 |
|
|
|
Practica Musica Instructor's Manual Version 4.5 | ||
|
This document may be freely duplicated.
| ||
|
Practica Musica, Songworks, Vocalis, and Active Listening are trademarks of Ars Nova Software.
Ars Nova · www.ars-nova.com · info@ars-nova.com· 800-445-4866 | ||
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
About the instructor manual
This book is focused on information useful to an instructor setting up a course with Practica Musica. It covers the organization, editing and creation of activity files, as well as describing the other commands in the Instructor Options menu. For information about how to use the program as a student, including installation and the use of music editing tools, please see the Practica Musica Online Manual. | ||
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
Contents
Student files 5
| ||
|
3 | ||
|
|
|
|
Internet transfer of activity files 38 Making activity files available to your students 39 Activities with descriptions, sorted by topic and difficulty 41 Index 57 | ||
|
4 | ||
|
|
|
|
Student Files
Practica Musica tracks individual student progress in "student files," which are data files individualized with the name of the student. When a student file is new and unused its name is [NewStudent] plus a number and the extension ".stu." A student who does not yet have a personal student file can choose one of these unused files when starting the program, and the program will request the student's name and then rename the file accordingly. The naming convention allows the files to be sorted alphabetically. For example, if a student enters the name "Mary Todd," the file would end up being renamed "ToddMa123456.stu," where the numbers represent the unique identifier of the file. Ever afterward that student will simply pick her name from the list when starting the program. Student Files are obtained either from the Student Files Installer or from a Student Edition of Practica Musica. Owners of site licenses or even Standard (one-computer) Editions can add to their student file count by purchasing an authorization for additional files from Ars Nova. Alternatively, if students are using the individual Student Editions each student can create a new Student File at any time with an option in the Student Edition. At the end of the semester or whenever desired, you can delete any student files whose owners have departed, and use the Student Files Installer to top up the list with fresh copies of the missing files.The installer will know automatically which files are missing. Since version 4.5 Practica Musica does not actually require a student file to run, but each time you begin an activity without a student file chosen the program will ask if you would like to choose a file for storing the progress report.
| ||
|
5 | ||
|
|
|
|
The Instructor File
The instructor file is simply a special student file that carries an internal code giving it access to the "instructor options" of Practica Musica. The instructor file when new and unused is called "Instructor.stu," but if you choose it as your personal file when starting the program it will change its name to yours following the conventions observed in other student files. We strongly advise that you enter a password for your instructor file if it is going to be mixed with other student files on a server. It is not essential for students to use passwords, but anyone with access to the instructor file could do considerable mischief by altering activity files and changing passwords on other student files. Some protection is also provided by a program feature that makes it impossible to sign in a new student file if one with the same identifying number is already present. Instructor files usually have the same identifier, which is stored both internally and externally.
Organizing Student Files
The reporting features in Practica Musica make it desirable to keep the student files all in one place, preferably on a central server. In late 2003 Ars Nova plans to introduce a service in which student files can be stored via the internet at Ars Nova's own servers, with a backup on the local hard disk (see page 11), but for the time being a locally networked server is the best solution. If you install a site-licensed Practica Musica in a single location on a server, which we recommend, maintenaince of student records is simple: the program will keep them all in its own folder, and instructors can access the whole collection easily. | ||
|
6 | ||
|
|
|
|
Student files in excess of 200 or so in a single folder become unwieldy, and in some cases can exceed the file limit that can be displayed in the computer's file-choice dialog. If you have a large number of student files, we recommend that you organize them in subfolders within the Practica Musica Students folder. As long as the outer folder is still called Practica Musica Students, it can contain any organization of subfolders. For example, you could create subfolders with the titles
or something similar. Another approach would be to divide the students by class, as in
The second approach may be the best if there are multiple classes, since the "group report" feature in Instructor Options will form a report for all students found within a single folder. Having an extra subfolder set like this makes it much easier for a student to find his or her name in the list, and adds only one click to the process. In either kind of organization you would need, if using a Student Files Installer, to place a number of unused student files in each of the subfolders, so that students who go there for the first time will find a file to sign in. | ||
|
7 | ||
|
|
|
|
Instructor Options
The person who has chosen the instructor file as a personal file has access to the following:
Create or edit an activity See below under Activity Files
You can view or print any student's individual score report.This report covers all activities the student has attempted.
Prepare class report...
The Class Report command creates reports that display the progress of an entire class with respect to a single activity. Class reports cover all the students in the selected student folder. In the class report window you'll pick the activity you want to report on, the level if it has more than one, and you'll also pick which student folder to use as the source of student files. What you get is a more detailed report that includes not only the points earned and time spent, but also a breakdown of time by "sublevel" and an error count by sublevel. Depending on how the activity is designed, this can give you a way of telling which material has proved to be the most difficult. Each activity has 6 sublevels for every level, and the students move to a new sublevel whenever their total score passes one of the 6 dividing points in the required score (see the discussion of sublevels in the following pages). The report features of Practica Musica make it highly desirable to keep all student files at one central server, but another option is to let students email their student files to you. The student files are easily | ||
|
8 | ||
|
|
|
|
mailed, are in a format that would be difficult to alter manually and also contain some security features, so you can be fairly confident nothing is ever 100% secure that the files they send have not been tampered with. Once you receive the files you can either view them individually with View Progress Reports or use them to compile a group report. Format of exported class reports
An option in the Class Report window allows you to export report data to a spreadsheet or a database program such as FileMaker. Data is exported as text in the standard tab-delimited format, and the variable-length fields are in this order:
There may be some small mismatch between sublevel time totals and time logged in the activity, owing to rounding. If the student has spent even seconds in a sublevel the sublevel time is rounded up to a minute, but the time total for the activity is rounded from the seconds total. | ||
|
9 | ||
|
|
|
|
Clear student passwords... Sometimes students will set a password for their personal file and then lose it. You can clear the password for any student file using this command.
