Topic: Concept: Brass Band

[Ceric]

I just thought this this morning and thought I share.  Here we go.

We are getting everything to do with rock but what about other forms of music?  This is where my concept comes in.  Brass Band.

Why Brass?
Simply put with a Three to five button peripheral you can simulate a variety of instruments relatively easily.

Which instruments?
Tuba, Trumpet, Baritone, Euphonium, Sousaphone, Valve Trombone, French Horn (loosely interpreted), and the many variations of all of them.  I'm sure I even forgot some.

Why?
I think it be fun.  Especially since I love playing Tuba but can't afford one.

How would the main game work?
In the main game mode it would work one of three ways depending on the peripherals abilities.

1)  As the notes go across you press the appropriate keys.  These are regular music notes with the key given and like in the instruments preferred cleft unless you in British Brass Band Mode then its all treble.
2)  Much like Guitar Hero and kin instead of giving the proper notes the keys would be given instead.  So you may have to hit rb, ry, r , ry, y with indicator where you should be open somehow.
3)   Either one of the other ones but it gauges your airflow through the peripheral to tell how loud and what type of note you are playing, not pitch wise just staccato and like.

Thats pretty much it.

Are their other modes?
Of course.  Their are two that I am very excited by the concept of.

1) Real Instrument play
In this mode you clip a microphone or use a microphone equipped Mute to a real instrument.  Then using the pitch technology used for singing games you play along through the different parts.  You would choose which instrument you are using before hand and the appropriate part would be shown.  Their would also be a warm up part for tuning the mike and you should always warm-up first.  Plus practice modes for working on scales and fundamentals.  Hopefully also showing the appropriate fingerings when desired.

2) Conductor mode
Using the Wiimote you conduct a variety of Brass Bands all by yourself learning the different concepts behind directing and varying parts of music.

What about Multiplayer?
Of course their would be a coop and competitive mode for all the modes except Conductor.  Each player would have their own individual part to follow.  In edition to that their be a full ensemble mode.  In this mode 1 player will be the conductor.  His job is to conduct a piece of music and the other players jobs are to follow him.  The conductor will have the ability to decide how soft or loud, fast or slow they would like the music to be.  Each player will be graded on how well they followed the conductor and the conductor would be scored on how well their interpretation followed the music and whether they kept to accepted forms of conducting.

Their you have it.  Brass Band.  A game that could truly benefit from a good sound system and music recordings.  Having a mighty peripheral that could easily be used in a varieties of arrangements.  

[that Baby guy]

Well, there's a couple problems.  The first is that playing the drums, piano, or guitar is heavily based on finger dexterity, which can be simulated easily with buttons.  Brass instruments feature a combination of finger dexterity, lip control, and breath control, which is much more difficult to simulate using a video game.  Your peripheral details one of those breathing meters, but I can't remember what they are called.  However, there are problems with this system:  The first is that simply breathing into a mouthpiece itself is by no means similar to buzzing into an intsrument.  The second is that the mouthpiece of this could not be shared with players, so the game would flop as the group activity Guitar Hero is.

Real Instrument play would be tricky.  I own a silent brass mute for my Euphonium, but I can tell you, the one I own is terrible.  The microphone pick-up sounds worse than just using a mute at all.  If all mutes caused affected the tone of the instrument in the exact same way, this would be fine, but I find that different brands of microphoned mutes produce different effects, unfortunately.

Conductor mode would be great.  I'd like that, and I'd prefer if there were an authentic mode and a beginner's mode.  If there were any way I could actually control a band or orchestra with the Wii-mote, I'd enjoy it.  Controlling tempo, not so much.  Also, Flapping conducting is not my style.  I hate how they looked on stage, it was more like they were tying to fly than conduct.  I'd want a whole lot more accuracy and realism than that.

I hate to say it, but I don't think this game would work commercially or conceptually.  I hope someone proves me wrong, though.

[Ceric]

But Thatguy by your own description Guitar Hero would be bad as well because 4 buttons can not simulate the variety of things you can do with strings and various strumming.  As mentioned it was one of the three ways the third by far the least possible.  In true life yes their is more to it then just pressing the right combination of valves.  For the game that doesn't need to be.  Essential your just taking away the part with lip control.  A ball in a tube can measure the intensity of the air going through.  Though in the first version I probably ax that as well.  Simply 5 buttons ideally.  Not all of them even being used for all instruments.  Though I would insist on them being piston style.

I don't think Real Instrument would be as bad as you say.  For all intents and purposes it would be a glorified tuner like in the singing games.  Sure it really won't know the difference between a low and high C more then likely but for a game of this nature it probably wouldn't matter as much like in Karaoke games.  Some tuning exercise could be done to adjust for the inconsistency.  The fact of the matter is I probably wouldn't even pipe the stuff from the Mike through the speakers.

Agree on the conducting.  Two modes would be preferable and that is where the grading comes in as well.  Their are some pieces though that lend themselves to flapping type conducting.  Personally I prefer precise conducting myself.

I think all the pieces are their just here and there at the moment.  Essentially the first version of the peripheral would be 5 piston style buttons at the core.  The real mode would be a glorified tuner with tunes you can play with the band you don't have.  Conductor mode is just WiiMote movements but may be the hardest to implement.  The first version won't be able to tell how loud your playing with just the peripheral.  I really do think this is doable.  It may be nitch and not as main stream as wanting to be a rockstar but lets face it its easier to find a Guitar then it is to even find a trumpet and lets not go into getting a tuba.  Maybe it is just a dream but I really think it could be doable.

[that Baby guy]

Alright, alright, I see what you're saying with some of this.  My last, unfortunate criticism is more of a concern.  With piston-style buttons, the valves could easily jam, especially since several players would not have had training on basic fingering positions for pistons.  If there were a way to keep them from jamming, then that would be awesome.


I do think Nintendo or anyone needs to start doing work with Canadian Brass or someone on some kind of brass game, even if it isn't as real to the actual thing as you and I would prefer.

Heck, a Donkey Kong-onium game would be awesome, even if it were only pressing three or four buttons to the timing, though I think the Rock Band game could expand itself.  You could have Jazz Band, Big Band, Marching Band, and other things, and once you got the formula down, it would be choosing music and instruments that would be important.

I'm an amateur Euphonium player myself, what about you?

[Ceric]

7 years BBFlat Tuba.  During this time I learned to hate Rotary valves because they are to fragile.  Then I went to College and couldn't get the time to do band and I don't have the money to own a Tuba.  I like to learn Eflat as well.

Yeah Pistons could be a problem though analog buttons could be a good substitute.  They have this and this already.  Maybe the instrument could just have shaft with a spring holding it up like a piston with self-lubed ball bearings around to hold it in the center.  The shaft would control an analog type switch, I think its Piezo but don't quote me I can see the type of switch I just can't spit it out.  That way you could put in a certian amount of play with the valves for begginers be more critical with the harder modes.