Music AKA Montessori Music, promises a genuine and fun way to learn to read and play music in just a few days. Shiro Tsuji, a renowned composer, conductor, teacher and author is the creative force behind the title published by Nobilis. And before you groan not another music title into this already burgeoning market, Music takes a different approach to the genre taking on a more edutainment approach. Whereby other titles encourage you to replicate what’s displayed on screen, Music begins by teaching you the fundamentals.
You are guided through your musical journey by a pocket-sized conductor. Within the opening menu you have seven different options or modes and at the core of the game is lesson mode in which you can choose lessons or tests. The lessons allow you to read about and listen to some very basic concepts such as pitch,notes and rhythm and once you’ve mastered these you can go on to test yourself in the other sub menu racking up a score in the process. Performance mode lets you put into practice what you learned in lessons by performing songs. By default there is already 20 songs listed but this can be expanded by cashing in the points you’ve earned in lesson mode. Terminology mode contains an alphabetical glossary of musical terms which you can learn and also test your knowledge. Chord sheet mode displays the different chords for guitar and piano, options mode lets you erase your saved data and change the piano setting in performance mode, calendar mode records your achievements and finally enjoy mode opens up a selection of musically based mini games. The mini games involve not only using your game pad and touch screen but also clapping like mad to burst balloons.
I think its notable that the developers have been able to present the lessons with an easy to follow and simple to understand interface that would encourage younger gamers (the game has an age rating of 3). Although there is a lot of reference data contained – a large proportion (in the glossary) of which is not essential to the game play but good to to revisit as your knowledge and understanding improve.
The fun really kicks in once the child (or adult!) has learnt the basics and can challenge themselves in the mini games and score improvements because its at this stage Music begins to feel more like a game moving away from the educational element. Not that the educational section was dull in fact the developers have done very well to display the data in a fun and colourful way.
Conclusion
While Music isn’t going to challenge the huge rhythm based titles, it is a great tool for introducing children to a fun method of learning how to read and understand music. Oh and they did manage to sneak a conveyor belt style mini game in (– nearly a junior version of guitar hero) although I think the young target audience would maybe appreciate more mini games
