Concerto
Concerto Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Idea of the Game
Concerto is a game that requires you to remember the gestures that you have to perform with the Conductor's Baton - so-called beat patterns. When you record a new instrument in your orchestra, you draw a beat pattern that you have to memorize, and then perform it correctly when used in one piece. If you perform all of the beat patterns in the correct order, you have successfully performed the piece and can collect the points. At the end of the game, the conductor with the most points wins.
Before the First Game
Glue the beat pattern stickers onto each of the corresponding 48 wooden counters (one sticker per counter). Concerto can be played in a standard or in a maestro version, which is explained below. If this is your first round of Concerto, you should choose the standard version. Later you can add the maestro version, which brings more variety into the game, but also will tax your brain all the more!
Contents
- 1 conductor's baton
- 1 game board (as a score sheet) with the winning points bar and game hints
- 4 player pieces
- 48 music pieces in three difficulty levels (easy - green, medium - yellow, heavy - orange) from different genres
- 72 instrument cards with 9 different instruments
- 24 special cards
- 48 wooden counters with 6 different beat patterns
- 20 conductor cards for the maestro version
Aim of the Game
The game is over when one of the players has collected the relevant amount of points (depending on the number of players) or has crossed the finishing line. The number of points needed varies depending on the number of players:
- 30 winner's points for 2 players
- 25 winner's points for 3 players
- 20 winner's points for 4 players
Game Preparation
Shuffle the stack of instrument cards and place the stack face down in the middle between the players. Turn over two cards and place them next to the stack of cards. This represents the job market. If both instruments are the same, place one of them on the discarded card pile and continue until two different instrument cards are revealed. This always applies when you turn over new cards in the job market. There should always be two different instrument cards visible.
Also shuffle the special cards and place the stack face down in the middle.
Divide the music cards into the three difficulty levels (green, yellow and orange), shuffle each of these three colour stacks and place them face down in the middle. Turn over the top music card from each pile, placing them next to each pile.
Place the wooden beat pattern counters with the motif face side down in the centre of the table. Then mix them thoroughly.
Each player should have five instrument cards and a special card from the draw pile. Place two of the five instrument cards in front of you. This is your starting orchestra. Proceed as described below in the section "Action: Placing an instrument card in your own orchestra".
Each of you chooses a player's counter. All the pieces are placed on the score sheet (the winning points) on the starting field corresponding to the number of players in the game. The players then move in the direction of the finishing line, the big clef. Whoever reaches this first, has won.
The player with the best tact begins the game.
Game Setup Example (Two Players)
The setup diagram shows the following areas: instrument cards forming the orchestra (only 2 at startup); instruments, job market and discarded cards; music cards; game board; conductor cards (maestro version); hidden beat patterns; beat patterns standing upright, symbols facing the other players; special cards and discarded cards.
Course of the Game
The game is played in a clockwise direction. When it's your turn, you have the choice between these five options:
- place an instrument card in your own orchestra
- play a special card
- replace cards in your hand
- exchange an open piece of music
- conduct a piece of music
Important: You are only allowed to perform exactly one action per round!
When your turn ends, you pick up as many instrument cards from the stack or from the general job market (or both) that you have three instrument cards in your hand. You also draw a special card if you have no more in your hand at the end of your turn.
Also, fill up the general job market again with two instruments, as is necessary (but only if you have taken all cards). If you draw double instruments, place them on the discard pile until two different instruments are in the general job market again.
Then it's the next player's turn.
Should the instrument or special card stack be used up during the game, then simply shuffle and re-use the discarded pile again. The same applies when the supply of beat figures is used up. This however, does not apply to the music pieces stack!
Action: Placing an Instrument Card in Your Own Orchestra
When it's your turn, you can put an instrument card from your own hand in your orchestra as your action. This instrument must not yet be in your orchestra. Remember that some instruments are less common than others. Since there are nine different instruments, your orchestra can consist of a maximum of nine cards.
The orchestra lies in front of you in a row as a collection of instrument cards. New instrument cards must always be added to the row from the right, sorting or rebuilding your orchestra's cards is not permitted (otherwise the instruments could be sorted into beat patterns, which would make the game too simple). If there is not enough space or gaps are created by removing cards (see below), you may move all the cards to the left closing any gaps, but you may never change the card order in the orchestra. Note: The order of the instruments in the orchestra does not have to match the order of the instruments on the pieces of music (see below), but re-sorting the instrument cards is absolutely not allowed, so that you can not "rearrange" the orchestra to make it easier to remember beat patterns.
