Music+Ace+2

=**Music Ace 2**=

Citation and General Information

 * Design and Programming: Chris Fresolone, Bob Keiser, Mislav Kos, Tim MacLoraine, Kevin Lentz, Joel May, Mike Medelson and Kelly Smith
 * ©1997-2000 by Harmonic Vision Inc. [|www.harmonicvision.com]
 * (800) 474-0903; 210 South 5th Street, Suite 12, St. Charles, IL, 60174
 * Mac and Wintel Platform
 * Windows: 98/2000/Me/NT4/XP/Vista
 * Mac: PowerPC/iMac/G3/G4/G5
 * MIDI Keyboard enhances program but is not necessary
 * This program is meant for beginning general music students but is probably also appropriate for elementary and early middle school.

Teacher Support
Like Music Ace, Music Ace 2 comes with another extensive Teacher's Guide as the standard users guide. The Teacher's Guide is very similar to that of Music Ace, including collection of worksheets and certificates, including progress tracking sheets for games and lessons outside of the program. The guide for Music Ace 2, also comes with the same lesson by lesson break-down table that came with the first edition of the program. This table is even easier to read and simpler. It has the overall topic and number for the lesson and game and then has an overall subtopic for each section of each lesson and game respectively. This guide has a more extensive support section and once again the user is directed to the harmonic vision website for additional support. Music Ace2 comes with a progress tracking application for individual students. The "completion counter" reports how many times a student has gone through a particular portion of the lesson and the "games progress" provides high scores for the student.

Instructional Content
The content for this program picks up from where the last one left off. Lessons 1-4 review beat and tempo, hearing rhythms, note names, and sharps and flats. The program then goes on to what would be new material. Lesson 5 begins basic rhythmic notation, lesson 6 introduces rests, lesson 7 starts scales, and so on. The final lessons introduce 6/8 time, and chords and harmony. Students can sing and play, alone and with a group using the doodle pad, and within some of the lessons. They can improvise melodies and accompaniments on the doodle pad, as well as compose and arrange their own works. Students will read and notate in order to progress through the lessons and worksheets. Listening and analyzing is also an emphasis of the program, and students will need to evaluate music and their performances, either in their lessons or on the doodle pad. In total, there are 24 lessons within Music Ace2, and every lesson is accompanied by a game. Content of the entire package includes: Standard notation, tempo, rhythm comparison, rhythmic dictation, echoing, counting, quarter notes, 8th notes, rests, measures, all key signatures, melodic contour, syncopation, half notes, ties, dotted quarter notes, 16th notes, rhythmic composition, time signature, major & minor scales, introduction to harmony, ear training, and composing melodies.

National Music Standards that could be addressed are:
 * 3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
 * 4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
 * 5. Reading and notating music.
 * 6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
 * 7. Evaluating music and music performances.

Instructional Design and Pedagogical Soundness
This version of the program is pedagogically formatted in the same fashion as the first one. It is half drill and practice and half discovery. Students move through games and lessons the same way that they do through Music Ace and work on the doodle pad the same way by dragging smiling note heads of varying sizes to different locations on the staff. The doodle pad also includes a dial for tempo and volume, like in Music Ace. The graphics are pleasing and not overwhelming or intimidating. They have become slightly more 3-D in comparison with the original Music Ace. Students are guided through the program by a short animated conductor with a friendly, albeit somewhat silly, voice ("Maestro Max"). The content is pedagogically appropriate, as is the pace but this version of the program, like the first one, lacks a correction/help with answers feature in many instances. This is somewhat disappointing especially for a program that is geared towards beginners. However, the lessons are still solid and come with a great deal of supplementary materials included in the educator's guide. The games are likely to be very motivating, especially for younger students. High scores within a game rarely "cap-out" and are almost limitless (see  []). Music Ace2 allows the user to tailor his/her own program. For example, students can now focus on a particular clef (treble and bass, treble only, bass only, or alto only), determine "rhythmic stringency" (relaxed or strict), and difficulty level (novice or advanced).

Record Keeping
Like Music Ace, Music Ace 2 offers the same login and progress tracking. There are also reproducible progress-tracking sheets included in the teacher’s guide. The "completion counter" informs the teacher how many times a student has gone through a particular portion of the lesson and the "game progress" application reports a student's high scores for the games.

Overall
Music Ace 2 is a strong pedagogical follow-up to Music Ace. It solid lessons and fun games for the next step of musical content (ex. scales, key signatures, syncopation, harmony). Music Ace2 focuses slightly more on rhythmic analysis than the original Music Ace; however, students are still asked to compose frequently in this 2nd version. It is easy to use and navigate, even for young students and comes with clear instruction from our little conductor friend. Students can compose easily through the traditional point and click application. Once again, it would be great to see some sort of assistance feature in the lessons, but this does not detract much from the overall worth of the program. The educator’s guide for this version is more extensive and simpler to navigate than that of the first and includes more supplementary materials. The program is very usable for the music teacher with only one computer in his/her classroom because Music Ace2 provides individual instruction for each student. The program must be used one at a time, meaning students can take turns playing under their own file while the remainder of the class works on something else. Students can always return to the game at a later time. Lack of correction is about all this program lacks. rating: ++++ (4/4 stars). Jeremy Gorin 4-10-06

Updated by: Stephen Allen on 4/03/07 Updated by: Damon Harvey 10/31/2009