Harmonica Mod - How to create a Harmonica Mod of FOF

[Fazza]

Hi list,

I am just learning to play the harmonica and I think that the concept of FOF would be absolutely PERFECT for teaching people how to play a certain song on this instrument. When I first saw FOF I instantly thought that this would be the best way of learning the harmonica notes since the harmonica is held exactly parallel to the screen and the blow holes are in line with the virtual strings of FOF. However, a standard Harmonica has 10 holes and FOF only has 5 lines that I can use for programming songs. I have installed Python and Eclipse and after trying hard (and failing) to understand even the easiest Hello World program, I have once again accepted that I am just not a programmer. Can anyone please tell me how to make 10 lines out of the 5 and add an arrow to each note which points either away from the harmonica player or towards him/her, so that one knows whether to blow or suck on that particular hole? As I said, I think this is just the perfect interface - It reminds me so much of an old Arcade game - 1942 - where one had to fly up a scrollscreen. I remember that after a while one would eventually figure out at which position the enemies would appear at the top of the screen, so that one could either shoot them or avoid obstacles. With the same method one would be able to learn playing the harmonica and if one makes a mistake at a certain point, one can visually remember where that point is and over time learn which note to play instead. It would be so fantastic to have such a visual teaching tool. I would be very thankful if you could help me realise this. Can you give me any hints where to start?

Thanks and best wishes,

Eric

[Rogue_F]

Take a l look in the mod section. i posted a doc on how to get the environment working correctly for windows.

Once you can run it from the source then you can begin modifying it.

I would suggest starting with the 5 notes, and work on the in/out first. that's probably easiest. you will need some way of indicating this in the midi file (probably just use a different note for in and out), and then you will need to modify the note rendering to check for what kind of note it is and render it differently.

Adding the 10 notes will be harder. you will probably need to make the current notes more narrow, and then add more notes (double because of in and out)

-Alex

[nwru]

I remember 1942, but it didn't make me want to play a harmonica =)

[Fazza]

Yeah, I know it's a weird connection to think of learning to play harmonica when seeing FOF and thinking of 1942

Now, my problem is, that I can't even compile the FOF sources. I am using Eclipse on a Macbook Pro and I get the errormessage, that the OpenGL.GL is missing. Apart from that when I use the 'Export' feature of Eclipse, it creates a .app file in no time and of course the .app file does not work. Does anyone have experience with Eclipse and compiling FOF for the Intel Macbook Pro?

Much appreciated,

Eric

[Rogue_F]

For a mac I can't help you. I don't have one to test on. There's some one who did the mac port and got it working, they might be able to help

-Alex

[Fazza]

Hi and thanks for the tips. I think my idea will cease before it even started. After installing Eclipse and Pyhton and having had a look at the source code, I can see that it requires indepth Python knowledge and I am just not capable of thinking like a programmer. It would be great, but I'll play my harmonica instead Thanks anyway!

Eric

[nwru]

lol, yeah, you would have to REALLY motivated to try to do all of that yourself.

You could try getting something out of DoReMi Mania instead. This wouldn't need much modification, though I don't know about the blow-suck thing. See a discussion about it here.

[Rogue_F]

I don't really know python (I actually dont even like the language) but I've done pretty well as far as making changes. I do know programming in general however.

-Alex

[SketchMan3]

Erm...just for the record, it's usually termed as "blow-draw", to avoid obvious misinterpretations.

[nwru]

Erm...just for the record, it's usually termed as "blow-draw", to avoid obvious misinterpretations.

Ahh, thanks for taking all of the fun out of that =)

[chedabob]

HEHE, the other day, me and some friends were discussing Double Bass Hero, and all sorts of other crazy spin offs :p

[SketchMan3]

Erm...just for the record, it's usually termed as "blow-draw", to avoid obvious misinterpretations.

Ahh, thanks for taking all of the fun out of that =)

You're very welcome.


Double Bass hero would be awesome.
Jazz! and Classical....Ahh.....

[Fazza]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the good hints. I have used the existing version of FoF to do a trial run with just 5 notes and found that - as much as I would like it to be fantastic - it is just average, but that is maybe because I didn't really have a proper way of displaying the Blow and Draw (Thanks for this tip, too notes. However, this trial run reminded me that I can play along with the original song, so thanks a lot for this insight FoF

Fa:z

[spartan]

sooooo in other words you gave up? lol