- Accompanist (role)
- Ad libitum
- Agenda
- Aleatoricism
- Aspect
- Balance
- Bartle types
- BCG
- Conductor (role)
- Constellation
- Constructor (role)
- Co-optionality
- Cue cards
- Dice
- Dimension
- Downbeat
- Downtime
- Elegant Game
- Emergence
- End Condition
- Event
- Extended technique
- Facilitator
- Fighting
- Flow
- Found sound
- Gameplay flow
- Genre
- Goals
- Heteronomous Music
- Horizon of intent
- Insert game
- Inspire cards
- Instrument Preparation
- Judge (role)
- Karaoke
- King-making
- Learning curve
- Ludomusical dissonance
- Meaningful Choice
- Mechanic
- Music game
- Non-idiomatic music
- Open work
- Parameter
- Pervasive Game
- Player (role)
- Prompter (role)
- Psychographics
- Quarterbacking
- Rhythm Cards
- Roles
- RPG
- Rule Cards
- Speedrun
- Stacking
- Trading
- Transition
- Upgrade
- Victory condition
- Xenochrony
- XP
- Yes, and...
This glossary entry is a draft. You can help by editing it or discussing in the comments
Any quality of musical material.
Usage
This is part of the terminology that is in development specifically for music games, the closest related established terminology is the field of musical parameters. Intersections should be clearly described below (in the future).
Event — "Anything" in music terms — a unit of music at any given scale of consideration.
Just as an event is a very broad term for "what may happen", aspect is able to equally broadly describe what is being played. Aspect is any category of such descriptions. Similarly, like with events, you can have macro-, mezo- and micro- aspects.
Dimension — An aspect applicable to a single sound and continuous.
Parameter — A basic quality of the musical material that might be changed without modifying the value of other parameters of the same material.
There are some distinct types of aspects. Check for example additional info on dimensions and parameters. If you ask a "Yes/no" question about music, you investigate a binary aspect of that music. Some aspects are formal in character and some deal with broader cultural references (referential).
Not every aspect can be applicable to every type of musical material, and the complete list of aspects (and types of aspects) is impossible to make. Here are some examples:
| Aspect | Type of aspect, remarks |
|---|---|
| Density | mezo- |
| Duration | the only (?) aspect applicable to every material, as long as precision is not required |
| Composer | for pre-composed material, referential |
| Genre | macro-, referential |
| Mode | if material uses modes |
| Mood | mezo- |
| Number of sound sources | expressed in natural numbers |
| Pitch | micro-, parameter, dimension |
| Stability | quite subjective and imprecise measure, mezo-aspect |
| Style | macro- |
| Tempo | dimension |
| Timbre | complex micro-aspect, parameter |
| Type of sources | constellation or family of instruments |
| Volume | parameter, dimension |
Theoretical clarification (!)
The great overview of the topic can be found in Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen's "Sound is Multi-Dimensional"
https://vbn.aau.dk/files/66106441/SIMD.pdf
In the treatise and historically, Dimensions/Parameters/Aspects are not separately defined, and there are many takes on this topic. Parameter is often a basic term, and Aspect here at G4M is equivalent to the most broad understanding of a parameter (parameter is as in a narrow definition). The distinction between different types of aspects is introduced in the context of music games design due to more formal (mathematical / systemic) nature of complex games and the resulting need for developing the vocabulary.
