Dice - Games for Music

Dice

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Throwable objects used for repeatable randomization of more than 2 states.

For only 2 states use a coin toss.

If you don't want results to repeat, use shuffled cards.

Sides content

The common dice is with numbers (often represented as dots), but it's not the only option for side content. On every dice you can find images as ideas to interpret musically. A popular product for that may be "Storycubes", but these are typically small. Bigger dice with images are sometimes available as small children's toys.

Number of sides

The most common dice is 6-sided, but there is sometimes usage for 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 20-sided versions. Throwing two 10-sided dice conveniently generates a random number from 0-99.

Many combinations of dice are used especially in RPG games. The needed formula is written down as an equation where "DX" means X-sided dice. For example "3D4" is the result of a throw with three 4-sided dice. You can, for example, have a "monster strength" defined as 20+D4*3 and you sometimes encounter even more detailed algorithms for calculating different values.
Notice the difference between "3D4" (sum of 3 results), and D4*3 (result multiplied by 3) — the calculated probabilites for outcomes are different in the two cases.

A perfect dice for music

For music games, 12-sided dice has a special place because it's the number of steps in a Western standard equally-tempered tuning. Versions with tones on the sides are marketed commercially and a patent for this product expired in 2022.

Clean-sided regular dodecahedrons are also in circulation, so you can make such a dice yourself. If you are good with glue and scissors, you can also print out scheme for dice with musical keys on a cardboard and make your own. (This one uses "continental" sound names, but it should be easy to edit for B instead of H).

Keychange Game

A simple musicianship activity is to play a tune of your choice and change it's key for an unforeseen one during playing.
You may use cards or dice or if there are more people, you can take rounds for calling the new key.

Games with dice:

Dice Contract	with risk of playing many rounds
Diced Events	roll for musical aspects
Djent Game	a wild exercise in polyrhythms
Nightlife of Machines	conducting results in changing length of entries
Three-note Jam	start from a narrow pitch set
Two-chord Jam	improvising to two random chords

External games with dice:

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Rohema Groove Cubes		sold	A set of dice for drumming
Muzoracle	J. S. Kingfisher	rare	The Tarot of Music, a system with cards and dice
Music Rocks		2013 rare	A set of dice with words/objects frequently occurring in popular songs
Flail and Wail	Dave Rockenbaugh	2005 rare	A rhythm game with a CD and a transparent maraca with a dice inside
Tonic	Scott Hughes	2015 sold	This game comes with dice and a deck where each card is a simple improvisational activity
Muzundrum	J. S. Kingfisher	2009 rare	Theory-only. This game introduced the 12-sided Musician's Dice with pitch classes on the sides