Pitch Penguin

Frequently asked questions

Why is this game so hard?

Identifying pitch is a skill that many people may have never practiced. Doing this for the first time may be compared to trying to walk when you have never set one foot before the other. You can get better at it by ear training but it might take some time before your "ear muscles" get stronger.

Is this game only for musicians?

No musical background is required for playing Pitch Penguin! Pitch Penguin does not assume knowledge of music theory. Being a musician may give you an advantage as you are likely a more experienced listener. On the other hand being accustomed to common tonal patterns and scales may sometimes be an handicap in this game as Pitch Penguin simply generates random notes. Pitch Penguin aims to improve music listening skills for anyone.

Playing this game seems to aggitate people around me. Why is that?

Pitch Penguin generates random notes at a constant time interval on a chromatic scale. Except for some rare instances this does not make for what most would consider a beautiful melody. More likely the exact opposite. Other people can quickly get annoyed by being forced to listen to a piercing sound that lacks any kind of structure. We therefore discourage playing Pitch Penguin on the speaker of your phone or tablet and to use earbuds or headphones when other people are around.

Another reason may be that playing this game in certain social settings, like during a date or a job interview, may be interpreted as a lack of interest. Especially when using earbuds or a headphone. As this seems to contradict our earlier recommendation and therefore may be confusing we recommend to not play Pitch Penguin at all in these situations.

Some of the lower pitches are difficult or impossible to hear, help!

Some phone and tablet speakers have difficulty producing lower frequency sounds. You might be able to hear the lower pitches better when using earbuds or headphones.

I heard a pitch of a sound that was higher or lower than the 12 piano keys available to me on screen. What do I do?

Preceding and following the octave you see on the screen is an octave that looks just the same. You may use the twelve piano keys on the screen for all lower and higher octaves as well.

Why do I as a musician have more trouble with this game than some nonmusicians I know?

A reason could be that being accustomed to tonal patterns and scales does not go well with the pure randomness of Pitch Penguin notes. See also the next question: "Why does Pitch Penguin only use the chromatic scale?" Also, people who speak a tone language (many Asian languages like Chinese are tone languages) may have an advantage as for them distinguishing pitch is essential in conversations.

Why does Pitch Penguin only use the chromatic scale (twelve pitches each a semitone apart)?

Support for other scales would complicate the app and would require the user to have some knowledge of scales. A downside may be that for musicians the tones may appear to be way more random than they are used to. An upside could be that being proficient in identifying pitches on the chromatic scale will automatically make you proficient in identifying pitches on most modern Western scales as they are subsets of the chromatic scale.

The training mode offers an escape: Here you can select the keys that you wish to train. You can leave out any notes you would like.

How is Pitch Penguin tuned?

Pitch Penguin is tuned according to the standard twelve-tone equal temperament. In the game the lowest key on screen is the middle C and the following A is set to a frequency of 440hz. The clavier on the score screen is one octave higher.

Were any penguins harmed during the development of this game?

We made sure no penguins were harmed by the development and testing phase of the game itself. Sadly we can not assure no penguins were harmed before, during and after the development of this game, as many potential causes of harm are not fully under our control like global warming, predator attacks and plain penguin bad luck.

What's up with this penguin?

Pitch the penguin usually prefers the cold waters of the Antarctic seas but right now he longs for a weekend of relaxation on a tropical beach.

How far away is this tropical beach that Pitch tries to reach?

We do not know exactly but it is pretty far away for sure.

Has Pitch ever made it to the tropical beach before?

Not that we know of.

But if Pitch has never been to this tropical beach, how does he know that it is worth all this trouble?

He has heard good things about it.

Is Pitch married?

Pitch is not in a relationship at the moment but he hopes to get lucky at this tropical beach.