Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory

by John Kuzmich, Jr.,

Important Copyright Notice:

Originally published in the September, 1999 issue of School Band & Orchestra published by Larkin-Pluznick-Larkin Inc.,

pp. 50 and 52.

Web Page for the School Band & Orchestra Magazine

Link within this document for Guitropolis Review: Guitropolis


Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory, Volume 1, by Andew Surmani, Karen Farnum Surmani and Morton Manus (Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.). Macintosh system requirements: Macintosh 68040 processor or higher Mac OS 7.1 or higher, 16 MB RAM, 18 MB of hard disk space, 640 X 480, 256-color display and 4X CD-ROM drive. PC system requirements: 486-DX2 66 MHz or higher CPU, Windows 3.1 or higher, 16 MB RAM, 18 MB of hard disk space, Windows-compatible sound card, 640 X 480 pixel 256-color display and 4X CD-ROM drive. A unique music theory material in that it does not require any prior musical experience. The software is based on the best-selling series of the same name. There are three books of 40 pages each, with each book contain 6 units. A unit consists of four or five pages of instructional material, including written exercises, an ear training page and a review page. The ear training module features acoustic instruments such as piano, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, trumpet, trombone, violin and cello. In addition to listening examples, the ear training also includes rhythmic, melodic and harmonic dictation. Pedagogically, Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory features narration, musical examples and animation that strengthen and promote learning. Scored reviews help you track student progress. The record keeping module tracks basic student information such as a name, address, an e-mail address, phone numbers, etc. This program which consists of three volumes. Volume 1 covers 25 lessons including treble and bass clefs, common time signatures, accidentals, whole and half steps tempo makings and articulations to up to 8th notes and rests. Volumes 2 and 3 will be released early in the year 2000. Together, the three volumes have 75 lessons which represents a rather comprehensive amount of music theory instruction that progresses in small increments.

One of the strong points of this product is that it reinforces new concepts with colorful games and exercises. It also maintains students' overall and individual scores for each unit of instruction. One of the most useful features is a Glossary and Index of Terms and Symbols. This glossary offers definitions of all terms and symbols in the lessons, including pronunciations, and visual and audio examples. The glossary can be accessed at any time by clicking on the Terms button on the left side of the screen. I like how this product is available for both the Mac and PC platforms which works great for educators who may have a different computer platform at home. The CD-ROM that comes with the software works both on PC and Mac computers. There is an educator version which requires that students and educators log in with user name and password. The educators' version's functions with full score keeping and record keeping and record keeping for up to 200 students per volume. All exercises and ear training screens can be replayed for further reinforcement before the student moves on to more challenging material. In the review section at the end of each unit, although students do get immediate feedback indicating which answers are correct or incorrect, they may not go back and change an answer once it has been entered. Reviews cover everything learned in the unit, including ear training. The review functions as assessments for teachers and do not show scores while being taken, but rather display and then record the score at the completion of the unit review. Each review is scored in five sections; descriptions of the sections are available at the Scores screen. At the completion of the review, a student's scores are displayed and recorded for each section, as well as an overall score for the unit., and an overall score for all units taken up to that point. Reviews are scored based on percentages. The number of times the student has taken the review is also recorded. Once a review has begun, users may not leave without losing their score.

What makes this theory course innovative is that it is available in either three separate books of 40 pages each with two audio CD's or on a CD-ROM. The ability to use this theory class with and without a computer CD-ROM is unique, especially if you don't have enough computer workstations. Thereby, students can take the books home and do the theory assignments outside of class. Or they can purchase the low-priced Student Version CD-ROM, record their score at home, and then e-mail it to the teacher or bring it in on a floppy disk for the teacher to import into the Educator Version. A Teacher's Answer Key book is also available which includes the answers to all exercises and review pages, and written ear training examples for teachers who prefer to use the piano for the ear training. There are fun activities such as a crossword puzzle, word search game, note naming game and dynamics reinforcement game. An alto clef version of each book will be available in the fall.



Guitar Study:

Alfred's Guitropolis

reviewed by John Kuzmich, Jr.,

Important Copyright Notice:

Originally published in the January, 1999 issue of School Band & Orchestra published by Larkin-Pluznick-Larkin Inc.,

pp. 46-47.

Web Page for the School Band & Orchestra Magazine



Guitropolis is software that can take charge of some of your class guitar students who either aren't motivated or need some tender loving care improving their guitar skills. It is a tutorial software product that can actively instruct absolute beginners and guide them with note-reading in both standard notation and TAB with a variety of multimedia instruction. It offers over 60 songs with full accompaniments in a variety of styles. It is multimedia product with a variety of instructional presentations such as video, graphics, sound and text. It even introduces techniques like hammer-ons and pull-offs in a variety of musical styles, such as rock, Blues, jazz and country.

To begin the program, visit Seymor's Guitar Shack and learn about the different types of guitars, how to care for them, and how to tune them. Once you pass the instruction in the Guitar Shack, there are several places to go and learn. Guitropolis is based on Alfred's Basic Guitar Method with ten in-depth lessons. There are games, puzzles and general activities in every lesson. For example, the game, Guitar Analysis, guides you in finding notes on the fretboard. There are imaginative scenes including the coffee house, the recording studio, and a set for a late-night TV talk show. Meet Marv, the Megastore sales guy, Barry Fattrack's Office, the owner of Dollar Records, Mary's Guitar-O-Rama, Wannabe Heights Apartments, Old Guitropolis City-Hall, and Slider (the mentally unstable studio engineer), Jerry's Java Jam, High a Night Club, K-GTRTV Station, Waste-O-Space Storage and Rehearsal Studios and Seymor's Guitar Shack. Included are a guitar tuner, and a chord dictionary.

Guitropolis is a very popular multimedia adventure in my computer music educator workshops. Particularly exciting is the band that backs you up as you play songs and exercises. It is an informative teaching tool with stop-action videos showing exactly what to play. Guitropolis effectively teaches how to finger chords and notes via computer graphics.. There are over ten cool multimedia environments to put you in the spotlight. Fun games reinforce the music lessons. The outcome expectation of this product is that a student will learn how to read music, strum chords, play from popular guitar TAB folios and be ready to play a solo or in a band. Version 2.0 allows students to record themselves.

Guitropolis (version 2) by Alfred Music. Macintosh: 68040 CPU or higher, 7.1 or higher operating system, 24 MB RAM, 32 MB hard disk drive space, 680 X 480 pixels with thousands of colors and 2X CD-ROM. PC: Windows 3.1 or higher, Pentium 75 CPU, 16 MB RAM, 32 MB hard disk drive space, 680 X 480 pixel with 256-color display and @X speed CD-ROM. Address: Alfred Publishing, P.O. Box 10003, Van Nuys, CA 91410-0003. Web site: <http://www.guitropolis.com>


Link within this document for Alfred's Essentials for Music Theory Review: Essentials for Music Theory


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