One Small Step

Answer: CHROMATIC ABERRATION

By Ben Coukos-Wiley

The puzzle consists of nineteen audio files, each one a rendition of a melody played on piano. The number of notes played is the same as the number of letters in the title of the song or piece, and a single note per file is off by a half-step. Melodies that are not immediately recognizable can be identified by length and by the fact that the audios - with one notable exception - are sorted alphabetically by title. The index of the incorrect note is different for each file, making finding the accidental error easier.

Initial order	Melody	Length	Error	Accidental
1	ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST	22	17	Sharp
2	BINARY SUNSET	12	7	Sharp
3	BUGLER'S DREAM	12	11	Sharp
4	BAD ROMANCE	10	1	Sharp
5	DOWN BY THE BAY	12	10	Flat
6	HALLELUJAH	10	8	Flat
7	HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU	18	6	Flat
8	IT'S A SMALL WORLD (AFTER ALL)	22	3	Flat
9	LA MARSEILLAISE	14	13	Flat
10	LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN	25	14	Flat
11	MY FAVORITE THINGS	16	16	Sharp
12	OLD MACDONALD HAD A FARM	20	12	Sharp
13	O TANNENBAUM	11	5	Flat
14	SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL MAIN THEME	28	15	Flat
15	TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS	22	19	Flat
16	THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER	21	18	Sharp
17	WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU GO-GO	21	9	Sharp
18	WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN	25	4	Sharp
19	WILLIAM TELL OVERTURE	19	2	Flat

Since the number of notes is equal to the length of each audio's title, it's reasonable to assume each note represents a letter. Further, since one of these notes is shifted up or down by a half step, we can adjust the corresponding letter of the title in a similar way - one letter up for a sharp or one letter down for a flat. By doing this, the one exception to our earlier alphabetization (Bad Romance) is resolved, revealing that the audios were in fact sorted by their modified title.

Below are sheet music transcriptions of each melody. Transcribing or playing by ear is unnecessary for solving the puzzle, but it may help in identifying the wrong notes. For this purpose, all melodies are transposed into key of C, meaning that all notes except the errors land on white keys.

Modified sheet music for 'Another one Bites The Dust'

Modified sheet music for 'Binary Sunset'

Modified sheet music for 'Bugler's Dream'

Modified sheet music for 'Down by the Bay'

Modified sheet music for 'Happy Birthday To You'

Modified sheet music for 'It's a Small World (After All)'

Modified sheet music for 'La Marseillaise'

Modified sheet music for 'London Bridge is Falling Down'

Modified sheet music for 'My Favorite Things'

Modified sheet music for 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm'

Modified sheet music for 'Super Smash Bros. Brawl Main Theme'

Modified sheet music for 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'

Modified sheet music for 'The Star-Spangled Banner'

Modified sheet music for 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go'

Modified sheet music for 'When The Saints Go Marching In'

Modified sheet music for 'William Tell Overture'

For the final step, we sort by the index of the accidental error and extract the shifted letter from each audio.

Initial order	Error	Accidental	Modified Title
4	1	Sharp	CADROMANCE
19	2	Flat	WHLLIAMTELLOVERTURE
8	3	Flat	ITRASMALLWORLDAFTERALL
18	4	Sharp	WHEOTHESAINTSGOMARCHINGIN
13	5	Flat	OTANMENBAUM
7	6	Flat	HAPPYAIRTHDAYTOYOU
2	7	Sharp	BINARYTUNSET
6	8	Flat	HALLELUIAH
17	9	Sharp	WAKEMEUPCEFOREYOUGOGO
5	10	Flat	DOWNBYTHEAAY
3	11	Sharp	BUGLERSDREBM
12	12	Sharp	OLDMACDONALEHADAFARM
9	13	Flat	LAMARSEILLAIRE
10	14	Flat	LONDONBRIDGEIRFALLINGDOWN
14	15	Flat	SUPERSMASHBROSARAWLMAINTHEME
11	16	Sharp	MYFAVORITETHINGT
1	17	Sharp	ANOTHERONEBITESTIEDUST
16	18	Sharp	THESTARSPANGLEDBAONER
15	19	Flat	TAKEMEHOMECOUNTRYRNADS

This gives us the answer CHROMATIC ABERRATION - a perfect description of this puzzle's core mechanic.

Author's Notes

As soon as I saw "chromatic aberration" was an option for the meta, I knew exactly what sort of puzzle I was going to make. I'm a music lover and one of my favorite things to do is listen through scores for motifs, so writing a melody recognition puzzle was inevitable. But what drew me to this idea, aside from the fantastic pun answer, is the intrigue of figuring out which note in a melody is wrong. There's something almost comical about a familiar tune being interrupted by a wrong note, whether it be off by a full octave or a mere half step.

This puzzle ended up going through many, many revisions. Following a disasterous test of color-related songs in which people were unable to find wrong notes in the chromaticism of Rhapsody in Blue and the Pink Panther Theme, we decided to only work with songs that stayed entirely in-key. This had the added bonus of making the puzzle answer even more fitting, as all abberations would actually be chromatic (we stayed away from B->C and F->E changes for this reason as well).

The second big improvement came in giving each melody a single wrong note rather than as many as we felt like, and making those indices different for each one. This was done in order to prevent miscounts or mis-identification of wrong notes, and ended up working like a charm. It went from being a whole-team multi-hour puzzle to one doable by a couple solvers in an hour or so.

Over the course of writing the eight or so versions of this puzzle I have copied and transcribed over 200 tunes into my music notation software. In sheer amount of work it's up there, but I'm very proud of how it's turned out. I think it's a testament to how important it is to adapt based on feedback, and how ideas that seem impossible or ridiculous can be realized if one is flexible with their implementation.