Each time you place a new instrument card in your orchestra, you also draw a beat pattern wooden counter. Look closely at the pattern and remember it well. Then you put the wooden counter upright behind the new instrument so that the beat pattern is pointing away from you and that you can't see it anymore. Your fellow players however, should be able to clearly see the beat pattern. The wiggly line on the beat pattern is always at the bottom.
From this moment on you are not allowed to look at the beat pattern any more, do not turn the wooden counter over and look at it again. No cheating or sneaky peeking - even if you have to get up during a game!
From now on your powers of recollection are required!
Action: Playing a Special Card
Instead of playing an instrument card, you can also use your turn to play a special card. The action on the special card must be executed immediately. If the action cannot be performed, the card can still be played but of course has no effect.
Action: Swapping Cards From Your Hand
If you are not happy with the cards in your hand, you can also place one to four cards (instrument cards and the special card) from your hand on the appropriate discard pile and then retake cards from the stacks of special cards, instrument cards or from the job market - to a maximum of four cards (three instruments, one special card). After the exchange, as with other actions, your turn is then over.
Action: Replace an Open Music Piece
As an option in your turn, you can move one of the three revealed pieces of music to the bottom of an appropriate pile and then take a new one from the same pile.
Action: Conduct a Piece of Music
When it's your turn, you can also decide to conduct your carefully assembled orchestra for a piece of music. You select one of the three open pieces of music and announce that you will now perform it. For this purpose, the symbols of the corresponding instruments that are required for the performance are to be seen on each piece of music. You can only perform a piece of music if you have all the necessary instruments for that music card in your orchestra.
In order to successfully perform the piece of music, you must now use the appropriate instruments in the correct order (i.e. the one shown on the piece of music) by showing the correct beat patterns in sequence. Tip: the instrument order of a piece of music only specifies the order in which the instruments have to be conducted. The instruments do NOT have to be in that order in your orchestra.
So, it's getting serious! The concert hall is quiet. You pick up the conductor's baton and gently tap on the podium stand (if you want). Then you lift the baton and start your work.
It is helpful if you briefly point to each instrument when conducting, indicating which instrument will be next. Then you perform the beat pattern. This does not have to be perfect, but so clear that it cannot be confused with other patterns. The players check whether the beat pattern is correct for each instrument. If a beat pattern is presented unclearly, the other players must ask the conductor to explain the intended beat pattern. The beat patterns are explained below.
There are now two options:
- The pattern is correct. The players reward this with applause, calls of "encore", happy nods or other enthusiastic gestures and comments (or complete disinterest). You continue now with the next instrument.
- The pattern is wrong. Then the other players should let you hear loud boos. You messed it up.
Correct: If you have completed all the beat patterns correctly, then the performance was a success. You may put the piece of music in your collection. Move your pawn on the winner's point bar to the appropriate number of winner points towards the goal.
After this you must remove an instrument from your orchestra. This must be one of the instruments used during your successful performance. The musician has been wooed away by an enthusiastic colleague. Place the instrument card and the beat pattern on the appropriate discard pile.
Wrong: If you made a mistake and you earned boo calls, then sadly you have not earned any points and the music piece card is removed from the game.
Unfortunately, you must also separate yourself from the musicians (instruments) who were involved in the conducting error. Put the instrument card and the beat pattern that you messed up on to the appropriate discard piles.
In both cases, you now take a new piece of music card from the difficulty pile that corresponds to the piece of music that you just conducted. If successful, you should do this before you separate yourself from an instrument card so you can better judge what is on the board. After a failed performance, this does not matter, because you have no choice anyway which instrument you give up.
The End of the Game
The player who has first scored the required number of winning points and has reached the big clef on the finishing line wins the game and rightly can call himself the greatest conductor of all time!
For Real Experts - The Maestro Version
If the standard version of Concerto does not challenge you enough anymore and you can direct any piece of music in your sleep, then introduce the conductor cards into the game to challenge your memory with new complications.
Shuffle the conductor cards and place them in a face-down pile. At the start of the game - and then every time a piece of music has been successfully conducted - you draw the top card from the conductor's deck and read it out to everyone. Once everyone has heard and understood what is written on the card, place the card face down next to the conductor deck so that the text is no longer readable. This is now the active conductor card.
The conductor card describes a famous maestro who is a guest in your performance. Every maestro has his own quirks and peculiarities that he values. You need to keep these peculiarities in mind and consider and follow them during the next performance of a piece of music, but you cannot look at the conductor card again.
