Interactive Designer, Matthew Irvine Brown, has come up with a whimsical and practical application called Rehearsal Joypad for beginning musicians to hone their musical talents through the magic of Marching Bands.

Brown is of the “practice makes perfect” school of thought and he created a series of wonderfully abstracted marching band insruments, including the cornet, french horn, trombone and everyone’s favorites, the Sousaphone and Euphonium. These practice instruments are to be used with an accompanying video game of a marching band marching their way down Main Street, USA.

The game uses familar music game interfaces where the players precision in following the music is reflected in the precision of the marching bands performance. By playing the game repeatedly, the player can effectively learn the basic scales and fingering before moving onto the real instrument.

And the music for the game is based on the works of 19th century composer William Rimmer whose compositions are strikingly similar to Nintendo classics such as Super Mario Brothers and Zelda. To hear a sample song from the game, click here.

The Rehearsal Joypad won Brown First Prize in the 2006 Student Awards at the Royal College of Arts, London.