G7

Citation and General Information
o http://www.G7info.com/
 * G7
 * Publisher: Avid Technology, Inc.
 * Copyright 2004
 * Runs on both Wintel and Macintosh Computers
 * Requires no peripherals
 * This software is recommended for primary, secondary, university, and adult educational levels; however, I believe that it would do the most good for late middle school to adult students.
 * This program could be used in any classroom setting.

Teacher Support

 * One can find materials from the G7 instruction manual as well as some from the Internet.

Instructional Content

 * G7 allows the user write out guitar music on a regular staff or in tablature notation. It gives the user the option of guitar style, time signature, key signature, and also offers mixing and recording capabilities.
 * National Standards:
 * Standard 4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
 * Standard 5. Reading and notating music.

Instructional Design and Pedagogical Soundness

 * This teaching strategy is appropriate for any age students. The ability to write out music and have it played back is a useful tool for young students and adults. Even a professional composer/arranger could use this program and find good aspects to it. What makes this program less useful for the classroom setting is that it is a notation software for guitar, and in the typical music classroom, guitar is not a major instrument that is taught.
 * The program has a large number of options in composing, editing, mixing, and recording. It would be advantageous for the user to read through the User’s Guide to understand what each of the options covers.
 * As long as students are kept on task, and given clear directions and instruction about the areas they will be using specifically, there should be no problem with difficulty in use for the students.
 * User has control of movement within the program and can move at whatever rate he or she wishes.
 * Program Structure
 * Discovery
 * Drill and Practice
 * Sequence of Materials: Excellent
 * Pace of Instruction: Excellent
 * Quality of Interaction: Excellent
 * Motivation for Students: Excellent

Overall Evaluation

 * G7 is an amazing program for anyone interested in writing music for guitar. The main drawback to the program is that it is only for guitar notation. If a user has Sibelius than the programs can be used together and the guitar part may be imported into Sibelius. Because of the detail that this program uses, it can be easy to get lost in a lot of the extras, however, if the tools can be mastered, it is a powerful composition tool for guitar.
 * Rating - * * *

Reviewed By Ken Stray 4/4/07