Amethyst horn - a musical instrument for creativity and improvisation

Creativity and exploration are both important core themes of Minecraft. While copper horns encourage socialization and playing music together, they do not encourage creating unique melodies or exploring musical possibilities.

My solution to this is the amethyst horn. Amethyst horns are craftable with any goat horn and a piece of amethyst, and they can be used to play music. Unlike copper horns, you can play the available notes in any order you like.

There are three different kinds of amethyst horns for 3 different octaves. This is like the 3 different ways of playing the copper horns, and serves the same function of encouraging social play. Each player can play in each octave.

To play a note, you would right-click the amethyst horn. You can select from the notes in a pentatonic scale by looking straight down, diagonally down, straight forward, diagonally up or straight up. (Mobile users could tap buttons on a GUI instead.)

• Looking straight down would play a C.
• Diagonally down = D
• Straight forward = E
• Diagonally up = G
• Straight up = A

(This is the C major pentatonic scale. A better fit for more somber music could be the C minor pentatonic scale (C, Eb, F, G, Bb).)

These notes form a pentatonic scale which sounds harmonious to the ear regardless of the order notes are played. This reduces the amount of social coordination or musical talent required to play music together, while still enabling unique compositions.

Left-clicking plays the horn, but with each note sharpened slightly (C#, D#, F, G# and A#). This could offer an optional way to produce dissonance, like the 'black keys' on a piano when playing in the C major scale. These would require social coordination to play well in a social setting, but can safely be ignored.

You can right-click a note block with an amethyst horn to automatically tune the note block to the note last played with it. This simplifies transcribing a tune once you've created one you like, and you can adjust the note block normally afterwards.

I am not a musician of any kind - all of this should be reviewed by people with more musical training before it's implemented!