What is Major Tones, you ask?
It's a celebration of the bands, the beats and the songs that shaped us.
Sure, it's about bringing people together for a showdown of lyrical chops and questionable confidence – but it’s also about taking people back. Back to the high school parties we snuck out of windows to get to, the road trips where we sang until our voices cracked, and the impromptu kitchen choruses that became the soundtrack of our growing up.
Because music is the ultimate time machine – it's there from our first kiss to our last dance and for everything in between; like a personalised playlist of the best, worst and most unforgettable moments of our lives.
Major Tones isn’t just a trivia game. It’s a love letter to the lyrics that raised us, wrecked us, saved us – and that still get belted out in the car while we take the long way home.
So shuffle the deck, cue the nostalgia and let the lyrics take you back. No speakers, no playlist – just your memory, your mates and the song lines that live rent-free in your head.
The major tones origin story
How it started
Some ideas are born in boardrooms. Others are born on a couch at midnight after a solid YouTube session and a few too many spicy margaritas in the sleep-deprived haze of newborn life.
It was created by Melbourne-based journalist, music reviewer and ex community radio host Tianna Nadalin, who is currently writing about herself in the third person.
I started making this game during the Covid-19 pandemic. My partner and I would spend Friday nights queuing our favourite film clips, cranking the volume and turning the living room into a low-key karaoke bar. Then one night I thought: "What if there was a game that celebrated the lyrics that linger long after the music fades?"
Because whether life is messy, mundane or magical, in the moments that define us, music often plays a starring role. We wanted to capture that feeling, to create a game that brings people together to laugh, reminisce, and test just how well they remember the words that once meant everything.
Major Tones was made in the moments between; between lockdowns, late-night newborn feeds, full-time work and freelancing to fund the dream during a cozzie livs crisis.
Born in isolation, built over late-night singalongs and fuelled by nostalgic YouTube deep dives, it shows us that music doesn’t just fill the silence – it fills the space between.
I might be biased, but this game slaps. I hope you have as much fun playing it as I did creating it.