Following the success of Hooked on Music, the Music Cognition Group at the University of Amsterdam presents a new game: TuneTwins. Inspired by the classic Memory game, TuneTwins invites you to match pairs of musical fragments and discover how strong your musical memory is.

Play TuneTwins: https://tunetwins.amsterdammusiclab.nl/

TuneTwins is a music memory game that, unlike many popular music games focused on mainstream hits, includes a wide range of musical styles – such as music from the Bayaka people of Central Africa and traditional Chinese music.

Challenge your friends
‘You have to match musical fragments that sound the same’, explains PhD candidate Jiaxin Li. ‘Some pairs are completely identical, while others are deliberately distorted to varying degrees. That’s where the challenge lies.’

Each round consists of 16 music clips. After every round, you’ll see your score and how well you did compared to other players. You can challenge your friends or family on social media to beat your score.

Citizen science
TuneTwins is part of an international citizen science project that investigates how we remember music. ‘We know that most people are much more musical than they think’, says Henkjan Honing, professor of Music Cognition. ‘But how do different aspects of music influence our listening and memory behaviour? That’s what we’re trying to find out with TuneTwins – to better understand how our brain works when we listen to music. But that’s not the only goal. We also want to bring science closer to the general public and actively involve people in our research.’

The researchers have tested the game with children and adults in Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. Li: ‘We hope people around the world will play it, so we can also learn more about musical memory across different cultures.’

The game will officially launch during the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, which takes place from July 21 to 25 in São Paulo, Brazil.