- General Information
Ease of Use Suitable for All Ages Using the Drills Syllabus specific content System Requirements 41 Topic to Practise!
Divided into 5 topic areas:
Chords Rhythm Harmony & Form Pitch & Melody Testing Features and The Professor
Classroom, Lab & Studio Features, Record Keeping and Reporting
Record Keeping &
Reports Networking & Musition
Datasharing
Available for Windows only.
General Information
 Ease of Use |
Suitable for All Ages |
| Using the Drills |
Syllabus specific content |
| System Requirements |
34 Topic to Practise!
Divided into 5 topic areas:| Rhythm | |
| Terms & Symbols | Harmony |
| Instruments |
Testing Features and The Professor
Classroom, Lab & Studio Features, Record Keeping and Reporting
| Record Keeping & Reports |
Networking & Musition Datasharing |
Classroom, Lab & Studio Features, Record Keeping and Reporting
Record Keeping &  Reports |
Networking & Musition Datasharing |
- Offers three kinds of screen instruction:: lesson, exercise and ear training.
- Contains 75 in-depth lessons.
- Extensive record-keeping abilities
- Includes narration of new concepts which is not common in music theory/ear training applications.
- No prior musical experience required for middle and high school level instruction.
- Improve your ability ito recognize single notes, intervals, melody, salces & chords.
- Has over 100 levels of instruction
- Create your own tests by customizing the exercises and saving them.
- Full record keeping and scoroekeeping of individual students and classes for xercise and tests.
- Use the on-screen, playable piano or plug inyour own MIDI keyboard.
- Sight-read more quickly and accurately
- 651 ear training lessons included!
- Lessons in recognizing and transcribing Intervals, Chords, Scales, Rhythms and Melodies!
- Learn to play, improvise and compose by ear!
- On-screen piano, guitar, bass, violin and more!
- Create your own customized exercises!
- This learning spiral is comprised of twenty nine (29) levels, and at each level the student is immersed in a broad range of musical behaviors, writing, reading and performing music. All learning activities are interactive with immediate feedback for all student operations. There is no "practicing of mistakes" since all student work is monitored instantaneously, and remedial help, including the right answer is always only one click of the mouse away.
- ach of the twenty-nine levels consists of eight relatively independent, yet interdependent game-like tutorials called modules. At each level all modules concentrate on the same subject matter but deal with a different type of musical involvement and expertise. NAME concentrates on aural recognition; ANALYZE teaches visual recognition and naming; SING emphasizes vocal harmonic and reading skills. ECHO builds the keyboard ability to mimic music heard; PLAY trains keyboard performance from music symbols; NOTATE stresses traditional harmonic systems. The final two modules READ and WRITE summarize all of these skills in totally functional contexts.
MUSIC LESSONS' drills move gently from elementary exercises to college level music theory. These essential musical skills will improve your music making no matter what insrument you play.
Learn By Doing
You get interactive feedback on every question. The software even shows you the answer when you're stuck.
Learn By Listening
The ear training drills help you understand what you hear.
You're In Control
Nearly every aspect of the program's interface is under your control, including your choice of sounds and the colors used on the screen.
MUSIC LESSONS Drills
Most ear-training programs do a pretty good job training your ear, but they fall short when it comes to actually teaching you about the fundamentals of music. MUSIC LESSONS goes further than simple ear-training. It helps you learn the basic theory necessary to really understand music. MUSIC LESSONS provides unlimited hours of practice. Its eleven drills each have multiple skill levels and can be done in treble, bass, and alto clefs. Comprehensive help screens explain every musical term and concept necessary to master the drills and progress reports provide a detailed record of your scores.
- Note Reading
- Circle of Fifths
- Key Signatures
- Major / Minor Scales
- Modes
- Jazz Scales
- Scale Degrees
- Intervals
- Note / Rest Durations
- Scales / Modes / Jazz Scales Ear Training
- Intervals Ear Training
- Multiple Skill Levels
- Your Choice of Clefs
- On Screen Music Theory Help
- Keep Your Score
- Progress Reports
- Sound Choices
MUSIC LESSONS supports any MIDI synthesizer, MIDI interface (including Roland MPU-401), or Sound Blaster compatible sound card through the Windows Multimedia Extensions Drivers.
MUSIC LESSONS II Chords and Harmony
MUSIC LESSONS II is the most comprehensive Chords and Harmony software available. It's recommended for intermediate to advanced musicians, ages 12 and up.
