Etude

About the Game

🎶 Etude turns live improvisation into a competitive team sport.

Up to 6 players connect into one shared harmonic field called the Band Consensus. Every note you press or release is a vote. Together, those votes define which roots and scales are “in bounds” at any given moment.

Stay inside the Consensus and the band hears you. Step outside it and your notes are lost in the void — silent — you flash red and your Elo-style rating takes a hit, without poisoning the mix for other players. The potential harmonic space keeps breathing while players push and pull on it in real time, creating new harmonic avenues.

Your performance is rated by a Symphonic Score, an Elo-style ladder for musical play. Control Ratio and Consensus Leadership metrics keep you from hiding in silence or flooding the room with notes.

Two Ways to Play: MIDI or QWERTY Sequencer

You can enter the arena in two different ways:

• MIDI Mode – Plug in a MIDI keyboard and play directly, note-for-note, against the evolving Band Consensus.

• QWERTY Sequencer Mode – Use the new Sequencer to build loop banks on your computer keyboard. Each key on QWERTY holds a melodic and rhythmic pattern you design; you trigger, layer, mute, and mutate loops live, like playing a sampler.

Both input modes are locked to the same shared harmonic rules. Whether you’re playing by hand or firing sequences, every action is still a vote in the Consensus.

Modes

• Ranked Matches
  Play time-limited games inspired by chess controls: Bullet, Blitz, Rapid. You share one evolving piece of music while managing the clock, making every second and every note count.

• Free Mode
  No timers, no scoring, no penalties. Just the Band Consensus and whatever you and your friends do with it, a sandbox for relaxed jamming, experiments, or onboarding new players.

• Practice Mode
  For those that want to master improvisation. Each game gives you a report on what chords and scales you performed well and poorly on. Use that report to build and connect drills to train the reflexes you bring back into the arena.