MUSIC LESSONS I for Windows
( Macintosh Windows ) Awards Reviews Testimonials
About Overview
Learn to
read, play, and understand music
This award
winning software helps you understand music and play any instrument
better. It's easy to use, requires no previous musical background,
and provides unlimited hours of enjoyable practice. Learn to read
music, improve your sight reading, play new scales, and sharpen your
listening skills. Its eleven drills move gently from elementary exercises
to college level music theory. Whether you're eight or eighty, it's
the perfect accompaniment for learning music, no matter what instrument
you play.
Learn
Essential Skills
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.
- Learn to read notes
and improve your sight reading skills. Sight reading is one of
the most important musical skills you can develop, because the
better you are at sight reading, the more easily you can learn
music. Skill levels use treble, bass, and alto clefs, with notes
on just the spaces, to notes with double sharps and double flats
up to two ledger lines above and below the staff. This is an essential
drill for beginners, and very useful for advanced musicians learning
new clefs.
- Learn how the Circle
of Fifths is used to identify major and minor keys based on the
number of increasing sharps and flats found in the key signature,
the order that sharps and flats appear in key signatures, and
the ability to play through the ascending or descending circle
of fifths beginning with any note. Circle of fifths motion is
used extensively in jazz, pop, and classical music chord progressions.
- Learn to identify
major or minor keys based on the number of sharps or flats appearing
in the key signature. Key signatures appear just after the clef
symbol on each line of music. When you know the key signature
and the notes of the corresponding major or minor scale, you know
the notes the composer used as the raw materials for the melodies
and harmonies in the piece. Skill levels let you select any combination
of major or minor keys, using sharps or flats. You can control
the number of sharps and flats that will be used
- Learn what notes are
used in the major, natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic
minor scales. The notes of these scales are the raw materials
used to construct melodies and chords.
- Learn the modal scales.
Modes were commonly used by Renaissance composers and are used
today in jazz, pop and some 20th century concert music. The major
and natural minor scales are derived from the Ionian and Aeolian
modes.
- Learn the notes of
several jazz scales. The notes of these scales are used as raw
materials for improvising. The more advanced musician can practice
playing scales like Dorian flat 2, Lydian Sharp 5, Mixolydian
sharp 4, Mixolydian Flat 6, Minor flat 5, and Locrian flat 4.
- Learn a note's position
within a major or minor scale or key. Each scale degree (position)
has a name. The different scale degrees have melodic and harmonic
tendencies. Knowing the scale degrees will be very useful when
studying intervals, melodies, and chords.
- Learn to visually
identify intervals. An interval is the distance in pitch, measured
in half steps, between two notes. Quick visual recognition of
intervals is very important in sight reading and transposing.
You begin with diatonic intervals in a major key, and advance
to fully chromatic intervals without key reference. Covers ascending
and descending, doubly diminished to doubly augmented intervals,
spanning a unison to a tenth.
- Learn how many beats
a note or rest receives in various time signatures. This is essential
for understanding how rhythm and counting work. The lower number
in the time signature can be a two, four, eight, or sixteen. Note
and rest values can range from a sixteenth to a whole, including
dotted values.
- Scales
/ Modes / Jazz Scales Ear Training
- Learn to identify
scales by listening. Learning to recognize what you hear is an
important musical skill. You'll have to listen closely to distinguish
between the four types of major-minor scales, the eight modes,
and the seven jazz scales played on any pitch level. You can work
with each group independently or in combinations.
- Learn to identify
intervals by listening. Learning to recognize what you hear is
an important musical skill. From diatonic intervals in a major
key to fully chromatic intervals spanning a unison to a tenth,
this drill will really improve your ear.
MUSIC LESSONS Features
- Each drill has multiple
skill levels that make it just right for the beginner, yet challenging
for the advanced musician.
- Each of the eleven
drills can be done in treble clef, bass clef, alto clef, or a
mix of those clefs.
- On
Screen Music Theory Help
- You won't need additional
books explaining music theory. Explanations of all music theory
terms and concepts necessary to master the drills Is available
in the Help window. Choose Help and then select from a list of
topics pertinent to that drill.
- When you check your
answers your score is instantly updated on the screen. The score
display shows the number of questions, correct answers, and percentage
of correct answers. You can play the question again, or have MUSIC
LESSONS show you the correct answer at any time.
- In addition to showing
your score on the screen, you can save your scores in progress
report files that track your scores by date. Progress reports
provide a detailed record of your scores on every level of every
drill. They can display either the results of a single drill session
or a cumulative listing of all the drills you've done over a period
of time. Progress reports can be saved and printed. The number
of progress report files you can create is limited only by disk
space. Every student in the class can keep their own scores.
- 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 I Requirements
Windows Vista, XP, 2000, ME, 98, NT4. Sound card recommended.
MIDI Optional.
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