|
|
|
|
|
Musique
Savante™ |
|
November
2008 |
News
Issue No. 3 |
|
In This Issue · Hi from Musique Savante ·
Inventing a Music Game:
Chap. 3 ·
One More Thing ·
Next Issue Contact Us Phone: Email: info@musiquesavante.com We Want To Hear From You! Share a funny student story with us. We may even print it for others to
read. Click on link below to
submit your anecdote.
Did you miss a previous newsletter? Did you miss a previous newsletter?
If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter click below and put unsubscribe in the subject line:
|
Hi
from Musique Savante! November
in the I’ve
had many students whose learning comes in spurts, or in
“seasons.” Fred Rogers, educator and
originator of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” tells of being
discouraged as a young teacher. His
mentor told him, ”No effort is ever wasted in teaching
children.” I hope this
encourages you with your many students.
If
you use games in your classes, Issue no. 2 of the Musique Savante Newsletter discussed
the making of the prototype for a game.
The topic for Issue no. 3 is the look of the game. One More
Thing: Thanks
to Amy Immerman of Inventing a Music Game: or, Are You Crazy? Chapter 3:
What you see is what you get. So far I’ve told you a little bit about finding
resources and making a prototype.
Allow me to address the look and utility of a music game. Some of the weirdest moments I’ve had were trying
to figure out what a product was supposed to do, or how to use it. Have you ever bought something that
had to be assembled, except that the directions didn’t make sense? To avoid this fate, I decided to use
illustrations in part to show the use, and not rely wholly on text. During the prototype stage, I also
spent many months creating and re-writing the rules brochure. Even when I was trying to sleep at night my brain would
continue to tweak those rules. I became obsessed with texture and color. What kind of a person does this? During the last 3 years I’ve
collected sample books from several vendors and have tested dozens of materials. I’ve learned that when a vendor
says “Oh, yeah, I have exactly what you want,” there’s only
a 50% chance that he actually does. Lots of mistakes were made during the process of
choosing the materials which teachers and students will see when they open my
game. For example, did you know that you can buy black ping pong balls? I’m serious, and I personally
own 200 of them. This was during
the testing phase for game pieces.
Now, these things came from overseas and of course I now wonder if
I’ve gotten lead poisoning from handling them, given all the press
lately. You’ll be glad to
know I decided not to use them. I personally own dozens of pieces from a water-golf game
(that’s right, water-golf) because I just had to know if they would
work for me. If so, I could just
purchase them from “golf guy.” This also didn’t pan out for me,
but it was a worthy experiment. My basement has a closet for all my mistakes, all the
unused material, all the rejected parts, stuff that I probably couldn’t
even resell on Ebay. Welcome to
my world. I’m not the only one who cares about stuff like
this. One very successful
inventor is Maurice Kanbar (i.e. the D-Fuzz It sweater comb, Tangoes puzzle
game, Skyy vodka, and numerous other products). For his new vodka, he devoted quite a
bit of work to the choosing of a label. The color, how it looks in certain
lights, the durability (that’s right, for a label that will be thrown
away)! This man is my hero. He understands the obsession with
detail. Next Issue In the next quarterly installment of the News will be Chapter
4: It Costs How Much??? As always, if you have a humorous story about your students and
“Toss-a-Tune,” or any other funny comment or situation involving
your music students, send it to me at info@musiquesavante.com
and I might be able to include it in future newsletters. Until then, I wish you success with holiday activities. Susan Kight, M.Mus.Ed. ©Musique Savante, November 2008 |
