Wrenbough

A wren lands on the staff with a note. What is it?

Wrenbough is a calm game for learning to read music. Songbirds bring notes to a five-line staff one at a time, and you name each one on a piano keyboard, with letter keys or with a tap. Name it and the bird sings it at its real pitch and flies off to your tree.

It starts gently with the treble clef lines, then the spaces, the whole staff and the ledger lines above and below. Then the bass clef, both clefs mixed, middle C in both places, and finally key signatures with one and two sharps or flats.

There is no timer and no punishment spiral. A wrong key costs nothing but the "first time" mark: you get a hint (the lines of the treble clef are E G B D F), and after a second try the right key lights up. A note you miss comes back a little later, and the game keeps drilling the notes you find hard until they stick.

• 20 short stages of 12 notes each, with one to three stars for the notes named the first time
• Every note is a bird you raise: from an egg to a chick, a fledgling and a songbird that lives in your tree, so you can see what you know
• Practice: treble, bass or both, starting with the notes you miss most
• Daily set: twelve notes from both clefs, the same for everyone today
• Hear each note at its real pitch (can be turned off), soft birdsong and a quiet meadow
• Letter names on the keys for beginners; turn them off when you know the keyboard
• For children and adults; mouse, keyboard and touch; progress saved in your browser; no ads, no account

Code and text written with AI assistance; checked by PN Scripts with automated tests. The staff, clefs, notes and birds are drawn and the sound synthesised by code.