Set fileserver location... This is useful if you have the program installed on multiple workstations and want to keep just the student files on a central fileserver. It also can be used on campus-wide networks if students have personal "Student Edition CDs" and you'd like to direct the program to keep their student files on a central networked server (but see below for information on the new WebStudents service that lets you use Ars Nova's servers as a central location accessible from anywhere). On both Mac and Windows the process is the same: go to one of the workstations, choose an instructor file to get instructor access, choose this command, then use the resulting file dialog to navigate to the folder that contains the student files in question. Pick any one of the files in that folder to identify the destination to the program. Practica Musica will then create a small file called "Student Folder Location" on Windows and "Student File Location" on Macintosh (the files not interchangable since Mac and PCs use a different method of specifying file locations). You'll find that small location file has been created in the Practica Musica Folder. You can now copy that file to any other computers that connect to the same server. The file can go either in the Practica Musica Folders of the other computers or in their Preferences folders (Macs) or their Windows folder. We recommend putting this file in the Preferences folder or the Windows folder, because that way it will also be seen by an Student Edition CD that a student might happen to use. And that way, of course, the workstation can have this information available even if it presently doesn't have Practica Musica installed. | ||
|
10 | ||
|
|
|
|
Create Student Files Creating Student Files formerly required our separate Student Files Installer CD, but we have now incorporated that software into Practica Musica itself. This way you don't have to keep track of an extra CD (and OSX users will find they can now create student files natively under OSX). The Standard Edition can also use this command (without an authorization code) to create fresh copies of the default 4 student files that come with the standard edition. Site license holders and others with Student File Authorization numbers can create new files at any time as long as the computer is either connected to the internet or has your 4.5 or later Practica Musica CD in the disk drive. With preexisting site licenses it may be necessary to email us to establish your files account at our site; please let us know if you have an authorization number but can't create files. Enter or change WebStudents account WebStudents [TM] is Ars Nova's new internet-based backup system for student files, and it provides a simpler way of keeping track of student files. If a student uses the program from an internet-connected computer anywhere on earth, the program will locate the backup file for that student at our web site and combine its latest elements with those of the file on the local computer. This way the student can work sometimes at home and sometimes at school without having to keep track of a personal file and without losing any work. Instructors can then use our site to check student progress and make reports - even send messages to some or all of the students that will pop up the next time they use the program. WebStudents service is included in the cost of each Student Edition CD, and will soon also be available separately. If your class is using Student Edition CDs you have only to email webstudents@ars-nova.com to receive an account name you can give to your class. Students can enter that into their personal files using the "Enter or Change WebStudents Account" command in the Student File Options menu. Or you can this command in the instructor menu, followed by "save settings for all students," and that will set the WebStudents account automatically for all students in the current Practica Musica folder. Be sure to include the school name and the course number for each class using the program, as it is best to have a separate account for each class. Display 'Paused' alert after period of inactivity By default Practica Musica will put up an alert window after a few minutes of inactivity, just to remind the student that a student file is currently chosen and may have been left that way by a previous student. Without this alert a student might make the mistake of continuing where a previous student left off and never choose his or her own student file. But you can turn off the alert if it seems unnecessary.
Save current option settings for all students Student files all automatically store personal preferences. But when an instructor uses this command the main preferences file is told to override the students' personal preferences the next time each student uses the program. This gives you a way to make a preferences change that affects everyone; for example if you want to set MIDI preferences a certain way. Students can still go back to their own choices afterward, but initially their preferences will be reset to your choices. | ||
|
11 | ||
|
|
|
|
Activity Files
Practica Musica is organized around "activities," which are customizable exercises on a wide variety of topics. Activities in Practica Musica are stored as individual files that can be read by either the Macintosh or the Windows versions of Practica Musica. Activity files created on a Macintosh can be read by the Windows version of Practica Musica, and vice-versa. The activity files are essentially scripts that guide Practica Musica in conducting an activity. They include custom menus, messages to students, buttons, and can even include music examples if desired (Practica Musica can either generate its examples at random according to your specifications, or use specific examples from a library). Each activity file is complete and self-contained. If there are composed examples in the activity they are folded into the activity file itself; it has no auxiliary files and is therefore easy to move from computer to computer or over the internet. Practica Musica currently is shipped with more than 90 activities. A few of these merely display and perform music examples from the textbook; some are simple exercises with a very specific focus, and others cover a wider range of material. Difficulty ranges from pitch reading or interval ear training, to error detection, rhythm tapping, Roman numeral analysis of Bach chorales and even atonal dictation.
Organizing Activity Files
The Activities menu displays the entire current contents of the activity folder, including subfolders (unless the "display subfolder contents" option has been turned off). Each time the program starts up, or each time anyone uses the "change activity folder" command, the activity menu is rebuilt to reflect the current contents of the activity folder. Subfolders appear as popup menus in the activity menu, and if those subfolders contain subfolders then additional popup menus are added. In this way one can use the activity menu to launch any activity in the collection. | ||
|
12 | ||
|
|
|
Because the program builds the activity menu according to what's in the activity folder, you can organize the activity menu in any way you like. For example, you could create a folder for each of several classes, and put the appropriate activity files in each. Your activity menu might then look something like this:
Another idea would be to organize the activity folder by weekly assignments. For example:
Remember that the names of activities that appear in the menu are not the actual file names of each activity file; the names you see in the menu are the internal names of each activity as defined in the Name and Menu Titles window in the activity editor. Folder names in the activity menu, however, exactly match the folder names in the activity folder. | ||
|
13 | ||
|
|
|
|
Caution: On both Macintosh and Windows computers there are certain text characters that should not be used in a menu item. These include parentheses, slashes, and some other special characters; if present the computer may interpret them as special commands. The best course is to use only letters and numbers in your folder names and menu titles.
Create New or Edit Existing?
Because the activity designer has a great deal of control over the design and conduct of the activity, creating one from scratch can be an intricate process. The easiest way to get the activity you desire is to pick an existing one that is near to what you are after, and change it. For instance, you could pick a dictation activity that uses library examples and simply change the examples provided. Or you could change the scoring plan of an activity that otherwise was what you needed, or change just the messages that appear, or the type of keyboard displayed. A large number of activities are supplied with Practica Musica, and the complete collection of the latest activities is always available for download at www.ars-nova.com.
| ||
|
14 | ||
|
|
|
|
Very Important: If you use an existing activity as the basis of a new one, be sure to use the "Save As" button to create the new activity file. Do not simply duplicate the activity file! This is because each activity contains a unique identifier that Practica Musica uses to keep track of scores earned by students using that activity. If you duplicate an activity file it will have the same identifier as its original, and the two will then be confused with each other in the student progress reports. But if you use the Save As... button in the main Activity editing window, the new file will be given its own unique number. | ||
|
15 | ||
|
|
|
|
The Activity Editing Window
The activity editing window contains a number of buttons that can be used to define an activity. Some are essential to any activity, others are optional. For example, every activity needs to have a name, but a password is not required.
When creating an activity, start with the first button at the top, Description, and then proceed through the other buttons in any order. As you press each one a window will appear that displays the default settings for the new activity; you can click OK if these are satisfactory, or make whatever changes you desire. | ||
|
16 | ||
|
|
|
|
These are the choices that you can't do without:
The "done" boxes
When information has been entered under a certain category, the "done" button to its right will be checkmarked. You can still change the information, but you can tell by the checkmark that you've made some choices for that category. You can uncheck the "done" button by clicking on it, which will remove the changes you've made and restore the default choices (you'll be asked if this is really what you want to do).
