Topic: Attn Wii Music Fans!

terranigma, i'm adding you right now.

I've sent Metroid Italia my cut of the "Tuba Version" of the F-Zero track using toy piano on Melody.

I've also spammed Terranigma with videos mercilessly.

I just rented it. My system code is 8132-6694-3602-2375. I have it until Sunday. I've got a pretty busy weekend though, so I don't know how much I'll be able to play it. If you guys need an extra instrument in one of your songs, let me know and I'll try my best! I'll add everyone in a bit.

@Adam -- ooh, I shall send some of my videos your way, but as for collaborations, I'll actually be out of town starting Thursday, but perhaps, if I have time, I'll start something and pass it along to you for the second part, then it can go from there -- if you've given back your rental by the time it finishes its circuit, maybe someone (Chicken) will be so kind as to put the final outcome on YouTube for your amusement.

Dang, I can't believe how much I have to unlock. I would never have expected that from this game. How do I get some Nintendo music quickly? I can only play Daydream Believer so much.

Also, I'm still getting the hang of this, so it might be best for everyone if your latest jam doesn't make the circuit before my rental expires.

Unlocking stuff involves doing a certain number of lessons (AND saving the videos), playing through all the games, and...um...that might be it. It won't take you too long.

I'll try to get you some vids. Don't know why Wario suggested I put vids on youtube...I don't have that ability! I think he's just trying to make me look like a jerk when they don't appear.

Yeah, it does take some time to get everything unlocked, and the intro sections can be a bit annoying in their simplicity -- I believe a fair number of reviewers never made it past that point, thinking "oh, so it's just a game where you bang out Twinkle Twinkle Lil' Star on a piano?" To get everything unlocked (songs, stages, and instruments), you'll have to do a few things, including I, believe: saving two or three videos, playing through a couple of the lessons, completing all the pitch perfect levels (which you can do quite quickly if you are good at discerning pitches and chords), playing all the handbell songs once (my least favorite side-game), and conducting all the pieces once (which is a joy once you get the hang of it).

The good news is: it'll specifically tell you when you've unlocked everything that CAN be unlocked by saving videos. That'll prevent you from saving video after video after video until the end of time, hoping for a new instrument or something.

@Brutus

I was just referring to the fact that you sort of have that ability, although any one of us can get shaky cam footage I suppose. Making you look like a jerk is just a nice bonus, making it a guaranteed win-win situation either way.

But I do intend to buy a proper USB video capture thingy in time, so then the responsibility will fall to me, I suppose.

Ugh, this pitch perfect nonsense is annoying. It's so easy, but the last song on part seven doesn't seem to have the right notes, so I have to keep wading through the tedium of the rest of the lesson to spend a few seconds failing it miserably.

I don't understand how the whole concept of "unlocking" the game you've already paid for by jumping through hoops hasn't been done away with yet, especially in a game like this. It makes no sense.

I just want to play some songs that aren't Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, sheesh.

Hey, stop bad-mouthing Miyamoto's love-gift to me. It makes Wario frown.

In all seriousness, though, I never had the problem you're describing with Pitch Perfect; if you get through the earlier games faster, though, you'll have more than enough time to fiddle with that last part. Discipline!

I already finished pretty much everything else. I think I realized the problem now though. The guitars each have just enough delay to make me think that one of them is two notes, which confused the heck out of me. They really should have thought better about that for this mini-game.

Bear in mind that all you get from finishing Pitch Perfect is a new background for your music vids. You may want to concentrate on your jam lessons so that you can REALLY ROCK OUT

@wario:
Ha! I forgot I even uploaded that. Okay, fair enough. If it's so desired, I can get footage of similar quality from other jams.

Perhaps it's also an anticipatory tied-note? Those have a natural tendency (to me at least) to sound a bit like two notes due to their crossing of the beat, like the early note leading into the last measures of the main section in Ode to Joy.

Or, it could just be the limitations of the guitar sound, and I could be talking nonsense.

EDIT: Oh crap, I think you're right, Brutus -- Pitch Perfect only unlocks that music room stage. I should have warned him before he spent time going through those lessons. Oh well!

Haha, it was just a bit of delay, nothing more complicated than that. I thought the third note was actually two notes.

I'm on the last lesson now and having even worse problems with the final song on that one. Are you sure there's no song after this? I unlocked a song for beating lesson 4. It'd be weird if you got a song for lesson 4 but only a stage for 8.

I'll just work on saving some videos for now then. I really want to play some game music. I'm surprised how few songs are from games. Seems like a big missed opportunity, though I understand they were trying to appeal to a nontraditional crowd.

Regarding the tracks, when Mr. Miyamoto mailed me my copy of the game, his personal note said that they chose the tracklist on the following rough guidelines:

"RE: the tracklist.

• Axiom A: Whereas it is an international release with everyone receiving exactly the same songs, the tracks needs to cover a lot of ground and include differing regional flavors.
• Axiom B: Whereas the decision was made not to display a scores or guide by default while playing the songs, they need to be relatively simple and recognizable melodies. Addendum: Combining this with Axiom A, it is clear that effort must be made to choose songs that are recognizable around the world, as much as possible.
• Axiom C: Being a game that attempts, first and foremost, to foster creativity with music, there need to be a good number of very simple tracks to get the player started, and on which the player will feel more comfortable experimenting.
• Axiom D: Whereas encouraging a more classical flavor of musical education is important to the game in its differentiation from other rhythm games on the market, some famous composers and pieces will be featured.

So, the consequence is that we numbered it down to the following sections of the tracklist:

• 1. Extremely simple and recognizable songs, pursuant to Ax. C.
• 2. Famous classical works, pursuant to Ax. D.
• 3. Folk tunes from around the world, including ones originating in the US, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and more. See Ax. A.
• 4. Pop tunes, but only ones that made it into the top of the charts worldwide and that nearly anyone is likely to recognize (eg. Material Girl). See Ax. B, Addendum.
• 5. Nintendo tunes, which require no justification.

So, meeting all those requirements was tough, and the classic Nintendo tunes, while present, were not the only thing to factor in while producing the tracklist."

This is the word of Miyamoto for the people of Miyamoto.

I know. I just meant I wish they had put more songs, and that those extra songs would have been from Nintendo games. I have zero interest in the majority of the songs. Fortunately, I finally got Mute City (third Nintendo song... yay), which should entertain me for a good while.

Just remember that unlike most other "music games," you can play each song in this game a thousand different ways, including many rearrangements that are in the same key, but otherwise share no similarities with the song you selected. Once you get a hang of that, the limited track list won't impede you at all. If you want more songs...you can make them yourself.

I think if you play around with it long enough, though, you'll find that many songs which might otherwise not interest you can be very useful for bending into your own creations. You wouldn't find me just listening to Frere' Jacques (unless I'm reminiscing about an awkward television scene with Jean-Luc Picard), but I've had great fun taking the structure of that song and trying other things with it.

But each to his own, of course. You certainly don't have to take Shigeru's explanation at face value, they might have just gotten lazy at the end. Besides, he drew a crude picture of a chain chomp on the back of the note, and circled the chain, so... he might just be pulling my leg.

EDIT: What Chicken said.

I had been trying to do that for awhile but it was difficult because I could hear the original song being played already. Just realized you can eliminate instruments before entering a jam. Doh.

It's an awkward way to go about creating music, but I shall give it a shot.