Melody Lock Game

A vault door with a combination dial sits above a small piano. The keys light up one at a time to play a short tune. Play the same keys in the same order and each right note turns the dial one notch. Finish the tune and the vault swings open. The next vault plays the same tune with one more note on the end, so the load on your memory climbs one step at a time.

How to play

1. Watch and listen. The keys light up one at a time, each with its number, and a tile above the vault fills with that number.
2. When the sign says YOUR TURN, play the same keys in the same order. Each right key turns the dial one notch.
3. Play the whole tune and the vault opens. The next vault plays the same tune with one new note on the end.
4. A wrong key trips the alarm. The right key lights up to show what it was, and the round plays again with the same tune. 3 alarms end the game.

Round 1 has 3 notes, so round 3 has 5. Each note of the tune takes 0.6 seconds in round 1 and 5% less in each round after it, down to 0.3 seconds. Your own turn has no clock, so take as long as you need to play the tune back. REPLAY plays the tune again, once in each round, and your turn then starts over from the first note.

The seven keys are one octave of C major, numbered 1 to 7. Sound starts off on a first visit. The speaker button above the vault turns it on, and each key then plays its note, so you can hold the tune by ear. With sound off the game plays the same way from the lights and the numbers. On a keyboard, press 1 to 7 for the keys, or A S D F G H J like a computer piano, and R to replay. Escape or Space pauses.

Scoring

• An opened vault scores 100 points for each note of its tune.
• Round 1 scores 300, round 2 scores 400, and round 3 scores 500.
• A round that ends in an alarm scores nothing until you open it.

Points come only from the vaults you open, never from how fast you play. Your five best scores are saved in this browser, with the round each game reached. In practice, alarms are not counted, the tune can be replayed as often as you like, and the game never ends on its own. End it from the pause screen. Practice games are not saved.

Ways to remember the tune

This is the game of Simon, which tests how long a sequence you can hold and repeat. Most people start by ear or by watching the pattern of the lights, and both get harder with every note the tune gains. Because the tune only ever grows at the end, you can keep it in pieces: sing the first four notes as one phrase, the next four as another, and add to the last piece as the rounds go by.

The numbers on the keys give you a third way. A tune of 3 5 1 4 2 is also the number 35142, and a number can be turned into pictures. The Number Shape System gives each digit a picture of its own, and the Major System turns pairs of digits into words. Put each picture at a place in a memory palace and the tune can grow far past what your ear will hold.

Read about whether a memory system could be built on music, or try our other free memory games.