Computer Software

The newest release from eMedia, My Piano is a fun, well thought out software based method for learning piano for the total beginner.   Built for ages 6 and up, this MIDI capable program brings piano instruction to the masses.

Auralia is a very full featured aural training software program used to help musicians develop their listening skills.  The software contains hundreds of exercises in a variety of different topics from scale recognition to intervals and many more.

Finding a software title that takes the pain and suffering out of learning a vital skill is always refreshing. For many people ear training classes are one of these painful yet necessary parts of learning to be a good musician. The EarMaster Pro version 5 software manages to provide an excellent series of ear training exercises while avoiding the common pitfalls of many music education software titles . While it is doubtful that any company could make aural training exercises fun, EarMaster comes quite close and still manages to be rich in features and variety of instruction.

Unlike online piano tutoring software the eMedia Piano and Keyboard Method does an excellent job teaching beginners how to play the piano as well as including vital theory and aural training concepts in the process.

 

As a music notation package Finale has come a long way in the many years since it was first released.  Each release has brought about significant improvements and the new Finale 2008 is no exception.  However some of the lingering issues from the past continue to persist even in this latest upgrade.  This article will point out the positives, and the negatives, surrounding this latest iteration of MakeMusic's flagship product. 

How does a company like MakeMusic take their flagship Finale music notation software program and improve it?  The answer is that they listen to the concerns of their users and try to find ways to solve as many of them as possible.  The latest version of the Finale music notation software makes several notable improvements to issues that have been an annoyance to many.

Goovy Music City is the last in a series of three music education software titles from Sibelius Music.  The software provides instruction in twelve different areas for students in the upper elementary grades.  Topics covered include note reading, instrument identification,scales,composing, and many more.

Mozart 9 is a useful and competent music notation software program by a developer named David Weber.  The software is a fairly popular alternative to the more expensive (and fully featured) offerings from Sibelius and Finale.  Mozart is still very functional, and some users will find it easier to use than the other alternatives.

A new entry into the music notation software arena, MuseScore is an open source, free music editor that sports many nice features previously found only on commercial music notation products.

The MusicReader Solo Pro is a software based music presentation system for Windows based computers. In a similar style to the hardware based MusicPad Pro the MusicReader provides any user with a Windows machine to catalog and work with digitized sheet music files for use in a classroom or in a performance setting.