Musicus+5.1

1. CITATION AND GENERAL INFORMATION • Title: Musicus 5.1 • Author: Joseph Koob • Publisher: Courseware Systems, Inc. http://www.ecsmedia.com/indivprods/musmuscs.shtml • Copyright Date: 2004 • Platform: Win 98, 2000, XP, Mac OS 8.5-9.2, 10.1-10.x • Peripherals: headphones or speakers • Grade/Age: Early Elementary, Late Elementary • Type of Class: General Music, Theory

2. TEACHER SUPPORT Teachers may purchase a site license for a school for this program. No additional support is available. Single Station Price: $29.95 Lab Pack (5 stations): $105.00 Site/Network License (24 stations) Price: $240.00

3. INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT This game for an individual has falling blocks with note values that students must guide to drop into measures. There is MIDI background music that is playing during the game, and at the end of the game, the student may play back the rhythms created.

National Music Standards that could be addressed using this software: 5. Reading and notating music. 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

4. INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND PEDAGOGICAL SOUNDNESS This program helps students familiarize themselves with note values, and how to fit them into measures. It has a colorful, appealing appearance and is easy to read and use. It can be used as a discovery program, since the blocks continue to fall even if you do not fill in every single beat. The pace of falling blocks can be adjusted, and they are listed using tempo markings. A score is kept as you play the game.

Overall, the program is easy to operate. It is simple to change the difficulty level and rate of the falling blocks. The appearance is interesting but does not distract the player. It can be used as a drill and practice, to see if you can fill in all the measures completely. However, since it is similar to Tetris, it would not be an accurate assessment of student knowledge.

5. RECORD KEEPING Musicus has a Hall of Fame where high scores from the computer are saved.

6. OVERALL EVALUATION Musicus is a fun game, created in the format of Tetris. It is a great way for students to explore patterns that can be created, however, they cannot really create anything on their own. For this reason, the program does not provide a lot of opportunities for use in the classroom. • Rating **

Reviewed by Christina Spackey 11/13/09