Music Ace and Juilliard's Music Adventure comprise our education bundle, since we have seen them successfully implemented in many schools. You can find demos and information about other similar programs on our web site at kellysmusic.mb.ca.

Music Ace from Harmonic Vision, at www.harmonicvison.com.

Music Ace consists of lessons taught by Maestro Max, games to reinforce concepts explored in the lessons, and a doodle where students can compose their own music. It offers extensive reporting features, and when used with the detailed matrix in the Teacher's Guide, Music Ace can act as a very useful assessment tool.

There are 24 self-paced lessons. Each lesson has a number of sections and students must master each concept in the section before advancing to the next. Maestro Max leads students through each lesson,making the program accessible to those with reading problems. After each lesson, the student plays a series of games that allow students to apply the musical knowledge they acquired. The games also provide an assessment of how well the student learned the concepts.

Music Ace starts the lessons by teaching lines and spaces and introducing the concept of high and low. By the end of the first lesson, students can identify the lines and spaces on the staff. At the same time, Music Ace develops student's aural abilities. Students start the game by differentiating between high and low. By the end of the games students can listen to a pitch and choose the matching pitch from four or five others. The program repeats each section of the game until students are ready to go to the next level. As a result, you may find some students can complete Lesson One in 20 minutes, while other students can take two or three classes.

This self-pacing is part of the educational philosophy that Harmonic Vision has incorporated in the program. Rather than including games that involve shooting ducks or combating aliens, all of the activities are focused on music. As a result, intrinsic motivation is high for students,they are presented with musical challenges suited to their ability, and are motivated from the success of achieving those challenges.

This does not mean that Music Ace is not fun. It is,but it is focused on the joy of music. The games have bonus points and high scores, but the focus is still on learning. This philosophy is reflected in the tracking that the program provides. It is non-competitive and does not give marks or grades to students, instead it indicates what concepts they have mastered.

The teacher's guide provides many ideas on how to successfully integrated Music Ace into your teaching. It also outlines the concepts covered in detail:

• Staff and keyboard relationship
  
• Pitch identification
  
• Note reading
  
• Listening skills
  
• Sharps, flats and key signatures
  
• Keyboard basics
  
• Major scales and octaves
  
• Treble, bass and grand staff
  
• Whole and half steps

Music Ace includes a composition space where students can compose their own music using a variety of instrument sounds. Students can also listen to and modify popular music selections from the Jukebox,a fun way to experiment with theme and variation, for example. The songs can be saved and played back for others,but they can not be printed, or exported to another music program.

A MIDI keyboard is not required for the program, as students can use the on-screen keyboard. If you have access to one, however, Music Ace will respond to students using the keyboard. You can also choose to learn treble clef, bass clef or both.

Developed by Music Educator's, Music Ace provides a number of licensing options for teacher's who need to contend with scheduling and budgeting restrictions. They can customize a solution that will track as many students as you need, using as many computers as you have access to.

Although Music Ace is probably the best of many other programs that purport to teach music reading skills, there are still a few drawbacks. Rhythm is not addressed, and the notes do not include stems. Harmonic Vision is working on a sequel, Music Ace 2, which will focus on rhythm and go beyond the major scales of Music Ace. Unlike other programs, the reporting features of Music Ace are not password protected, nor is the student login procedure.

After evaluating a number of other programs in this category, it becomes apparent that Music Ace was designed by music educators. The minor drawbacks should not negatively affect the use of Music Ace in the classroom,and it has been successfully implemented throughout North America. Music Ace 2 looks to be an excellent continuation of the concepts taught by Music Ace. Pricing: varies according to license.

Juilliard's Music Adventure Co-developed with the Juilliard School of Music, this adventure game is a hit with kids,and with music educators. The program includes a Teacher's Guide that relates each activity to the National Standards and provides many additional activities that can be used to reinforce the objectives of the lesson.

The premise of Juilliard's Music Adventure is aimed at enticing our "Nintendo" kids into learning about music. When students start the game, they discover the story of a kingdom in which the evil gnome "Noise" has locked the queen into the throne room. Their job is to collect enough keys to unlock the room and free the queen. Keys are rewarded for accomplishing various the musical tasks. Along the way, a scroll and amulet provide all of the assistance students may need, from manipulating the tools to learning the musical concepts.

The game provides two musical "tools" to help accomplish the tasks: a melody tile editor and a rhythm tile editor. Neither tool focuses on standard notation. Instead, they allow students to manipulate music in a graphical manner. Although at first this may seem to be a drawback to the program, it actually allows students to experiment with form and structure in ways that would be difficult with standard notation. Most of the tasks focus on "large" musical concepts, rather than note reading.

Students can use these tools in free play to create their own music. They can also access a library, or "building blocks" of musical ideas to alter and combine into their own composition. Although their ideas can be saved, the can not be printed.

Each of the five rooms in the castle focuses on a different musical concept. In the Princess's Bedroom students discover sequence, syncopation and learn about intervals. In the Dragon's Lair they learn how pitch and musical mood are related. The Blacksmith's Armory provides some great teaching on rhythm, while they learn even more about rhythm from the Kitchen's drummers. In the Chess Garden, students practice working with musical symmetry and melody.

The game has three levels. After the student successfully accomplishes the goals for each room in one level, they move to the throne room where they experiment with orchestration. After leaving the throne room, they can advance to the next level

Although the game does not come with a manual, it has some useful on-line help options. For example, if the program recognizes that you have not done anything in the past thirty seconds, or if you keep doing the "wrong" thing, it will offer suggestions and ideas as to what you could do next. Experience has shown that students adapt much more quickly to the interface than teachers!

Juilliard's allows students to save their games so that they can start where they left off the last time. Unfortunately, it does not provide any feedback or evaluation to teachers. The Teacher's Guide provides some ideas as to how to assess student learning, but there is not any computer-based assessment.

Although it may take a while to get used to working with music without referring to notation, Juilliard's Music Adventure provides students with the opportunity to learn and experiment with concepts that are often hard to teach in a classroom situation. The excellent Teacher's Guide provides many additional activities, listening suggestions and assessment ideas to help integrate the program into your teaching.

Kelly Demoline is a music educator, and owner of Kelly's Music & Computers. He welcomes your comments or questions and can be contacted by e-mail at kelly@kellysmusic.mb.ca or toll-free: 1-888-562-8822. Pricing: varies according to license. Please contact Kelly Demoline for more information.

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