Buttons
Test
Test the activity you're working on. Test will enter the activity at the chosen sublevel, but if there are several levels you will still need to choose the level after starting the test.
Save Save changes to the activity. | ||
|
17 | ||
|
|
|
|
Save As
Very Important: again, be sure to use "Save As" if you want to create a new activity based on an existing one. That gives it a new internal identifying number, and it is these unique i.d. numbers that Practica Musica uses to tell the activities apart. Windows users will need to pay attention to characters allowed in file names under Windows. Don't use commas, slashes, or hyphens; keep to plain text characters to avoid unexpected Windows behavior. (Macintosh users should observe the same rules the same activity file will then run on either platform.) Note that activity file names must end with the extension .act, even on the Macintosh, if they are to appear in the Activities menu. To ensure cross-platform compatibility of the activity files, even the Macintosh version of Practica Musica pays attention to that Windows-style file name. That way you can take a file created on a Windows machine and it will be recognized as an activity by the Macintosh version of the program.
Choices that apply to the entire activity
Description
This category provides an overall view of what your activity is designed to do. Choices made here can effect the behavior of other buttons, so it's best to do this one first. Not all questions on this page will make sense in every activity: just ignore questions that don't apply. | ||
|
18 | ||
|
|
|
|
Source material can either be generated by Practica Musica, for example a generated melody or chord progression,or can be drawn from precomposed library examples. See below under Materials for instructions on importing library examples into an activity. If you have chosen Generated, the Materials button will display rules for example generation; if you have chosen Library Source here, the Materials button will put up a window in which you can import Library Examples. You are also asked to specify the nature of the material: whether the program should expect to deal with intervals, chords, melody, etc.
Goal. The student will be asked to... The items in this list, which is still expanding, should be self-explanatory.
Presentation. When the activity begins, what is to be displayed, the whole example, nothing, a first note...? Should the program play the example, start recording input, wait for further requests from the user, or what?
Hints: If student will be entering melody notes or chords, should the program provide the first note of the answer ?
Expected response: Wait for the student to...choose a button? Ask for evaluation? Play a note? etc.
Enharmonics. Should student input be adjusted enharmonically to match the example material? For example, if the problem involves playing an Eb triad, should the program automatically convert a D# on the keyboard to Eb? Or will the choice of enharmonic be part of the problem? | ||
|
19 | ||
|
|
|
|
Acceptable pitch equivalents: If the work involves pitches, will a note be correct if it is the correct pitch class but the wrong octave, and does the enharmonic spelling need to be correct?
Real-time marking: If the student is playing a series of notes on
the screen, should the place in the music simply be marked, or should
the program mark correct and incorrect notes as they are played?
Response to answers: What should PM do if the answer is incorrect? What if it's correct? What should happen next?
Will the student be allowed to use the PlayFrom and PlayTo tools to isolate a portion of the music for playback?
The description page ends with buttons that let you pick the initial tempo and the initial cursor, if appropriate. Note that the tempo affects more than just melodies and chord progressions; it also affects the speed of arpeggiated single chords or melodic intervals.
Name and menu titles
The activity title is what will be displayed in the Activity Menu. The same title will appear in student reports. This is not necessarily the same as the file name of the activity. | ||
|
20 | ||
|
|
|
|
In addition to a title, each activity should have at least two menu items: one to provide some instructions or other information about the activity, and one for the Quit command. Regardless of whether there are any menu items, command-Q will always quit the current activity. You can have up to six menu items in all. Each must be assigned a function from the same list used for Action Buttons.
If your activity is to have more than one level of difficulty, menu items should be used to choose the desired level. Menu items can, however, be used for any purpose you choose among those in the list of functions.
Remember to avoid "special" characters in menus, as they can affect the way that the computer's operating system displays the menu. For example, you cannot use parentheses in a menu.
Do not leave gaps in the menu. If you are only using some of the items, use the first ones.
Action Buttons
Up to six action buttons can appear across the top of the keyboard tools window. You can give them any title that will fit the available space (naturally there is more space for each if you use fewer buttons) , and assign each a function from the popup list below each button. You can also choose which function, if any, will be invoked when the student presses the Return key. If none is chosen, the Return key will play a note, like other keys of the middle row of letters. If you don't want to have action buttons visible, choose "No buttons." | ||
|
21 | ||
|
|
|
|
Template
It's usually a good idea to create a template window, which tells Practica Musica what your main exercise window will look like. When you are finished forming the template window, choose "Store" from the action buttons in the template edit window, and the template will be added to your activity. If you quit without storing the template, no changes will be made. The main decision is whether to display a "short staff" or a full-length scrollable staff. The short staff is the one to choose if you are dealing with single tones, single intervals, or single chords. When in the short staff mode up to 6 simultaneous notes played by the user can be displayed on the staff and optionally analyzed by the program. There is also space in the short staff for an example to be displayed. If you have chosen the short staff and are using single pitches, intervals, or chords, the examples will be displayed in the first part of the short staff, unless you have indicated in the activity description that the example is not to be shown.