PEDAGOGICALLY SOUND
MUSIC LESSONS II develops all four areas of music perception essential to the study of music:
- Visual Recognition
- Written Notation
- Keyboard Skills ( Piano and Guitar )
- Ear Training
SIX AREAS OF STUDY
- Chord Elements
- Triads
- Triads Ear Training
- Seventh Chords
- Seventh Chords Ear Training
- Roman Numeral Chord Identification
THREE STUDY ACTIVITIES
- Naming
- Writing
- Playing
The three study activities, Naming, Writing, and Playing, develop three of the four essential areas of music perception: Visual Recognition, Written Notation, and Keyboard Skills. The fourth area, Ear Training, is covered in the two Ear Training drills, which can also be practiced in the Naming, Writing and Playing activities. Being able to switch between the three study activities in every drill keeps you motived and interested, while reinforcing the musical concepts being learned.
YOU'LL LEARN TO:
NAME chords you see in all keys, clefs, qualities, inversions, and open or closed voicings;
WRITE chords on the music staff in all keys, clefs, qualities, and inversions, using the program's drawing tools;
PLAY chords in all keys, clefs, qualities, and inversions on the program's two instruments (piano and guitar) or from an attached MIDI synthesizer;
HEAR and identify chords in all keys, clefs, qualities, and inversions in the ear training drills.
MULTIPLE LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY
Each area of study has three to four subdrills, and each subdrill has multiple settings. The easier settings work well in the middle school, while the advanced settings are suitable for college study.
CUSTOM DRILLS
Custom drills are easily created to target specific areas of study. For example, you could create a drill to work on the ii - V - I chords in the keys of C, F, and G.
FIVE CLEFS
You can work in treble clef, bass clef, alto clef, tenor clef, grand staff, or any combination of these. In treble clef they can work with three or four part chords in open or closed voicings.
PIANO AND GUITAR INSTRUMENTS
In the Playing activity drills, you answer questions by playing the on-screen Piano or Guitar instruments, or an attached MIDI keyboard.
DRAWING TOOLS
In the Writing activity drills, you answer questions using the program's built in music notation tools.
EAR TRAINING
Ear training is a challenging area for most students. With MUSIC LESSONS II, you can create custom ear training drills with a learning curve that fits your needs.
ROMAN NUMERAL IDENTIFICATION
These drills help prepare for Advanced Placement Music Theory exams.
INTERACTIVITY
You get immediate feedback with on screen scores, and you can work at your own pace. If you don't know the answer, the program will show you. If you don't understand the answer, the built in Help screens clearly and completely explain every musical term and concept used in the program.
OPEN-ENDED DESIGN
Because MUSIC LESSONS II is open ended, you can work on the drills in any order. The software is easily integrated with any existing curriculum.
FLEXIBILITY
MUSIC LESSONS II works with a wide range of learning styles and preferences. Nearly every aspect of the program's interface is under the your control.
HUNDREDS OF DRILLS
The program provides hundreds of possible chord and harmony exercises formed by combinations of the six areas of study, the three study activities, the multiple levels of difficulty, the five clef choices, and the piano and guitar instruments.
PROGRESS REPORTS
Progress Reports provide a detailed record of student scores on every level of every drill. It's easy to view or print the current assignment, any assignment from the past, or the cumulative listing of scores for all drills done in the past and up to the present. The cumulative score listing provides an end of term assessment for each student. Progress Reports can be printed and saved for an unlimited number of students.
BUILT IN MUSIC THEORY REFERENCE
A comprehensive Music Theory Reference explaining all concepts related to the drills is built into the program and is always available on screen.
PRINTED USER GUIDE AND REFERENCE MANUAL
These two manuals thoroughly explain every aspect of the program's use.
Exercises include: single notes, melody, growing melody, intervals, triads, 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th chords, random atonal chords, interval identification, chord type identification, and inversion identification. Users work at their own pace, choosing materials such as keys, scale types, range, pace, chord sets, and many other options.
Listen is built for Mac OS 9 and is compatible with Classic Mac OS 9 on Mac OS X.
- Intervals Aural, Intervals Written,
- Chords Aural, Chords Written,
- Scales Aural, Scales Written,
- Cadences Aural, Cadences Written
- Provide ear training and also teach the students about how to write these onto notation.
- Rhythmic and Melodic Dictation to train their ear and write these rhythms and melodies onto notation
- Clefs to teach about all clefs - treble, bass, alto, tenor and drum
- Writing Dynamics to teach about dynamics, crescendos and decrescendos
- Writing Manuscript (in Publishing section) teaches about notes, rests, accents, dynamics, phrase marks and much more.
Alfred is distributing Mastering Music software from Datasonics of Australia. Alfred is currently handling distribution in the USA, Canada and Latin America. This program does run on the Internet. Schools need to sign up first for a Mastering MusicsSite license, or laptop license, and then they can sign up for a program called Web Connect, which allows the students to access the program from home via the internet. Datasonics is also currently working on Essentials of Music Theory 3.0, which will have the capability to run over the Internet as well. This program should be out in early 2008.
