Here are basic definitions from music theory, game design and other music games related fields. You can click on a term for more info.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
A (Back to Top)
Accompanist (role) — Participant that plays music during the game but doesn’t have to follow the rules.
Ad libitum — "As you like it", a score annotation that gives a level of freedom to the performer.
Agenda — The most general aim the player wants to achieve within a game.
Aleatoricism — Using chance in music-making.
Aspect — Any quality of musical material.
B (Back to Top)
Balance — Game is balanced when it's mechanics don't lead to the dominance of a single scenario.
Bartle types — Taxonomy of players by their playstyle preference in relation to others and the game.
BCG — Basic Conducting Gestures, a set of gestures that are often used in music games.
C (Back to Top)
Conductor (role) — Participant that makes music without producing sounds directly.
Constellation — A line-up for a single performance of improvised music.
Constructor (role) — Participant that doesn't influence music directly, but rearranges the objects in the playing space.
Co-optionality — A feature of a game — co-optional game may be played both cooperatively and competitively during a single playthrough.
D (Back to Top)
Dealer — Another name for constructor, especially when operating on cards.
Dice — Throwable objects used for repeatable randomization of more than 2 states.
Dimension — An aspect applicable to a single sound and continous.
Downtime — A situation during the game when a player is not engaged in play.
E (Back to Top)
Emergence — A phenomenon when qualities of the entity are not due to qualities of its parts but as the result of interactions between them.
End Condition — A rule by which the game ends.
Event — "Anything" in music terms — a unit of music at any given scale of consideration.
Extended technique — Any unusual way of producing sounds with your instruments or voice.
F (Back to Top)
Facilitator — A person who helps a group to work together.
Fighting — A situation during the game when Players exchange actions to establish a winner over an objective.
First Rule Of Music Games — "The main aim of playing a music game is to play good music".
Found sound — Music material that was not produced by an instrument or vocals.
G (Back to Top)
Genre — A conventional category that identifies some work (piece of music, game, etc.) as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions.
Goals — Goals are aims for the player, usually established by rules, they differentiate games from other types of play.
For Game piece check Music game.
H (Back to Top)
Hambone — A name for body percussion.
Heteronomous Music — Music with an external conflict introduced.
Horizon of intent — A set of desirable moves at the given stage of the game.
I (Back to Top)
Insert game — A game easy to be made a part of other musical structures.
Inspire cards — Deck of cards that show images to interpret musically.
Instrument Preparation — Altering sounds of the instruments by placing objects on/in/around it.
J (Back to Top)
Johnny — a category of a player in psychographics, plays for self-expression
Judge (role) — Participant that affects only the outcome of the game.
K (Back to Top)
Karaoke — Amateur singing used as a pastime, most often to a backing track and with lyrics displayed.
King-making — Game design issue that occurs in competitive games for more than two players when one's result is not dependent on one's performance.
L (Back to Top)
Leader problem — See: quarterbacking
Learning curve — Characterization of progress of skill during the gaming experience.
Ludomusical dissonance — Situation when gaming incentives in a music game lead Players to play worse music.
M (Back to Top)
Mechanic — A subsystem of the game that regulates interaction with a game state.
Music game — A set of rules that control players to create music.
N (Back to Top)
Non-idiomatic music — The genre of "no genre", also known as free music.
O (Back to Top)
Open work — A work of art which is not fully determined by its author.
P (Back to Top)
Parameter — A scalable quality of the material.
Pervasive Game — A game where the gaming experience blends with the real world.
Player (role) — Participant that takes full part in the game. One of the Roles.
Preparation — See: instrument preparation.
Prompter (role) — Participant that gives signals to change music without deciding about the direction of that change.
Psychographics — Three player types, Timmy, Johnny, and Spike, by main internal motivation to play.
Q (Back to Top)
Quarterbacking — Game design issue that occurs in cooperative board games when all decisions are taken by one player that is more skilled in the game than others.
R (Back to Top)
Rhythm Cards — Cards that show rhythmic cues.
Roles — A way of participating in a music game (like playing, conducting, accompanying or judging).
RPG — Role-Playing Game, a game where main focus is assuming the role of a fictional character.
Rule Cards — Cards that provide instruction to players (usually in text).
S (Back to Top)
Segue — smooth transition
Skill ceiling — see: Learning curve
Skill floor — Minimum skill required to play the game. See: Learning curve
Speedrun — Playing the game as fast as possible.
Spike — a category of a player in psychographics, plays for the challenge
Stacking — An arrangement or a mechanic of there being more and more of something.
T (Back to Top)
Tagging Out — A transition done when one player (usually of his or her own initiative) swaps in for another player.
Testing — Part of game development where you check what the actual game experience is. Key phase of iterative design process.
Timmy — a category of a player in psychographics, plays for an unusual experience
Trading — When two musicians interchange their playing.
Transition — Changing from one section of the work to another.
U (Back to Top)
Upgrade — Game mechanics of providing better possibilities to the player.
V (Back to Top)
Victory condition — A rule (preferably precise and conclusive) that decides who wins the game.
W (Back to Top)
Warm-Up — A simple activity that improves engagement in complex ones
Win condition — Same as victory condition.
X (Back to Top)
Xenochrony — Extracting a part of one piece of music and combining it within a context of a rhythmically different piece.
XP — "Experience points" — gathered during some games to gain upgrades.
Y (Back to Top)
Yes, and... — Method of improvising when you accept everything that is played and do something with it.
Z (Back to Top)
You can contriute to the glossary, e.g.:
gaming terms: Bluff, Buff, Combo, Component, Draft, Eurogame, Flavor, Hook, Ludology, Nerf, Worker Placement…
music terms: A Capella, Canon, Concept, Da Capo, Drone, Fermata, Movement, Music of Friends, Notation, Polyrythm, Program music, Timbre, Variation
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http://musicgames.wikidot.com/glossary:skill-ceiling/noredirect/true
