I’ve had six years of piano lessons and a stint of playing the baritone for my middle school’s band, but not once did I feel like a musician until I picked up Sound Shapes for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3.

Sound Shapes is a combination of a DJ suite and old-school Mario-like game. Music has always seemed like a chore to me, but Sound Shapes made creating music a game in and of itself.

The premise behind this indie gem is almost immediately understandable. You play as a little blob that jumps and moves around environments in the search for musical orbs. With every orb collected, the level’s music evolves. Players might introduce a quirky banjo riff or a thumping bass guitar. By the end of a level, you’ve gone through the process of creating a song.

This is the beauty behind Sound Shapes, each level is personal because you feel as if you’ve created the music. You are constantly adding layers of sounds together to create some beautifully zany songs. It’s incredibly hard to complete a level without reaching all the musical orbs. I didn’t want to continue until I heard every sound that the artists put in the game.

The game is split between five stages, or albums, each containing an average of five songs. Several popular musicians have created exclusive albums for the game including Deadmau5 and, a personal favorite of mine, Beck. The art style shifts radically among each album, with Deadmau5’s levels looking very ’80s techno inspired. After about three hours, I reached the final Beck levels, and I was already hooked on the game.

Each completed level unlocks sounds and objects to be used in the game’s surprisingly simple level creator. The level creator involves two parts: creating the music and creating the environment. With a few button clicks, I created my first song and environment in about 15 minutes. The sounds continue to loop, so I was able to experiment with the pitch and tone of each sound until I was happy. With Sound Shapes, players can upload their levels for anyone to play.

I thought the game ended with those two game modes, but it didn’t.

Finishing each of the albums is only the start of the game. Two modes are unlocked that extend the game. The first is called “Beat School,” which is like an introduction to the level creator. A beat repeats in the background, and the game tasks players in recreating the tune. It gives you the tools to become sound mixologists, learning how to mix and edit sounds together to create chords, lullabies and unique mixes.

The next mode is the “Death Mode.” Revisiting parts of past levels, the player is given a number of musical orbs to collect in a set amount of time. The first level I played on Death Mode, I got my ass handed to me. I needed 12 orbs and had 38 seconds to do so. I only got two before I died. This mode is like the game developer’s response to the easiness of the main mode. It’s like they are saying, “Well, you thought this game was easy? Think again.”

Without a doubt, my experience with this game on both the PS3 and PS Vita was an absolute joy. Never before have I said that a game requires headphones, but this is simply one of them. I’ve found myself returning to the game to listen to the Beck songs that are found nowhere else. How Sony was able to rope in these artists is beyond me, but I’m glad they did.

Sound Shapes is available on the PlayStation Network for $15, which gives you both the PS3 and PS Vita versions. I would be lying to you if I didn’t say this game is completely worth the admission fee. It’s a concert in your hands: you control the show, the sounds and, most importantly, the fun.