Details. The "Details" button in the template edit window gives you access to a large number of options that affect either the entire music window or the currently selected staff in that window. Editing method: Continuous automatic positioning is generally the most desireable. But if this is a composition activity it is also possible to turn off automatic note positioning and let the notes simply appear where they are clicked in the staff. Connections: The chosen staff can begin or end a bracket or brace. If it is an inner staff, choose "neither start nor end a bracket or brace at this staff." Chord symbols and beats: The chordline guides the placement of chord symbols, which can also be used for Roman numerals. In | ||
|
22 | ||
|
|
|
|
many activities you don't want this tool present. Similarly, you can display or hide the triangular beat markers that would guide the placement of chord symbols. You can also choose to have the metronome turn on when this window is frontmost, so that the music will automatically play with a metronome tick. Student input/Example staff: If a staff is marked as an example staff, your example music (either generated or from a library example) will be copied into that staff. If there are more example staves they will be filled in order as long as there are additional staves in the example. Example staves cannot be edited by the user, so if you want to edit anything in an example staff, you must temporarily change it to a student staff. Lines. Any staff can be a normal 5 lines, or just 1 (the centerline), or can be without lines. A staff can be drawn in blue. This is a good convention for example staves. A staff and its contents can be hidden while still being audible. A staff can be designated as a rhythm guide. A rhythm guide staff will automatically determine the rhythmic content of the stave immediately below. Typically the guide staff would hold the example, perhaps with the pitches concealed (all notes drawn on the centerline)and the next staff down would be a student staff. Any notes entered in the student staff would automatically take on the rhythmic value of the corresponding item in the guide. This is useful for a pitch dictation activity in which the rhythms are "given." A staff can be a Pitch Guide. A pitch guide will automatically control the pitches of a student staff below it. This is useful in rhythm dictation activities where the pitches are "given." A staff's pitches can be concealed by drawing all of the notes on the centerline. They still sound at the correct pitches, however. This can be used in conjunction with the rhythm guide option. | ||
|
23 | ||
|
|
|
|
A staff's sound button can be hidden. The primary use of this is to prevent a student from isolating the sound of individual staves in a polyphonic dictation exercise. A staff's textline control can be hidden, and usually is except in a composition exercise. A staff's text can be hidden until evaluation. You can include in a library example, for example, certain text such as the name of the composer, and have that text appear only once the student's answer is evaluated. This might be particularly useful in combination with the "exam mode" option of the Scoring window, below. Notes can be drawn with invisible heads (stick notation), X heads (percussion), or as stemless heads. If you designate an example staff this way, example music will convert to the desired appearance when it is automatically copied into that staff. You can also set the note spacing for the entire music window, the measure numbering convention, and the number of lyric lines, if any, to be displayed when using the text tool. You may see a "save changes?" dialog when you close a template file. You don't need to save it unless you want a separate file copy of the template; the original will be folded into the activity file when you click the Store button.
Scoring
Practica Musica has traditionally used a proportional scoring system for activities involving single items. The total points required are few - usually 16 or 20 - but an error knocks the score down by a fourth or a half. This system allows a person knowledgeable in the topic to finish in a few minutes, while others will take time as needed. However, you can use any scoring system you like, as described in this window. You can also add a time penalty, which is appropriate for some activities. Getting the time penalty to "feel right" will take some experimenting; you probably will want to reward quick work while not making it impossible to score without having speed. | ||
|
24 | ||
|
|
|
|
Here you can also choose whether to use the applause, the score column, error sounds, etc., and you can choose the rhythmic precision required for real-time tapping exercises. A note about precision: in most cases these exercises are concerned not with performance skill but with knowledge. We take the position that an answer is correct if it clearly demonstrates, for example, that the student understood the notation was of 16th notes rather than 8ths. In a reading exercise it generally will not be useful to require extreme precision in rhythm, both because of the natural expressive demands of music and because of the possible limitations of different types of computer keyboard or processors. For most cases, "within a sixteenth" seems to work well; it is well within the capabilities of most computers at most tempi. The "exam mode" option is useful only for activities that employ library examples. A student can evaluation any librar example once and only once, which allows the creation of activities that serve as exams.
The "Balloon drop" timer display can be useful if you've specified a time penalty. The balloon falls at a rate that will cause it to pop when the time is up and the penalty is applied. The animation is most effective on fast computers.
Keyboard controls
Here you find all the buttons and controls available for use in the onscreen piano's frame, which serves as a tool palette (the note and symbol editing tools, however, are in a separate window under Edit Controls, since you may want to change them at each sublevel). | ||
|
25 | ||
|
|
|
|
The clef, key, and meter choice buttons are included here, though they might also be considered to be edit controls. You can choose to remove the labels in the key boxes, if the key box is included. You can choose to have no keyboard sound switch, and simply have the sound automatically on or off. This might make sense to avoid any possible confusion, and the "off" position could also be useful if you didn't want students to be able to feel around for the correct pitch on the screen keyboard. The instrument choices should be displayed, but can be removed if you have some reason to want them gone. The instrument choices on the keyboard frame refer to output only, and consist of MIDI, QT or Synth (the internal synthesizer on a Mac is the QuickTime instrument), and a number of sampled-sound instruments represented by pictures. The sampled sound instruments are currently the only ones that can be microtonally tuned to do temperaments or other adjustments to equal temperament. The metronome tool can be present or absent, and the metronome initially on or off. You can choose whether it will tick once for each beat or if it will divide the beat. You have a choice of keyboard design, from plain piano keys to a fretboard, and you can choose whether the student will be allowed to changed keyboards. The enharmonic keyboard is useful when doing note-spelling exercises, since it allows the student to choose a flat or a sharp from the keyboard itself. The student can be forbidden to enter staff notes via the keyboard. Sometimes this is desirable in dictation. Or, conversely, the student can be required to enter notes only via the keyboard.
| ||
|
26 | ||
|
|
|
|
Activity info or help
Enter up to three paragraphs of any information you like. We normally use this window for brief instructions, but it could also contain such items as a professor name, email address, etc. Each paragraph is limited to 240 characters, so these must be efficient. That's probably about the limit of instructions that most people will read in any event.
Password
If your activity is to be used by others, you may want to protect it from being altered. If you do enter a password, be sure to write it down! There is no way to make further changes to the activity if you forget the password. One safe option is to keep a copy of the activity that is not protected by password, and send only the protected version to other people. | ||
|
27 | ||
|
|
|
|
Choices that can vary with each sublevel
Activities can have up to four levels, and each level is divided into six sublevels. It is not necessary to actually use all the sublevels if you have entered choices only for "sublevel 1" in each case then your activity will proceed as if it had only one sublevel in each level. An activity will always use the last available material for each sublevel, so that if one is in sublevel 4 and no choices were entered since sublevel 2, the material for sublevel 2 will be used. The sublevels give you a chance, though, to gradually increase difficulty or simply change subject matter as the student works. If you have made any sublevel changes, they will take effect when the student's score passes one of the six division points in the "points required" for each level. For example, if 240 points total are required, sublevel 2 will begin when the score reaches 41. If you want an activity to have one sublevel, fill in choices for sublevel 1 only. If you want it to have 2 sublevels, fill in choices for sublevels 1 and 4. That will make the second level kick in when the score passes the halfway mark. If you want 3 sublevels, fill in materials for sublevels 1, 3, and 5, so that they are also evenly distributed. Click the level and sublevel you want to work on, and the "done" buttons for each category of information will tell you whether material is entered for that level/sublevel (remember you can click those done buttons to remove material, if desired). It is not necessary to provide information under each category, though Materials and Messages will almost always be needed. | ||
|
28 | ||
|
|
|
|
Materials
When you click this button you'll see any of various materials choice windows, depending on which topic you chose in the Description window. If your choice of source material was "generated" you see choices for the type of generated material. If your choice of source was "library" you'll be presented with an activity window in which you can select and alter example files, and store them in the list of examples for the current level.
