The Musical Card Game

Aim

A pack of cards that makes music! Shuffle the cards. Turn them over. Play the tune

The Musical Card Game is a beautifully illustrated pack of bridge-sized playing cards that doubles as a simple musical composition game.

Every time you shuffle and deal, you create a different waltz — with over 65,000 possible combinations.

You don’t need to be a composer. You don’t need to learn complicated rules.
Just turn up the cards, pick up your instrument, and see what music you’ve made.
Help bring the first edition into production.

How does it work?

It’s surprisingly simple.
1. Shuffle the deck.
2. Turn cards over one at a time.
3. Keep the first Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8 and 7 you reveal.
4. Read the music represented by those eight cards.

And that’s your tune.

Because each suit represents different music, the cards can generate
4⁸ = 65,536 different combinations.

Shuffle again, and you get another one.

It’s part card game, part musical experiment — and every deal is a new tune waiting to be played.

Who will enjoy it?

• Musicians — use the cards to generate new tunes and musical ideas.
• Folk musicians — play the waltzes on fiddle, melodeon, whistle, flute, recorder and more.
• Card players — it’s a genuine bridge-sized deck, so you can also use it for traditional card games.
• Beginners — the tunes are deliberately simple and approachable.
• Musical families and friends — shuffle, deal and discover what tune you’ve created together.

Help bring the Musical Card Game to life

The game has been designed, the music has been written and the artwork has been created.

Now I’m raising £4,000 to produce the first edition. The closer I can get to 100% funded will enable me to have 1000 decks printed. If the target isn't reached, that's ok - I'll just make fewer decks! The cards will be going to press in either case!

Your support will help turn the design into a finished physical deck that you can shuffle, play and — most importantly — make music with.

Whether you want one for yourself, for a musician in your life, or simply love unusual card games, every pledge helps make the first edition possible.

Thank you for helping me make this rather unusual little deck of cards a reality.

Please Note: If you are not in the UK you need to add an extra donation to cover the cost of postage.

Of course with a pack of cards you need picture cards and these have been expertly designed by the wonderful artist Daria Kulesh. Each character is playing a musical instrument and look utterly amazing!

This deck of cards is a full set of bridge sized playing cards, so not only can you play music you can play cards!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 18th October 2026 at 1:40am