case, I like the app better without sound! It kind of seems to be
cheating to have sound...with sound, it's an ear-training app, not a
music-reading app. People with good musical ears can answer correctly
without having any clue whatsoever about the music notation.

In any case, congrats on the app! Quite engrossing.

Doug

[Paul Morris]

Doug Keislar wrote:
> Hi Paul, No problem, everything else worked fine on the iPad. (I just
> thought that maybe the "app" could detect that the browser doesn't
> support HTML5 audio and in that case not even display the Loading
> Audio button, which gives the user the false impression that the game
> is not ready to be played yet.)

Good call. It will look into that, as it would be better. It already
has some detection code that works for IE8, but I think Safari on iOS
partially supports the audio so it looks like it will work, when it
doesn't fully work. Hrm...

> In any case, I like the app better without sound! It kind of seems to
> be cheating to have sound...with sound, it's an ear-training app, not
> a music-reading app. People with good musical ears can answer
> correctly without having any clue whatsoever about the music notation.

Good point. It's nice to have the audio as a reinforcement for learning
how the intervals sound alongside how they look, but it is kind of
cheating if you're just trying to learn to read the notation.

> In any case, congrats on the app! Quite engrossing.

Thanks!
-Paul

[Paul Morris]

A new version of the flash-card game is up:

http://twinnote.org/labs/note-and-interval-identification-game-for-learning-twinnote/


What's new:

- A countdown timer, 60 seconds per game, and a start/stop button.

- Your score is keptto help you see your progress over time. You gain a
point for every correct answer and lose one for incorrect answers. You
can hover over the score to see a breakdown of correct and incorrect
responses.

- Only the relevant octave of the keyboard, or set of intervals, is
shown, making things easier.

- The pathof increasing difficulty stays with one octave, practicing all
12 chromatic notes before going on to two octaves.

- If you give an incorrect response it indicates "too low" or "too high"
(or "too large/too small" for intervals).


Cheers,
-Paul

[Paul Morris]

New update: it now displays the note you played on the staff next to the
target note. It works for intervals too. Sound is now muted by default.

http://twinnote.org/labs/note-and-interval-identification-game-for-learning-twinnote/


Cheers,
-Paul M

[Doug Keislar]

Hi Paul,

Nice additions! The test score is a good motivation to try to improve
one's sight-reading. Showing "too high," etc., as well as the notation
for the note or interval that you actually chose, is helpful, too. It
seems to me that "work-in-progress" is an almost obsolete description of
this game. Or maybe you have a bunch of other features up your sleeve...

In the paragraph that describes how the score is calculated, you might
add a sentence explaining that regardless of which test you select, you
have 60 seconds in which to make as many responses as possible.

Best,
Doug