Materials for library-source activities
Library source materials should be prepared in advance using either one of the writing activities provided with Practica Musica, or our Songworks software, which includes more extensive composition tools. Save each example file under the name you would like to see appear in the activity menu, for example: "Example 1.1," "Example 1.2," and so on. It's most convenient to organize these by keeping them in a folder so that you can later revise them if desired. If your Description window has the Library Source option chosen, clicking the Materials button will bring up the Example Editor. This is a special activity in which you can make some last-minute changes to examples and add them to the list of examples for the chosen level.
Adding examples: use the Open button to open the next example. Make any changes desired. Then click the Add to List button to add that example to the menu list for the chosen level. The new example will be appended to the list; there is currently no way to insert it in the list. | ||
|
29 | ||
|
|
|
|
Removing examples. To remove one example that is already in the list, choose it in the Example Editor's examples menu for the given level. That will open the example in a window. Click the Remove button to remove it from the list.
Removing all examples for the level. This is needed if you want to reorder the examples by entering them again in a different order. Instead of taking the time to separately remove each one, simply choose the desired level and then uncheck the "done" box beside the Materials button. Then click the Materials button to add the new list of examples one-by-one. Example files are folded into the activity file itself and become part of the activity file. You do not need to distribute a folder of examples with the activity; every activity file is complete and needs no other files except for Practica Musica. The same activity files are used for both Mac and Windows computers; they need no conversion. If you close a new example window you may see a "save changes?" dialog. This is asking you if you want to save the example as a file. It is not necessary to do so unless you want a separate independent file copy, since the example is folded into the activity file.
Materials for generated-source activities
Single Pitches. You can draw single pitches from one of the traditional scales, or from an arbitrary set of pitches. If you've chosen an arbitrary set you'll be presented with a window in which to enter the desired notes. Just click in the staff or the screen piano with the note tool to enter the desired pitches; standard editing rules apply. A pitch set can contain as many as 24 pitches. | ||
|
30 | ||
|
|
|
|
If you have specified that the pitch set is "fixed" it will be left in its original form as entered. Otherwise it will be transposed by octave to fill in the appropriate range for whatever clef and range limits are chosen. When you click "Finished" in the pitch edit window the notes you've entered will be saved within the activity file. You may also see a "save changes?" dialog you don't need to save changes unless you want to keep a separate file copy of the notes you selected.
Intervals. The interval materials window lets you choose up to 12 intervals from a list that includes diatonic and chromatic intervals up to the augmented 13th. You can also specify whether the intervals are to be presented melodically, harmonicall, ascending, or descending. If you chose both alternatives for each option, the program will randomly choose between the selected choices. The interval materials window also has a Pitch Set button of its own. If you specify a pitch set in an intervals activity the chosen intervals will be built only the notes of the pitch set. Otherwise they will be built on the scale notes of the current major or minor key. As with other generated materials; Practica Musica will randomly choose from the selected possibilities. If the list of possibilities is long it is possible that some may not appear in a short exercise. The order and the transposition will vary each time the student attempts the activity.
Scales. The scale materials window lets you choose any or all of the traditional scales, ascending or descending or both. The scales window also includes a key signatures window; if you specify key signatures, the activity will choose randomly from the key signatures in the list (key signatures can also be specified in the Clef/Key/Meter window). | ||
|
31 | ||
|
|
|
|
Single chords. Choose up to 12 chord types (remember these can vary with each sublevel). You can use the Chord Type button to pick a known chord type, or modify a known type using the Voice/Edit button, or start from scratch with the Customized Chord chord type. You can use the supplied name for the chord, or name it anything you like. The Voice/Edit button allows you to describe any triadic chord to the 13th. You can specify inversion, and you can specify the included tones and the quality of each. You can also specify the voicing as open, close, or both. The Hear buttons allow you to hear the chord you are describing, either harmonically or arpeggiated.
Chord Progressions. Choose the chord pairs that are to be included in the generated progressions, and specify how long the progression is to be. If you don't see the changes you want in the list, save an initial list, and then use the Choose/Edit chord list button to modify the chord list. The Chord List Editor assumes that chords are going to be written out fully on the staff. The quickest and easiest way to make custom chords is to alter existing ones. You can easily change the pitches of existing notes by dragging them with the arrow tool, and/or by selecting notes and choosing an accidental. If you need to add additional notes to a chord, just click the note tool in the staff where you want the new notes to go. The number of notes in a chord should not exceed six, and is normally four. To alter the name of a chord in the list, first click on the "handle" of the chord line in order to enter the chord layer. The chord line's handle is the little circle to the left of the music, aligned vertically with the chord symbols. When in the chord layer you can select the chord name boxes and alter the text they contain. To do so, select a chord box and click the "Info for selected item" box to see the chord's information box appear. Don't specify notes in the chord box, since they are best provided in the staff for exercises of this type, but fill in the name as you would like it to appear. | ||
|
32 | ||
|
|
|
|
To enter a new chord name box where is none, click the Chord box tool above the screen piano, type the name as desired, and then click in the music where you want that chord name to appear. In most exercises of this type you'll use Roman numerals for the chord name, but anything is possible. Click the Store in Activity button to store the altered chord list within the activity file.
Melody. Many different types of activities use melodies as their raw material: dictation, sight-reading, and transposition are examples. If you are using generated rather than library melodies your activity will have the advantage of always being fresh, and you have considerable control over the nature of the melody generated. Pitch set. Choose any traditional scale, a fixed or transposable arbitrary pitch set, or a one-note set for rhythm-only exercises. You can chose to "Avoid Repeated Pitches," or to "Exhaust all pitches in set before repeating a pitch." The latter choice produces a serial effect. Use Wrong key. If this is checked, PM will generated the melody in a key that is not the one displayed, producing accidentals. Rhythm. Pick a set of note values from which the rhythm will be formed at random. You can choose also whether to include rests, ties, triplets. Movement. Conjunct, disjunct, etc. If you are using the chromatic pitch set, you should increase the disjunctness setting to avoid excessively conjunct melody. | ||
|
33 | ||
|
|
|
|
Harmonic implications. A melody that attempts to imply harmony will sound more sensible than one that does not, but will have more repetition. Implying harmony makes no sense if you're trying for an atonal melody, of course.
Example length. This is measured in beats.
Wrong-pitch settings. You can choose to have PM randomly misnotate a certain number of pitches in each example melody, as in our Pitch Errors activity. It's best to make these displace by 1 or 2 scale steps. Choose Intervals... If you are making a transposition exercise, you can use this button to add a set of specified intervals for the transposition.
