FlexiMusic+Kids+Composer

**General Information**

 * Title: [|FlexiMusic Kids Composer]
 * Publisher: [|FlexiMusic]
 * Copyright 2004-2007
 * Platform: Windows Vista/XP/2000/Me
 * Grade/Age: Elementary school through early middle school
 * Class: General music

**Teacher Support**
FlexiMusic's website offers limited support. However, there are a few helpful links, including a [|list of functions], [|an updates section] (what's new in each version), and [|some screenshots]. There is also a simple help menu inside the program. The teacher is not granted any resources for lesson plans, either. Despite this lack of resources, the program itself is quite simple, so resources do not really seem absolutely necessary.

**Instructional Content**
MENC National Standards addressed:
 * __Standard 3 & 4: Improvising melodies, composing music.__ This program gives students and introduction to creating and improvising (through the editing feature) melodies and accompaniments, through exploration and experimentation.
 * Preparation - __Standard 5: Reading and notating music.__ The graphical layout of the tracks as different colors and sizes on the timeline, as well as the use of the keyboard when editing the tune, provide preparatory skills that can transfer when the students learn how to read music.
 * __Standards 6 & 7: Analyzing and evaluating music.__ When the students play with the tracks they have created by changing sounds, durations, and melodies, then listening to it, they prepare and practice analysis and evaluation skills that they will later use as musicians. Teacher-guided discussion can help students to further discover their own aesthetic and explore sounds that sound pleasing and terrible to their ears, and be able to explain why.

**Instructional Design and Pedagogical Soundness**
This program is extremely simple. Because of its nature as a discovery program, students will be amused for hours. When the program first starts up, a default song is displayed in the editing area. This allows students to edit an existing song by creating tracks, or clicking on existing tracks and editing their "tune," or pitches, changing the instrumentation or the duration of the loop, and making the tempo faster or slower. In addition, the students can start from scratch by clicking "New Song" in the upper menu.

With all of these capabilities in such a simple program, students will be able to create simple compositions constructed from various looping tracks. Because of the easy-to-use nature and colorful interface, Kids Composer can be used as early as elementary school for an introduction/preparation for sequencing and exploration of composition. Identifying different tracks using colors and pictures helps to prepare music listening and reading skills; students will notice that different colors and pictures produce different sounds.

**Record Keeping**
The composition can either be saved, or even emailed as a record of the student's work.

**Overall Evaluation**
This program, for the elementary and early middle school levels, is useful and entertaining. If I had fun playing with it for a length of time, I think an elementary student would be quite amused. In addition, experimenting with composition and sequencing at such a young age can help cultivate an excitement for creating and playing with music that will serve students well as they grow in their musical experiences.

As I explored even further, I discovered this program to be surprisingly complicated. With the capabilities to edit the melody, rhythm, and instrumentation of each track, the compositions can easily become quite varied. This feature may not be ideal for the young age this kind of program seems to appeal to; in addition, some of the functions (playing individual tracks and such) are also most likely out of this age's reach. Despite these few points, I think that Kids Composer can provide an effective and fun introduction to sequencing and composition.

Overall: * * * out of * * * *

Created by Abigail McGreehan 10/27/08