Bean senior Aspen Buckingham plays an electronic keyboard in a corner of the garage, but the screen in front of him isn't displaying sheet music. Instead, a stylized cat dodges obstacles and collects record samples. Because learning music should be fun, right? From the Daily Northwestern, I'm Seeger Gray.
This is NU Declassified, a look into how Wildcats thrive and survive at Northwestern. Welcome to another episode of Built This, a series focused on student startups. Buckingham is a co-founder and the CEO of Overture Games, a startup at the garage. We make games for musicians that they play with their instrument.
Overture Games wants to help middle and high school students learn music by making practicing more fun and engaging. That goal comes from personal experience for both Buckingham and one of the other co-founders, Weinberg junior Stephen Jeong, who also serves as the chief strategy officer. I grew up playing the clarinet. I never really enjoyed practicing as much, even though I know it's necessary for musicians to progress.
So I always think there could be an easier way to make progress in music without having to really, you know, struggle and burn out as much. Jeong came to the garage with a plan to make an app that would help students practice music. Aspen overheard my conversation and then I thought it was interesting. So we had a talk after and then decided to build this idea and solve the problem together with video game solution.
Over the past summer, Overture Games started working on a game called Intervallic. Your main character is a starburst and she discovers this fantastic planet where everything is based on sound. The gist of it is she's learning to communicate through music. As a player, you are communicating with that cat to help the cat navigate through the planet.
Dual degree MBA and MS design innovation students Scott Cengiz tested out Intervallic's tutorials using an electronic keyboard. I'll play E4 to jump two lanes. Is that like? Yeah, nice.
It was Cengiz's first time playing Intervallic and the piano. Intervallic is available as a free demo online. It can be played with a computer keyboard or with an electronic instrument plugged in. Buckingham says Overture Games is working on embedding pitch detection, which would recognize notes through the device's microphone.
We know we can do it. We have a lot of great skill on our team. It's just it's the next big step. Bina and Ed Medill sophomore Maya Ravi, a former Daily staffer, has played the flute since sixth grade.
Ravi tried out the startup's current pitch detection feature, which is a work in progress. She beat the first level after a few minutes. Let's go. Let's go.
Ravi says the game could be useful for beginners, especially because it's like hard to learn the fundamentals of the instrument and then also like learn how to read music at the same time. But she says she would practice with Intervallic today as an experienced musician if it had the songs she needed. The game currently includes tutorials and two levels of original music. Buckingham says Overture Games hopes to include a large library of free and licensed songs.
We'd love to have everything from like Macklemore to Lizzo to like Bach and Chopin and every type of music that you might want to play. The team is also working on a way to generate levels automatically from downloaded music. Overture Games next steps include more than technical improvements for Intervallic. Zhang says they've reached out to music teachers at schools across the country.
The next step is to let them try our product, see if there's any potential partnership opportunities. Over the summer of 2022, Buckingham visited Evanston Township High School to have students test out Intervallic and give feedback. They have a keyboard class where students are able to play on their own electronic keyboards, which is the coolest thing ever. Eventually, Buckingham hopes the game will become a tool for music teachers to use in class and encourage students to practice.
We're going to do whatever it takes to help make practicing more fun and learning music more fun. From the Daily Northwestern, I'm Seeger Gray. Thanks for listening to another episode of NU Declassified. This episode was reported and produced by me.
The music is from Intervallic by Overture Games. The audio editor of the Daily Northwestern is Mika Ellison. The digital managing editors are Ava Mandoli and Erica Schmidt. And the editor in chief is Alex Perry.
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