Multiple choice
For multiple-choice activities you can have up to 12 boxes available, and each can contain whatever text you desire that will fit. After deciding on the text for each box, use the Assign Boxes button to assign each of the possible "answers" to a box. In Assign Boxes you'll see on the left a column of example names that PM has drawn from your materials choices. On the right of each is a popup menu with your box titles; pick the box that you want to correspond to that example. Being able to correlate these arbitrarily would allow you, for example, to assign various intervals to either of two boxes labeled "diatonic" and "chromatic." Be sure to carefully assign boxes for each possibility! It's easy to set up an activity in which there is no right answer, or in which the right answer is connected to the wrong box. | ||
|
34 | ||
|
|
|
|
Clef/Key./Meter
Choose sets of clefs, sets of keys, sets of meter signatures. If you choose more than one in any category, the program will choose at random from the set. An alternative is to let the student choose the clef, key, or meter, by providing those tools (Keyboard Controls). The minor/major mode buttons are for use in those cases where you haven't need to pick particular scales in the melody materials dialog, but want to control the mode of the key signatures you have chosen. You can create a custom meter set if you want to use meter signatures not provided in the standard choices.
Messages
Each level and sublevel can have a different set of messages that appear under different circumstances. Usually we just provide one set for the whole activity, which of course is placed in level 1, sublevel 1. However, if you want to do the work you can put different messages in every sublevel of every level. You can enter up to 24 messages in each set, and each can have up to 4 variants, just for variety. If a message has variants, Practica Musica will choose at random among them. Messages can appear above the staff, in the keyboard message window (one line only), or on either side of a short staff. Messages appear when the given set of circumstances is satisfied. This can be a tricky area: you'll want to set up unambiguous circumstances, so that different messages don't end up being chosen for the same situation (only the first will actually appear in that case). | ||
|
35 | ||
|
|
|
|
Variables in messages
You can include variables such as the value of the student's current score "[TotalPointsEarned]" by typing the variable name in brackets within your message. Practica Musica will replace the bracketed variable with a text version of the variable's value. For this to work, you must type the variable name exactly as it is listed in the variable list in the Edit Message window, including the correct capitalization. An example: "Your score is [PointsEarnedForAnswer] of [PointsPossibleForAnswer]."
Edit tools
Pick the editing tools, if any, required for the chosen level/sublevel of your activity.
Range
Range is defined in terms of ledger lines, so the absolute pitch range depends on the choice of clef. Since version 4.5 the Range window also contains a choice for tessitura the maximum distance between the lowest and highest notes in the example. Tessitura here is measured in half steps; 7 would correspond to a perfect fifth.
Prerequisite
If desired, you can specify that the chosen level will not run unless the student has previously passed a certain level of a given activity. That could mean an earlier level of the same activity, or any level of a completely different one. This allows you to set up an ordered curriculum of activities that each are a requirement for the next. It is not the way we have traditionally organized Practica Musica activities, but it has some advantages in certain situations, particularly for beginning students who might be tempted to skip to a more advanced level without adequate preparation. There can also be a certain satisfaction in completing a series of this type. | ||
|
36 | ||
|
|
|
|
Subactivity
Before the introduction of this feature it was necessary for a single activity to stick with one topic and mode of behavior. Now you can change behaviors at given moments at changes of level or even at changes of sublevel. This allows the creation of activities that we haven't yet fully imagined at Ars Nova. For example, you could begin with the reading of pitches on a staff, and if the student acquired enough points you could switch to working on rhythm. Or you could give each menu-selected level a different topic. When used with library examples, the sublevel changes with each example (up to six per level), so that you could also choose to define a different type of behavior to accompany each example. Perhaps the same example could first be presented as a reading problem, then as a rhythm problem, then as a transposition problem. Before you can specify a subactivity, you must first create the subactivity file. You do that in the usual manner, either by using the "Create New Activity" command or by finding an activity similar to what you want and using the "Save As" command to give it a new file name and new internal number. Then open the primary activity, and choose the level/sublevel at which you want the subactivity to take over. Use the "Subactivity" button to choose the subactivity file, and its contents will be folded into the main activity. The main activity no longer needs the subactivity file once it has been adopted, because the subactivity becomes part of the main file. But you'll probably want to keep your original subactivity files somewhere in case you need to change them in the future. To replace a subactivity with a newer one, just delete the Subactivity by unchecking its "done" box, as you would for any other activity editor choices, and then choose the subactivity again. | ||
|
37 | ||
|
|
|
|
When the main activity reaches the specified level/sublevel combination, it will adopt the features of the specified subactivity, everything except for the subactivty menu, its "total points required" setting, and of course its own subactivity or prerequisite settings. Student progress reports will refer only to the main activity: it will continue to have just one entry in the progress report. As with other choices that apply to a level or sublevel, the subactivity will then remain in effect either until the end of the activity or until it is replaced by a new one.
Internet transfer of Activity Files
You may find it necessary to use a program such as Stuffit or one of the ZIP utilities to encode an activity before sending it via the Internet or posting it at a web site. Without that step, browser or server software might alter the data, treating it as a text file (on the other hand, this is less an issue than it used to be; most often the file will transmit fine without encoding or stuffing). Stuffit Expander is available free from www.aladdinsys.com for both the Mac and Windows platforms, and we recommend it (there is a small charge for DropStuff, which you would need to encode the file in the first place). Mac users can also encode using MainStay's free BinHex program, which is understood by Stuffit Expander and is available at various places on the Internet. Binhex, however, makes the file larger rather than smaller. The same holds true for Student Files and for music files created by Practica Musica. The same files can be read by either Macintosh or Windows versions of Practica Musica if they have been transferred on the Internet using a suitable encoding method. Email programs such as Outlook Express can generally transfer one of these files as an attachment without any need to encode it especially if you are emailing to another person with the same email program. | ||
|
38 | ||
|
|
|
|
Making activities available to your students
Ars Nova can post instructor-created activities at the Ars Nova web site free of charge. These will be accessible at the link titled Activity Downloads, and will be sorted by instructor name. This makes it easy for you to distribute a special activity to students without getting permission to place it on a campus server and without using floppy disks. Students using the Student Edition of Practica Musica will all have the Ars Nova web site address, and can go there to get your activity file (or the latest versions of Ars Nova activities and program updates). To post an activity, encode it using Stuffit or BinHex, and email it to activities@ars-nova.com., together with a message telling your name and institution and a course number if one needs to be included. Private teachers can do the same, giving your name or studio name for the institution. The same activity files will work on both Macintosh and Windows computers equipped with Practica Musica. The only condition is that each file must have a name that ends in .act, so that the program will recognize it and list it in the activity menu. Students can also use Practica Musica's Change Activity Folder command to open activities resident on a school fileserver or any other connected source.
| ||
|
39 | ||
|
|
|
|
Practica Musica saves a progress report any time a student uses an activity that keeps score (i.e., any activity whose goal is defined in the Description window as anything other than "nothing." Students can email their student files to a professor, or they can be kept on a central server, or students can simply print out progress reports. However, the progress report created in Instructor Options by an instructor with access to the actual student file is more detailed than the one printed by students. The instructor report is made for one activity at a time for a group of student files, and it lists time spent on each sublevel and errors per sublevel, so that you have a better idea where students had trouble. | ||
|
40 | ||
|
|
|
|
List of current activities as of Spring 2003
Some of the below activities require features introduced in updates of Practica Musica following version 4.0. For best results you should be using at least the latest free update, version 4.482. Activities requiring version 4.5 will be noted.