The Sight Reading Tutor covers treble and bass key, melodies in major and minor scales (including natural, harmonic, and melodic minor scales),
accidentals, dotted rhythm, triplets, and various meters. It looks like a good match with the sightreading part of the AP Music theory tests at
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/music/samp.html?musictheory . Beginning to intermediate choir is another area where the program should
prove very helpful.
Except for the first few lessons, the program pronounces singing within a quarter tone as correct. However, during singing, a pitch indicator
provides more precise, instant feedback. Also, the program has been designed for voice only.
- Ear training is an important exercise for all musicians, and you can practice and sharpen your ear training with help from Band-in-a-Box. In addition to the common interval exercises (perfect 4th, minor 2nd , etc.), learning to "play-by-ear" for Jazz and Pop music is further enhanced by ear training exercises to recognize common chord types (e.g. Major, Minor, Dominant).
- Using the Ear Training Window's "Interval Tutor" module, Band-in-a-Box will play an interval and it's your job to guess what it is. To guess an interval, you click on the appropriate up or down interval. You can have the interval replayed if you didn't get it the first time.
- There are a number of settings that you can use to determine the key that you want the intervals to play in, the difficulty level of the interval, or what type of interval you want to practice. For example, you can have the first note be the root of the key (easier) or it can be any tone (harder).
- Band-in-a-Box keeps track of your score, and displays it in the dialog, allowing you to monitor your progress.
- Use the Ear Training Window's Chord Tutor module for practice learning and recognizing different chords. Band-in-a-Box will play a chord and you will have to identify the chord type (for example, major, maj7, minor). A more advanced option will have you guessing the both the chord type AND root.
- Optionally show the notes on the on-screen piano keyboard while you are guessing the chords. If you are an advanced musician, seeing the notes on the piano during the guessing game would be "cheating," since you'd probably quickly recognize the chord. However, a beginner would benefit from this.
- Other options in the Chord Tutor include "types of roots and chords to use", "extensions to include", and "voicing types" (open, closed, etc.), allowing you to customize the ear training exercises for beginner through to advanced.
- Pitch Invasion is a full-featured arcade-style game included with Band-in-a-Box. "Aliens" descend upon your home planet, intent on destroying your prized collection of musical instruments. It's your job to blast them out of the sky by recognizing the pitch that they are playing!
- In Pitch Invasion, you can customize the number of different notes that the aliens will play, as well as the speed at which they travel. Develop perfect pitch with this amazing ear training tool!
- Music Replay is another great arcade-style game included in Band-in-a-Box. This game is designed to teach you how to recognize and play back melodies and rhythms. The program will play a melody, and it's your task to play the same melody back, either using a MIDI keyboard (if you have one) or your mouse and computer keyboard.
- Music Replay features 3 different games that focus on developing three different musical skills. "Replay Note" is a game where you need to play back an ever-increasing series of notes. It's primary function is to develop the player's pitch-recognition skills. In "Replay Rhythm" a series of 1 bar rhythmic phrases are played and you try to play them back as closely as you can. This develops the player's ability to recognize and play different rhythms. "Replay Melody" is a combination of the two. 1 bar melodies are played, and you need to play them back with correct pitches & with the correct rhythm.
- Generate a Solo, then mute all tracks except for the solo track. At a slow tempo, try to copy everything the Soloist is playing without looking at the screen. Band-in-a-Box can generate an endless number of different solos, so you'll never run out of material for this exercise.
www.pitt.edu/~deben/workbooks.html - 2k - Cached - Similar pages Aquallegro (Mac): www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/Aquallegro/ . It is a suite of music theory teaching software. At the moment, it contains sections on note names in Treble, Alto, Tenor, and Bass clef, key signatures, both flat and sharp, in Treble, Alto, Tenor, and Bass clef, and ear training to recognize Major, Minor, Diminished, Augmented, Maj7, and Min7 chords in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th inversion. New in this version: added a new "Keyboard" section, which teaches reading from a staff and playing the corresponding notes on a keyboard. Music Theory Basics (PC Win 9x, Me, NT, 2000, XP): www.tomdownload.com/home_education/music/ music_theory_basics.htm is a freeware theory project of "De Plantage" Centre of Arts - Tiel - The Netherlands. Music Theory Basics, it is small, it is easy to use, and it makes learning note-reading fun. The program has many added benefits, such as error checking, timing the pupils' note-reading speed etc. The pupils will enjoy using it. And it is freeware! Programs like these make learning much easier and can be used by the student without constant supervision. Traditional Music Library - Music Software Links... a freeware fractal music composer FractMusic is a FREEWARE algorithmic music... With Happy Note!, you can learn music theory as if it was a game... www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/music-software-links.htm . Music Theory Basics Free Download. Fretboard Warrior (Mac): www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/FretboardWarriorMAC/ is designed to help guitar students memorize the fretboard. The rules are simple, click the note that corresponds to the blue dot on the fretboard.