hide random home screenshot http://www.cstp.umkc.edu/users/bhugh/musici.html (World Wide Web Directory, 06/1995)

Brent Hugh's Music Instruction Software Page

This page contains pointers to programs of interest to music teachers, particularly piano teachers. The main focus is programs that will help students master the basics of music.

All links for the programs are pointers to ftp sites. At busy times of day, you may have a difficult time connecting. If you have trouble connecting, just try again at a different time (all sites are in the U.S., so you can figure out which times might be busy and which not).

Note that some listings have two links to the same program. Each link is to a different site, so if one link doesn't work, try the other.

Programs for IBM (DOS or Windows)

NoteTest is a set of computerized flashcards for the beginning to intermediate pianist. NoteTest displays the note, the student must respond by playing it on a MIDI keyboard. NoteTest has many different levels, ranging from "Middle C Position" through "All Notes Above, On, or Below the Grand Staff". NoteTest requires an MPU-401 compatible MIDI card connected to a MIDI keyboard. (DOS freeware.)

EarTest is an ear training program. It is loosely based on the method described in the David L. Burge Perfect Pitch ear training course that you may have seen advertised in music magazines. EarTest plays a note, you must respond by playing the same note on a MIDI keyboard. It has several levels, from very easy to incredibly difficult. If you don't believe in learning perfect pitch, you can use it to hone your relative pitch (you begin by learning the notes of the C major scale, so you can just think of do-re-mi and forget the perfect pitch stuff if you like). EarTest requires an MPU-401 compatible MIDI card hooked to a MIDI keyboard. (DOS freeware)

Winoye, a cool ear training program for windows. The program plays melodic intervals, harmonic intervals, short melodies, and two- and three-note chords, which you must play back by pointing to keys on a keyboard it displays. Winoye, requires a MIDI interface or a sound card. (Windows shareware.)

Virtuax v1.0 is a guitar reference and instruction utility designed to assist advancing guitarists with their practicing. This demo includes a configurable and playable on-screen virtual guitar, a digital metronome, and a tuner. Virtuax also displays chords, scales, and arpeggio patterns using color-coded and numbered fingerings to facilitate easy learning. All charts can be played at various tempos for play-along practice. Includes a Windows based installer and complete help file. (Windows shareware. File size is around 700,000 bytes)

NoFret is a guitar chord instruction program complete with special help sections to help you tune your guitar and read chord charts. Barre and open chord forms are presented for A,B,C,D,E,F, and G chords in minor, minor 7th, 7th, major, major 7th, 6th, 9th, and 13th forms. Sound support is included for SoundBlaster users so the user can hear how each chord sounds when played correctly. (DOS ShareWare.)

The Piano Professor has a variety of activities to help in learning music (note learning, ear training, chords, key signatures). It is big (1.5 meg zipped) and kind of slow, but it looks nice and is pretty easy to use. Requires MIDI interface or sound card. (Windows shareware.)

PC Piano Tutor also has a variety of activities (note learning, ear training, rhythmic dictation, reading intervals, steps and skips). It doesn't require MIDI--sounds are played through the PC's built in speaker and the student must respond through the normal PC keyboard (MIDI support is promised in the registered version). (DOS shareware.)

Musicware Piano (demo version) is a full blown piano teaching program. I believe it is intended to be used alone, without a teacher at all (it certainly could be used that way), but it would be a nice complement to regular piano lessons as well. It looks well-designed, with lessons grouped into units and each lesson and each unit seeming to have a well-defined teaching objective. It can handle multiple students easily. This is a demo version, which means you can try a few things and see how it works, but basically it won't do anything usefule unless you register. It is large (over one megabyte, compressed). Requires soundcard with synth drivers or a MIDI keyboard and interface. (Windows demo.) Musicware, Inc. also has a home page with more information.

Here is another site you can try for Musicware Piano (demo version).

MusiCalc II, by Robert Dobbins at the University of Idaho, calculates and displays chords and scales in all keys, major and minor. It displays the roman numeral chords (I, II, III, etc.) as well as secondary dominants, borrowed chords, seventh, ninth, and eleventh chords, and so on. It also has a self-test mode, so you can see if you know all these chords in all these keys. It displays the chords in functional notation (i.e., ii, V7), staff notation, and on a piano keyboard or guitar frets. It seems to be designed as a review or self-study help for a first year college theory class. (If this link doesn't work, try using ftp to go to marvin.ag.uidaho.edu. Look in directory /sdg/mc.exe.)

ByEar is a demo of a nice ear training program. ByEar runs fully for ten minutes, but then quits (that's why they call it a demo!). [The link to ByEar has been temporarily removed because that particular site has a copy of ByEar.zip that contains a bogus program "please!.exe" that may cause problems. If you have downloaded byear.zip and run "please!.exe" and had problems, please let me know. If you haven't run "please!.exe", I advise deleting it immediately, and it would probably be safer to delete the entire byear installation. Within a few days I will have a link here to a cleaner copy of byear.zip. Sorry for the inconvience.]

CS is a nifty scale and chord utility for guitar.

Musicator (demo version) is a music notation-midi sequencer program. (Large--over one megabyte compressed.) (Windows demo.)

Programs for Macintosh

Imaja Software has a WWW homepage. The WWW page explains their ear training software (as well as other software they offer) and has instructions for ordering.

Programs for Amiga

Information on the Cochlear Consciousness ear training program is available. (Sorry, this program isn't available on the net. However, it looks very interesting, so I have included some info about it.)

A link to a page about the Guitar Reference, a GEM guitar tool for the Atari ST. This page fully explains the Guitar Reference and has a link to download it.

Programs for Other Computer Systems

Nothing to put here yet. Please submit suggestions!

Text Files

A series of guitar lessons is available. The guitar lessons are also available in postscript format.

The Society of Music Theory (SMT) has an on-line bibliography of materials for learning the basics of music theory. The bibliography includes books, tapes, computer programs, and a few other things.

SMT also has a list of available materials in Computer Aided Instruction (CAI). You can browse their online library for interesting materials on music, music theory, computers and music, music materials online, and so on.

A Jazz Improvisation Primer is also available in text format and postscript format .

Other Music-Related Pages

Submit Suggestions

Submit suggestions for additions to this page, or any general comments, problems, or complaints.

Miscellaneous

Brent Hugh's home page.

Information about the Computer Science Telecommunications Program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, which hosts this page.

Information about the University of Missouri-Kansas City.


BHugh@CSTP.UMKC.EDU