Activities are sorted by the following categories, and are listed in approximate order of difficulty within each section.
Single pitches
Repeat Pitches.act This very basic activity asks that you repeat a note that is played (and also displayed on the staff).
Single Pitches.act This beginning activity tests your ability to read pitches on the staff, but it presents the notes individually and includes time pressure: to obtain full points you'll want to play the requested note before the balloon pops. This also illustrates the use of the Prerequisites option introduced in Practica Musica 4.3: in Single Pitches you must complete each level in order - you can't do level 2 until you've done level 1. | ||
|
41 | ||
|
|
|
|
Pitch Matching (filename: 01.Pitch Matching.act) Four levels. Two pitches are played and the first one is both shown in staff notation and highlighted on the piano keys. Play the second note.The latest version of Pitch Reading includes an arrow that marks the upcoming note to be played; this is visible only with Practica Musica 4.5.
Custom Pitch Matching.act As in the standard pitch matching exercise, you hear two notes, see only the first, and are asked to play the second one. In Custom Pitch Matching you can choose what sort of intervals will be involved, and whether they will be ascending, descending, or both.
Intervals
The keyboard (filename: 1.1.the keyboard.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. Not really an exercise, this simply displays a piano keyboard with the keys labeled. As you click on notes or play them using the letter keys piano, text appears to identify half steps and whole steps as you play them. No staff notation appears.
Identify Steps.act This is an even easier form of the beginning textbook activity called wholestep-halfstep. In this variation, the steps are displayed in staff notation and the corresponding piano claves are highlighted as the notes play. Then then student identifies the step as either a wholestep or a halfstep.
Wholestep-halfstep (filename: 1.2. Wholestep & halfstep.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. Choose the appropriate box to identify a sounded interval as a whole step or a half step. Also identifies an interval as a whole step or a half step if you play it on the keyboard.
Octaves (filename: 1.3. octaves.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. Listen to various intervals and identify them as Octave or Not an octave.
| ||
|
42 | ||
|
|
|
|
Interval Playing (filename: 06.Interval Playing.act) Four levels of difficulty. Play the requested interval on the computer piano or on an external keyboard. Enharmonic equivalents are allowed.
Custom Interval Playing.act Like Interval Playing, but you can choose the intervals to work with.
Identifying Intervals (filename: 5.1.Identifying Intervals.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. See and hear various intervals and indentify them by choosing a box from multiple choice.
Speed Intervals (filename: 5.2.Speed Intervals.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. This is the same as Identifying Intervals, but speed counts.
Visual Intervals.act Four levels of difficulty. Identify intervals by sight, using multiple choice.
Building Intervals (filename: 5.3.Building Intervals.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. Write the requested interval ascending or descending from the requested starting note. Correct enharmonic spelling is required.
Interval Spelling (filename: 07.Interval Spelling.act) Four levels of difficulty. Write the requested interval on the staff, or play it on the computer's enharmonic keyboard. You must distinguish between enharmonic equivalents (know, for example, when to use D\# instead of Eb).
Interval Ear Training (filename: 08.Ear Intervals.act) Four levels of difficulty. Identify the interval by its sound alone. Uses multiple choices boxes.
Custom Interval Ear Training (filename:Custom Ear Intervals.act) You can pick the intervals you want to learn to distinguish, and Practica Musica will ask to identify them by ear, ascending or descending, melodic or harmonic as you request.
| ||
|
43 | ||
|
|
|
|
Interval Series.act This advanced ear training activity trains your memory as well as your ear. You listen to a series of harmonic intervals and then identify them by ear, with points taken off not only for errors but also for repeated hearings of the series. The series grows in length as you progress.
Custom Interval Series.act This is a "you choose" version of the Interval Series ear training activity. You can pick the harmonic intervals included in each example, and the number of intervals in each example. The goal is to develop your memory as well as your ear. Difficulty is from intermediate to advanced, depending on your choices.
Key signatures, scales
Tonics.act This was requested by a teacher: the student is presented with a key signature identified as major or minor, and simply plays the tonic note. The student can use any preferred clef. Level 1 covers major keys and level 2 the minor keys; the instructions window provides hints on identifying the tonic.
Degrees.act Another request: in this activity on is asked to play, for example "the mediant of the key of G major." Level one is major keys, level two is minor keys. A nice feature is that the activity tells you the name of the degree you played if you get it wrong (e.g. " that's not it - E is the submediant in G major. The mediant would be B").
Modal Melodies.act This is a non-graded activity that simply generates random melodies in various modes. It was requested by students who wanted to get a feel for the pitch materials in the modes. It does not, however, observe the melodic devices that traditionally would have been characteristic of each mode; it might be considered more suitable for the modern use of the modes in jazz. | ||
|
44 | ||
|
|
|
|
Key signatures.act In response to requests, this is an activity that simply quizzes students on the identity of various key signatures in the common clefs. The first two examples in each level also provide some onscreen explanation of how to identify key signatures. Level 1 is for major keys, level 2 is for minor.
Spelling Scales (filename:06.2.Spelling Scales.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. Choose the appropriate key signature and write the requested scale, using the correct spelling for each note (e.g., choose Eb if it is necessary instead of D\#)
Scales (filename: 09.Scales.act) Four levels of difficulty; level 4 includes transposed church modes. Choose the appropriate key signature and play or write the requested scale, ascending or descending as asked.
Custom Scales.act Choose which types of scale you want to work on. Practica Musica will then ask you various of them at random in various keys. You must choose the appropriate signature and play or write the scale in the given direction, ascending or descending.
