Needed help for musical puzzle

[kaaZ]

Hey guys...I'm doing this adventure game set in the delta-blues era.
All puzzles and plot have been written except for one puzzle. The main
character is equiped with a harmonica (blues harp in c).
Now for this specific puzzle the player has to play a specific song (needless to say a blues song would be best) to trigger an event in the game.  I made an interface which allows the player to play any note that you could play on a harmonica in C major, 10 hole. Thus playing a song in these relatively notes
http://www.michael-thomas.com/music/class/harmonica_notes.htm
is possible.
Now my problem is the puzzle would probably be a dissapointment if the the player is trying to play a song that he has never heard (thoug I will give the player directions on how to play the specific song). I could go like "Yeah I'll let him play that cewl lead belly or robert johnson riff" but I'm not sure if people would apreciate playing a song they've never heard of.  I could realy use some advise on some songs, preferably old bluess songs, that would be known to most people and are not to difficult to play for someone who never touched an instrument (Okay we're talking about a virtual instrument, but still). Anything that comes in mind to you guys is more that welcome.

I know, this is a probably a strange question/topic but it's been bugging me for a few weeks so I just give it a try since I couldn't find a cewl solution myself.

Cheers and thanx in advance,

kaaZ

[Flippy_D]

Think Ocarina of Time. The way that was done, was you were taught it and it was viewable in your inventory. It worked well, and you could do that here. When being taught the notes were faintly viewable on the stave as well. If you don't know what I mean google 'ocarina of time ocarina videos' or something. You could have a stave appear and the player has to click the right places to make the notes of the song (once he's learned it), then the song will play. Or you could do a gizmo doowacky thing to use the number keys to play it.

Really like the look of crossroads by the way, very stylish.

If I've mis-understood then let me know.

[kaaZ]

The interface for playing the instrument is already coded. What I meant was...If the player has to solve how to play the song by reading it from some kind of musicsheet and never heard the song before it wouldn't be as fun as playing that same song while you actualy know the song. This could indeed be solved by some teaching process like you refered to. Another way would be to choose some well known song which most people know. But since it must be a delta-bluesy song I'm not sure if most people know any songs that would fit the genre.  Are there any blues titles you think most people know, from that era ? I can name loads of songs but I'm not sure if they are well known to others.

Cheers!

kaaZ

[Flippy_D]

Chattanooga choo choo, Penslyvania six five-thousand, Take five, anything really. Glen Miller songs will almost always be recognised, and if not, they're great tunes anyway.
However.
On a harmonica they might sound a little weird, but... hey. Another way to get the score would be to maybe get different parts from different musicians to get the musicial score? Bass line, chorus, verse... just an idea.

[PureGhostGR]

eerr.. I don't know if this will help.

If the song is so unusual why don't you add it in the game's music. (anywhere from the main titles to an (in-game)old jukebox playing it.. or a gramophone).

That way the character will know what to expect.

Alternatively you could have an in-game teaching session with another character teaching the specific song to the player in the begging of the game as a tutorial on who to use the music interface.. or something along these lines..

Finally you could take a REALLY popular song and give it a ?delta-bluesy? tune twist.. (I am not familiar with it either sorry)

[m0ds]

Wow, can I just say your game looks hot, even if I am just judging it by the banner. I can't wait to play it.

m0ds

[MrColossal]

yea kaaz is doing amazing things with graphics and i want to have babies with him

and i'd say not to look for a song everyone knows cause then it may just seem generic, i want to experience something new if ya know what i mean

also there's no way you can assure that everyone will know the song unless, as Ghost said, it's in the actual game

[remixor]

Chattanooga choo choo, Penslyvania six five-thousand, Take five, anything really. Glen Miller songs will almost always be recognised, and if not, they're great tunes anyway.
However.
On a harmonica they might sound a little weird, but... hey. Another way to get the score would be to maybe get different parts from different musicians to get the musicial score? Bass line, chorus, verse... just an idea.

Well, I'm sure this is obvious, but those are all swing except Brubeck's Take Five which is jazz, so I'm not sure they'd fit too well with the mood of his game (especially after checking out that little "screenshot" in his sig)



I agree with Ghost's first idea, I think that would work well.  Anyway, I'm excited for your game, especially with that banner, and I'm looking forward to a musical adventure!

[kaaZ]

Cheers guys! thanx for the feedback. Sometimes ya need others opinion if ya run out of ideas, it sure helped...got some fresh ideas now!
Mrcollosal: Judging on yer avatar it's fine with me...let's have a baby!

and thanx for the compliments...but hey...it's just a banner ;))

=kaaZ=