ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates what sorts of concepts and skills these music games entail. Of course the concepts are not 'music theory' in the academic sense of published analyses and systems, but rather in the more inclusive sense articulated by Lawrence Zbikowski, who sees music theory as 'a response to a problem. Music games, such as the Dance Dance Revolution series, Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution, require players to relearn habits of movement and thought, and the pay-offs are amazing: what was difficult becomes effortless, and what was impossible becomes simple. Zbikowski's formulation seems particularly apt here, since the music in these games is itself explicitly framed as a problem that demands a response. Although most music games have a 'time axis', it appears in different orientations in different games. Academic music theorists try whenever possible to formalize these strategies for reduction, stating clearly the criteria on which they are based.
