This is a genre guessing game. How well do you know music you hear? This is a guessing game in which you hear a style of music and then try to guess the genre without reading answer first.
There are two ways to play, one way is with your mouse (or trackpad) to click on the buttons, and another way is with your computer keyboard keys to move around quickerer. It’s like having a virtual turntable. Drop the needle down on the groove and listen… pick out right genre from a list of eight options.
How to Play the Game
To listen to what’s playing right now, just click on red Drop the needle button and then pay attention for a couple of bars as a two-bar loop plays through. This should provides enough time for you to take in harmonic and rhythmic material. Alternatively, if you like keyboard shortcuts, you can hit the D key to start it play. You’ll see the platter turn around for a few seconds before stopping, that’s how you know it’s playing.
A grid of eight genre buttons appears. To choose an answer just click it with your mouse or trackpad, or type the corresponding number on your computer keyboard. The key number 1 is first answer; the key number 8 is eighth. That way, you don’t need to take your fingers off the keyboard while picking a genre. You can just hit the button immediately.
When you’re playing along with the track, you’ll also notice a Listening depth selector, which let you adjust how many instruments you’re hearing. On pulse only, you just get basic beat, making it difficult to pick up on any nuances in the music. With full rhythm section, you get more layer added. With harmonic color, you have chords included for more context. Get this adjusted before dropping the needle and set degree of difficulty to whatever works best for you.
Fingerprint’s stem selector enable you to zero in on any part of the song. For example: Select Drums and listen just to the percussion pattern. Or select Bass to hear nothing but bottom end. Chords will mute all but the harmonic progression. So it’s a tool for checking your hunch and being able to hear one thing at a time instead of everything at once.
To begin, there are four hidden clues on each round regarding the structure of the music. Pressing the Expose button will show a groove clue, such as subdivision, harmonic move, meter, or drum spine. To reset and try another track, simply tap F key. Please note that revealing clues will deduct points from your potential score if you gets the answer right.
On the turntable area, your score is displayed at top right, along with your streak. Getting the right answer while not showing too many clue will net you more points. Guessing correctly increases your streak; getting it wrong reset it to zero. Text below the clues explain why you got the right (or wrong) genre, or gives you some hints as to what real answer might be.
To change the master output level, use the volume slider. If it’s too soft/loud for your environment, you can adjust it here. Click the How to Play button to show the instructions on screen. Click the Fullscreen button if you want an immersive experience. The Fullscreen button expands the widget to your whole screen for a more immersiv experience.
To get the most out of this game, listen to music without reading the clues until afterwards. Can you pick up the backbeat? That is a great way to tell the difference between hip-hop, house and funk, different than other styles, for example. Is there a swing feel and a tempo? Those can be good pointers toward, say, drum and bass or even bossa nova. The more you do this the more you’ll begin to hear pattern intuitively.
Start the needle and see how far you could of go naming genres in a row. Flip to another pressing whenever, adjust the controls as preferred, and start again. It’s an exercise that will help you discover what makes each genre unique.