theory software?

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This topic has 8 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 6 months ago by barbara-brundage.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

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October 25, 2006 at 1:39 pm #88272

barbara-brundage
Participant

Does anyone have any suggestions for music theory for older adult beginners? I’ve been finding that lately even my older studennts seem to do more with a software program than books, and I really liked the Alfred Music Theory program, but it is so long since it was released that it will not work on any of my current computers, either mac OS X (not at all) or win XP SP 2 (most unreliably). Does anyone have any alternate suggestions, or even printed materials they like for total beginners who are also grownups? (I’ve used the Alfred books and the Schaum Notespellers, but they are unquestionably dry).

October 25, 2006 at 2:43 pm #88273

Leigh Griffith
Participant

Hi Barbara,

I’m running XP with SP2 and got the Alfred demo from Sylvia Woods. It
works fine. Maybe they have an upgraded version? If so, and you have
bought it before, it seems that you should get some sort of discount on
the uprade. I have the book and it is a bit dry, but

October 25, 2006 at 5:00 pm #88274

barbara-brundage
Participant

Hi, Leigh. Thanks. On my computer and my student’s computers, the Win version runs, but the audio keeps dropping out, and most of them aren’t musically sophisticated enough to know when they should be hearing something.

AFAICT from their site, no attempt has been made to do anything to this program since it was released in 2002. I emailed them a while ago about the mac version and basically got told to take a hike (in very polite terms). They don’t seem to be interested in this side of things anymore, which makes me wonder if Musition or something has stolen their user base away. That’s why I started this thread.

October 25, 2006 at 5:01 pm #88275

barbara-brundage
Participant

>They don’t seem to be interested in this side of things anymore

I.e, the software biz

October 25, 2006 at 6:22 pm #88276

Leigh Griffith
Participant

Hi Barbara,

I’m stumped, now. If it only happened on one computer, I might say it
was an issue with the sound card, but it doesn’t sound like that is the
case. Sorry i can’t help you!

Leigh

October 26, 2006 at 6:59 am #88277

Ann Marie Liss
Participant

For eartraining (intervals, chords, modes, rhythm, dictation, etc…)

October 26, 2006 at 7:00 am #88278

Ann Marie Liss
Participant

Sorry,

October 26, 2006 at 1:56 pm #88279

barbara-brundage
Participant

Thanks, Ann Marie. I hadn’t heard of this before and it does seem to be an excellent program, but far too complex both musically and computer-wise for the students I have in mind. I’m talking about the kind of students who need lots of drill on stuff like “which note is higher?” and the names of the notes.

I can find a ton of stuff with little bunnies or the Baby Einsteins, but nothing that isn’t either just for kids or totally keyboard oriented.

October 27, 2006 at 1:03 am #88280

barbara-brundage
Participant

Just a note to say that I don’t believe this program, while unquestionably useful, is fully compatible with 10.4.8. After installing it, I completely lost the ability to launch applications and wound up having to do an archive/install to get back to normal.

The only other time I’ve had that much trouble from a mac program was an alpha version of a photoshop noise reduction plug-in which caused me to lose video completely, but one expects these things from beta software.
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