From Toy to Tutor: Note-Scroller is a Game to Teach Music

The computer games industry has recently been producing titles in a new genre called ‘music’ that toys with engaging the user in musical expression. The technology used in these games has allowed for novel interfaces for representing musical instructions which has yet to be tried within musical practice and tuition. The games themselves have greatly simplified the instruments and the music created to the point where the skills learnt are not transferrable to the actual instruments that they seek to recreate. The aim of this work is to explore the potential to move from this category of entertainment systems based on musical expression towards tutoring applications that support learning musical instruments in an entertaining and rewarding experience. Note-Scroller (Figure 1) is an interface that has been designed to bridge this gap and act as a case study for evaluating the potential of such a movement. It is hoped that Note-Scroller will be fun and intuitive to use, teaching users how to play music on a piano-style keyboard.