"The First CD Game"

I first encountered Play it by Ear in my middle school music class. For the purposes of the class, we broke up into teams and selected a spokesperson for each question. It was one of our favorite pastimes in the class, and when our music teacher couldn't come one day, it was the ideal activity to be supervised by a substitute. In this case the substitute happened to be our principal, who had been the kindergarten teacher when my class was in kindergarten. We were having a great time when the selected card instructed the CD controller to go to track 66 for a series of really short stories. It would soon turn into a moment that would live in infamy when the man in the first story began to demonstrate his knowledge of certain vulgar terms. We all loved our principal, but it was pretty comical to see her jaw drop like that. We were very careful to avoid that track thereafter.

A couple years later, we managed to snag it from a WQLN auction. I can't remember exactly what we paid for it, but I think it was around nine dollars. Now when we play it at home, we generally don't keep score. We just take turns asking and answering questions. That way we don't have to be so bummed out by how little we know!

The CD features 99 tracks, each of which is broken up into three separate sections (A, B, and C). Each track has several cards interspersed throughout the deck, each asking a different set of questions. Each card is double-sided, with a different track's questions on either side. There are many different categories to choose from, including TV, Movies, Sports, News and History: 1969 and before, News and History: 1970 and after, Animals, Musical Instruments, Pop Music, Classical Music, Tongue Twisters, Folk Songs, Marches, and Anthems, Short-term Memory, and Really Short Stories. I may have missed a category or two in there, but I think I covered them all.

The Sports and News and History tracks mostly feature news broadcasts or isolated quotes by famous sports figures or politicians. TV and Movies require that you be able to identify a television show or movie by a portion of its soundtrack. The Music categories feature clips of songs. Musical Instruments provides a series of three different instruments or rhythms, while Animals provides three different animal sounds. Tongue Twisters is pretty self-explanatory, as is Really Short Stories. Short-term Memory tracks give lists of items.

Many of the questions are quite tricky. You may here a song clip and be asked to identify the name of a song that group performed with a particular singer. Or you may hear a quote and be asked what political position this person held prior to making that statement. Expect to be stumped a lot.

Some of the tracks are just a lot of fun. For instance, if you were asked to identify a robin among gaily whistling birdsong, low grunting, or "Merry Chistmas," could you do it? Hmmm... And you will no doubt come to love certain recurring characters in the Really Short Stories, such as all those talking machines (an elevator and a pop machine, to name two) and the val gal / surfer dude airheads Cheryl Ann and Leo (the one responsible for the dreaded track 66).

This is a game your family will enjoy playing again and again. I highly recommend it for all -- just watch out for Leo's mouth if you're playing with kids!