SHU and Notey Strike a Chord with Young Musicians

Students and alumni honed their skills creating segments of new music instruction app

A sneaker-clad eighth note bounds from pillar to pillar across a tablet screen as a smiling girl watching from a couch nearby plays a simple string of notes on her guitar. As she finishes her jaunty tune, googly-eyed “Notey” reaches the end of the cartoon adventure, high-fiving a G clef and accepting a well-earned bunch of balloons.

Welcome to “Notey’s World,” a new music instruction app available this December, thanks to the hard work of dozens of students and alumni from Sacred Heart University’s Game Design & Development program. Students have worked side-by-side with professional designers, engineers and musicians to develop two of the app’s mini games that teach notes and scales with fun puzzles and role playing, said Professor Jordan Tewell, who is working with the SHU squad.

“The students take it as an internship or use it as a senior project or an elective,” he said. “They’re working as programmers, artists and designers. It’s sort of a fantasy world with colorful music characters that recognizes the sound of the instrument.

“Not a whole lot of games do this. It’s using a novel idea.”

It’s the kind of engaging concept that can make music theory and practice ‘click’ for beginners.

“Using tools already well understood by young children to foster greater understanding of the language of music, coupled with using a musical instrument to play a game is a great way to accelerate learning,” said Ravi Rajan, president of California Institute of the Arts, who has seen the app. “Bravo to Team Notey for their work to strengthen music education through the use of handheld computing.”

Projects like Notey are one of the things that set SHU’s program apart. GDD provides a strong foundation in programming languages, 3D object creation, story creation, virtual reality and computer ethics. Students explore game creation from design through beta testing and published games.

Bob McCloud, associate dean, School of Computer Science & Engineering, secured a grant to work with the Los Angeles-based game developer, Notey, Inc. The hands-on, real-world experience allows students to start building their portfolios, a crucial component to being a desirable candidate in the industry’s job market, Tewell said.

“We want to expose them to a real game studio environment,” Tewell said. “They’re learning new skills, collaborating as a team on code and using Slack and project management.”