The song remains the same

We had our Ricktoberfest party last Saturday night.  I think it was a success, people seemed to have fun.  One of the attractions was a musical "Name that tune" type game. People seemed to like it.  I have a line 6 studio 110 which I played the music through.  It was sort of a pain, until i realized something has to be plugged into the input for CD/MP3 input to work, stupid design.  So if you plug just a cable into the input you are fine, just if you have had the same problem.  Once there It worked great!

I ran the first few rounds playing pretty easy songs and did a point for either song or artist.  After four rounds I started doing a point for song and a point for artist; I don't think i would do this in the future it kept the points too close.  I would say go around six round with either and then require both.  Depending on how much fun everyone is having and how long they have to stay.

From there i started throwing out hints for a few rounds.  It was harder and I have a fair amount of trivia soaked into the back of my head.  I also threw out some easy songs that were just sort of goofy and fun here.  MMmbop and Baby got back come to mind.  It was a laugh.  I also tried for a few lay up songs that were just for one of the people playing.  Throwing a bone that surprises people is fun.  But you have to know the person playing.

We finally broke it down to a single group and they played head to head.  It came down to Yes star ship troopers,  I thought i was giving a fair shot to both players but I didn't know the musical tastes of one them.  I feel a bit bad for giving such a lay up for one.

My though is to make a more formal game out of it.  Possibly asking for players to bring their own ipod/device with a playlist of songs they know.  This way we would be playing with music everyone is an expert in.  I have considered this in a trivia game I was working on.  There would be cards that forced changes in the game.  The cards could be like, pick a hard one or play from my list instead.  Forcing the ref to pick a harder song, or taking a song from a specific players play list.

 Here is the song rating system i used

Easy is a song still played on the radio by a well know group.  Smells like teen spirit could only ever be easy.  ABC by the Jackson 5.

Moderate is a song that the title is pretty easy to guess from a decently known group.  Also well known songs from obscure groups such a one hit wonders.  Too Shy by Kajagoogoo.

Hard songs are hard for some reason.  Obscure name that doesn't come out of the song, Train in Vain by the Clash for example.  Any sort of rarity by a well know group.  Songs and groups that were not huge hits in their day.  Rush's I think I'm going bald or Alphavilles big in Japan perhaps.

Really hard songs are things people would not know.  I am thinking smaller groups.  Joy Division is probably good for this category even Love will tear us apart.  Older songs also seem to get harder, Brandy by Looking Glass was very hard.

Jim's insanely hard songs are often instrumental or songs deep into a genre.  Throw in your Sigur Ros or Mogwai here.  Vio-lence would be fair game or something like Goblin.