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~2-10 |
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5 min |
Included in Play now set/collection.
Change pitch range and density of your improvisation to navigate through Drumming Musicians's maze.
Preparation
For one percussive player and one or more melodic players.
This game might be played in memory with low player counts, but for an easier version, you'll need pen and paper, and a token for each player.
Draw a board. First, imagine 9 equal squares, each slightly bigger than a used token, put together 3x3 as a bigger square. Draw the circumference of this big square and put 4 dots or crosses at the corners of the smaller squares inside the big square. 9 squares will be important, but their edges are not marked at the start of the game.
Setup
The percussive players will be called a Drumming Musician (further abbreviated as DM).
Put the board in the visible place with tokens on the middle one of 9 fields. The board shows 9 "rooms" in the dungeon. DM imagines and memorizes (or notes on a separate paper) 3 walls to form a labyrinth. place them so that no room is locked-out.
DM should place (still mentally or on a hidden piece of paper) a treasure on one of 9 places in the maze.
Order of players is established (usually by sitting in a semicircle towards a DM, from left to right from DM's point of view).
Game start
Melodic players improvise freely, not very loud.
Gameplay instructions
The game proceeds in steps:
1) DM points to the Player whose turn it is (this signals that DM is now listening to this player).
2) The active Player changes pitch or density of playing to indicate the direction of movement in the dungeon. Play louder when signalling.
- if in the solo the pitch was clearly raised, the player goes up,
- if the pitch went down, the player goes down,
- if the density was increased, the player goes right,
- if the solo went sparsers, the player goes left.
3) after hearing the signal, now DM checks for the wall in the direction intended by the player and "responds":
- if the player bumped into the wall, play harsh and sharp sounds,
- if there was a passage, play soft sounds,
- pause for a moment, if the signal was not clear (diagonal movement is not allowed).
4) Depending on the success of movement DM moves a token or draws a wall on the board (or nothing changes if there was no understanding); either way the DM moves to the next player.
Game end
Game ends when a Player reaches the treasure. This should be marked by DM playing triumphantly.
Gamemaster's notes
It's good to have a practice run of signals, worth noting that it's the overall change of parameter that counts, not that every interval should be in the same direction, or every sequence of notes should increase or decrease in the density.
A cooperative version is when all players move a single token. The change of maze size and number of walls is natural, but the time needed grows fast. For more variants, see: Into the Labyrinth (activity).
Display App
For playing online or with a display, check out: http://musicgames.wikidot.com/app:into-the-labyrinth (single melodic player or the cooperative version)
- The maze scheme might be printed, but also may be displayed on a device (and also used in online performance);
- click on a room for movement, click on a wall for a bump, click on a note to mark success;
- in the "display" version there is no logic in the code, a note token goes to any room that is clicked;
- restart (f5) if you need the token outside the board;
- you can edit labels (click and write, useful for variants);
Solo app
The above remarks are important for an app you use to display the maze in live group playing.
If you want to hum your way through, you can preview the experience in Into the Labyrinth solo which generates a hidden labyrinth for you. Unfortunately it needs to count on your fair play, as your browser will not recognize the singing.
Designer-composer
DrZdrowie and odolany. But everyone is welcome to contribute further!
The rules are licensed as CC BY 4.0 with the attribution as "Games for Music http://musicgames.wikidot.com"
The game is suitable for electronic instruments.
Click buttons to add all relevant tags:
no-props cards dice score props
on-off (constellations) spatial
dance draw (art) gestures guess interpret listen memory
composers events insert narrative quick random role-play simple
rhythm speeding-up timed tonal
found (+preparation) keyboard words
Finish tagging (_game) (regular library entries)
Finish tagging (_non-game) (rare, mostly to hide the above buttons)
- IM-OS #3 |