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Toney the Music Tutor

Cart #izzyboris_music_v1-0 | 2025-08-04 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | No License
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Toney the Music Tutor can help you learn to read music!

Sequential lessons and interactive quizzes help you learn the notes of the treble and bass clefs, and where to find them on a piano keyboard!

Lesson progress is saved as you go, and you're free to jump around in the lessons as needed based on your interest and skill level.

Changelog

  • v0.9.2 (2025-08-04):
    • Added lessons for the bass clef
    • Added lessons for practicing all treble and all bass notes
    • Visual improvements (including new note and menu colors)
  • v0.9.1 (2025-08-01):
    • Fixed colors displayed on keyboard to match note colors
    • Added version number to main menu screen
  • v0.9.0 (2025-07-16):
    • Initial release! Supports treble clef lessons, save data and lesson selection.

How to Play

Default keyboard controls:

  • Left/Right: Move to a new note
  • X (PICO-8 "X" button): Select item/note/continue
  • Z (PICO-8 "O" button): Back (in menus)/Hold and press Left/Right to skip a whole octave on the keyboard
  • Enter: System menu, allowing you to reset the virtual cartridge (progress is still saved), or exit an in-progress lesson.

Depending on your previous knowledge or preferences, you can enable/disable various hints and color modes:

  • Note and keyboard colors can help you find keys easily, and can be disabled later when you know them better
  • Note names can be shown for the sheet music and selected keyboard position
  • Sheet music can be de-colorized for a more "authentic" look

Use the in-game Settings menu to configure these hints as you like! Settings are saved in your browser along with lesson progress.

If you want to reset your progress and start over, you can reset all data in the Settings menu.

Feedback Encouraged!

I'm eager to find out how beginners to reading music may be helped by Toney, and get feedback on the lesson flow! Comments from those who already know how to read music are welcome as well to find out how it may be useful to them.

About the Game

This was my first major effort with PICO-8. I wanted a game/app that could help me practice my note recognition and hoped it might be useful for others as well. I learned a lot making this game and had a lot of fun exploring PICO-8's possibilities. The community has been great, too!

The game is released here as a full release, since I'm considering it "complete enough for now," but I still have plans for adding additional features and lessons, so watch this space.

About Me

I'm a professional programmer and retro game enthusiast (and music enthusiast!) who's been getting into solo game dev. Find more info about Toney, including planned features and lessons, and my other projects at itch.io!

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