Voicebraid: Counterpoint Game

Update guide

Version 3.0 (build 6)

This guide covers version 3.0. The current website catalog lists version 3.0. Check the App Store for availability on your device; the features below require version 3.0 or later.

Version 3.0 (build 6) is now available on the App Store. The following describes this update.

Voicebraid is first-species counterpoint as a puzzle: a fixed melody (the cantus firmus) is given, and you write the voice above it, one note against one note.

SIXTY STUDIES, SIX MODES The cantus firmi rotate through Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, and Aeolian, in lengths from 8 to 12 notes. Each moves by step or third and closes re–do on its final. Every study has a verified solution.

A VERDICT ON EVERY NOTE - The interval against the cantus, named: minor 3rd, major 6th, perfect 12th - The motion at every step: contrary, oblique, similar, parallel - Rule faults at the note where they happen: dissonance (including the 4th), parallel and direct (hidden) 5ths and octaves, inner unisons, notes outside the mode (other than the raised leading tone), the melodic tritone, leaps other than 3rds to 5ths, the ascending minor 6th and the octave, weak openings, and the cadence (a major 6th opening to the octave, with the raised leading tone where the mode needs it) - Style cautions that cost points: unrecovered leaps, repeated notes, more than three parallel 3rds or 6ths, voices more than a 10th apart - Contrary motion is rewarded wherever you find it

NEW IN 3.0 - Studies map: saved progress, best scores, solved and clean medals, progress by mode, and your phrase in progress kept for every study - Hints that point to the next note to fix, and a model answer when you are stuck (it never earns a clean medal) - The braid: both lines drawn together, with faulty notes highlighted - Note names spelled in the study's mode (C♯ in D Dorian, A♭ in E♭ Ionian) - Playback at three tempos, and MIDI export of any study for GarageBand, Logic, or a notation app

LEARN THE RULES A written primer in nine short chapters explains exactly what the evaluator checks and why, following standard first-species teaching.

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Guide updated 2026-11-12.