There are peculiarities that describe something actions (e.g. "play the piece in reverse order"). These are considered to be fulfilled if you take them into account and correctly execute them while conducting the piece. But there are also peculiarities that describe a prerequisite (for example "The next piece must be conducted by the youngest player"). These are considered fulfilled if the requirement is met (i.e. if in this example the next piece was actually conducted by the youngest player).
If you have successfully conducted the current piece while following the peculiarity of the active conductor card, you will receive two additional winning points. If you fail, you have to subtract two victory points from the winning points of the piece of music.
Then a new conductor card is revealed, read aloud and turned over. This is now the new active conductor card. If the stack of conductor cards is used up, continue to play without a conductor.
If you have not successfully conducted the piece, the conductor card has no influence; there is no bonus or deduction. The conductor card remains active until the piece has been successfully conducted.
Some conductor cards cannot be played on all pieces of music (example: "Starts the piece only on the second instrument", when the selected piece has only one instrument). In this case, you have been lucky and can score the bonus points without effort. You can also deliberately ignore a conductor card's instructions (e.g. if the youngest player does not conduct the next piece of music). Then you are allowed to conduct, but you have to accept the two minus points.
If cards refer to the genre of a piece of music, this refers to the category of the piece of music, e.g. "Symphony" or "Church & Cantata".
Note: The conducting player is responsible for the correct execution of the instructions. If in doubt, simply use common sense and agree among yourselves.
With this version of the game you need more points to win:
- 40 points for 2 players
- 32 points for 3 players
- 26 points for 4 players
This can be seen at the starting position on the game board indicated by an additional conductor symbol.
Notes on Special Cards
- Headhunter - Exchanged instruments must not be duplicated in your orchestra after the exchange.
- Sabotage - Opponent may not look at the exchanged beat patterns after swapping.
- Job Sharing - Exchanged instruments must not be duplicated in the orchestra after the exchange. If the instrument placed in the job market causes two identical instruments to be there, it moves to the discard pile. Draw cards from the instrument stack until the job market has two different instruments.
- Repertoire - Pieces of music from all three piles must be exchanged. It is not allowed to draw only from one or two stacks.
Notes on Conductors
- Baniel Darendoim - "Genre" means the category of the piece of music that is the headline of the card (e.g. "Symphony" or "Church & Cantata").
- Mikkado Ruti - After the piece, all other instruments in the orchestra that did not appear in the piece have to be conducted in any order.
- Rimon Sattle - The exchanged beat patterns should not be viewed again.
- Jarl Kohm, Burt Shave, Beonard Lernstein - If the mentioned instruments or beat patterns do not appear in the piece, you still get the two bonus points.
- Hikolaus Narnonfourt, Rierre Poulez - If the piece consists of only one instrument, then the condition is removed, but you still receive the two bonus points. Even if you omit beat patterns here, all instruments for the piece of music must still be present in the orchestra.
- Mitris Ditropoulos - You can also conduct if you do not have a piano in the orchestra, but you get two minus points.
- Mustav Gah|er - You can also conduct if you have less than six instruments in the orchestra, but you get two minus points.
- Nent Kagano - You can also conduct if you are not the youngest player, but you get two penalty points.
- Ruby Zehta - You can also conduct if neither vocals nor choir are used in the next piece, but you get two minus points.
To the Music Pieces
The pieces of music are a cross section of the most famous and popular pieces of different styles and genres. The instruments that appear in the pieces in this game are always just a selection, which corresponds to the focal points of the corresponding pieces. It makes no claim to completeness. For example, in the operetta "Die Fledermaus" woodwind is also used, but to make the game varied, here and there some instruments have been omitted. The same applies to the order in which the instruments are used in the pieces of music.
So please don't be too exacting and be forgiving with regard to these inaccuracies ;-)
Number of Instruments
- Strings: 14 x in the game
- Woodwinds: 12 x in the game
- Brass: 10 x in the game
- Miscellaneous: 7 x in the game
- Percussion: 7 x in the game
- Vocals: 7 x in the game
- Piano: 6 x in the game
- Choir: 6 x in the game
- Guitar: 3 x in the game
The Beat Patterns
Pointing the baton away from yourself - move it vertically up and down.
Pointing the baton away from yourself - move it horizontally to the left and right.
Pointing the baton away from yourself - move it in a circle (in either direction).
Pointing the baton away from yourself - do a stabbing movement (but not in your opponent's eyes!).
Pointing the baton away from yourself - move it in an X shape.
Pointing the baton away from yourself - move it to the top right and then quickly down to the left (with momentum).