Scale Ear Training.act Listen to various scales and identify them by ear. Level 1 is beginning difficulty (just major vs. natural minor); Level 2 is intermediate (distinguishing different minors), and Level 3 is moderately advanced (distinguishing the church modes)
Custom Scale Ear Training.act Listen to various scales and identify them by ear, but in this 'you-choose' activity you can pick which scales you want to practice with. You can pick any traditional scales and some artificial ones such as the octatonic. | ||
|
45 | ||
|
|
|
|
Melody in one part: rhythm
Begin Reading Rhythm (filename: 3.1.Begin Reading Rhythm.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. Instead of generating its examples at random, this activity uses a small library of 10 progressively more difficult examples. You must tap the rhythm of the melody you see, keeping in time with the metronome.
Meter examples (filename: 2.1.Meter Examples.act) Not an exercise, this activity performs a groups of examples from the literature chosen to illustrate the nature of different meter signatures.
Writing Rhythm (rhythm dictation) (filename: 3.2.Writing Rhythm.act) Two levels: simple meter and compound meter. Using the note tools, write the rhythm of the melody example you hear. These are generated examples; always new. Pitches are automatic.
Placing Barlines (filename: 2.2.Placing barlines.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. Melodies are generated at random in various meter signatures; you place the barlines where appropriate.
Reading Syncopation (filename: 4.1.Reading Syncopation.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. Like Begin Reading Rhythm, this uses a library of 10 composed examples that involve syncopation. You should tap the rhythm of the melody you see, keeping in time with the metronome.
Reading Triplets (filename: 4.2.Reading Triplets.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. Also like Begin Reading Rhythm, this uses a library of 10 composed examples that involve triplets. You should tap the rhythm of the melody you see, keeping in time with the metronome.
Rhythm Matching (filename: 03.Rhythm Matching.act) Four levels. Hear a rhythm and try to repeat it by tapping the keys. This is an exercise in remembering a pattern. | ||
|
46 | ||
|
|
|
|
Custom Rhythm Matching.act Like the standard Rhythm Matching exercise, this is a test of pattern memory, but you can choose how long the examples will be and how complex. Listen to the example and then try to repeat it, tapping on the middle row of computer keys (or midi instrument) in careful time with the metronome.
Custom Rhythm Reading.act It's sightreading, but for rhythm only. You'll hear the notated pitches, but your job is to tap the notated rhythm on the middle row of computer keys (or midi instrument), staying carefully in time with the metronome. You can choose how long each example will be and how complex.
Rhythm Reading (filename: 04.Rhythm Reading.act) Four levels. See a melody and tap its rhythm, keeping in time with the metronome.
Library Rhythm Dictation (filename: 15b.Lib Rhythm Dictation.act) Like Library Pitch Dictation, this is a PM4 version of the rhythm dictation activity in Practica Musica 3 that used a library of 39 melodies.
Rhythm Dictation (filename: 15.Gen Rhythm Dictation.act) Four levels. Using various note values, write the melody you hear, and don't forget the barlines. Pitches will be provided automatically; this exercise is scored for rhythm only.
Melody in one part: pitch
Lines and Spaces.act This is a beginning exercise in pitch reading. Level 1 randomly generates passages that use only the spaces of the treble clef, level 2 melodies use only the lines. Levels 3 and 4 do the same thing for the bass clef.
Reading Treble Clef (filename: 1.4. Reading Treble Clef.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. A series of pitches is presented in whole notes in the treble clef. Play at your own speed. | ||
|
47 | ||
|
|
|
|
Reading Bass Clef (filename: 1.5.Reading Bass Clef.act) One level, from Textbook Activities. A series of pitches is presented in whole notes in the bass clef. Play at your own speed.
Reading in Keys (filename: 06.1.Reading in Keys.act) One level. Read simple melodies in various key signatures. You can choose the clef, but the program will choose the signature.
Reading Accidentals (filename: 1.6.Reading accidentals.act) Two levels, for treble and bass clef. Whole note melodies are again presented, but now they include accidentals.
Pitch Reading (filename: 02.Pitch Reading.act) Read series of pitches from the staff rhythm is not counted. Four levels of difficulty: 1. Naturals. 2. Adding accidentals. 3. Key signatures with no accidentals. 4. Key signatures with accidentals.
Custom Pitch Reading.act This is a you-choose-the-materials version of the Pitch Reading activity. You can decide what sort of melody you'll be reading, and in what clef, key, and meter!
Transposable Pitch Reading.act Do you play a transposing instrument - and do you have a device for playing those notes into Practica Musica? You'll want to try this transposing version of the Pitch Reading activity, in which you can read melodies transposed to match the key of your instrument.
Custom Transposable Reading.act (See the description for Transposable Pitch Reading). In this one you can choose the type of melody you work with, as well as the clef, key, and meter.
Shaping melody (filename: 10.1.Shaping Melody.act) An ungraded exercise. This provides 6 melodic rhythms in a "rhythm guide" that will automatically shape the timing of a melody you write. Your task is to write a shapely melody that follows this rhythm and phrasing. Your melodies can be heard, saved, and printed. | ||
|
48 | ||
|
|
|
|
Pitch Dictation (filename:14. Gen Pitch Dictation.act) Four levels. Enter the necessary notes on the staff by choosing the note tool and clicking in the staff. Keyboard entry is not allowed; you must know where the notes belong on the staff. Notes can be dragged up or down after entering, and you don't have to do the melody in order - you can write the last part first if you want. You don't have to think about rhythm in this; the correct rhythmic values will automatically appear as you enter the notes.
Library Pitch Dictation (filename: 14b.Lib Pitch Dictation.act) This activity comes from Practica Musica 3, and is a pitch dictation activity based on the same 39 melodies found in the older program.
Pitch Errors.act Listen to melodies that have 1 or more "wrong notes" - notes that the program plays at the wrong pitch. Your job is to find and correct the errors in pitch notation.
Real Transposition.act Brief melodic examples are generated at random, and you are to write a "real" transposition in a requested key. Example question: "please transpose this D major melody to the key of G major."
Tonal Sequencing (filename: 11.1.Tonal Sequencing.act) Tonal Transposition.act Brief melodic examples are generated at random, and you are to transpose the example "tonally" to begin on a different pitch. Rhythmic values are provided automatically; you work just on the pitch.
Transcribing Alto C.act The creation of this sample activity is described in the 4-part movie series Creating An Activity (see online Movies). You are asked to transcribe given melodies from the alto C clef to the octava G clef, which reads like the treble clef but an octave lower.
Atonal Dictation.act Take dictation in atonal series from 2 to 6 notes in length. This is like the standard Pitch Dictation exercises except that note values are all quarternotes, and | ||
