Note-A-Lator

Title: Note-A-Lator Publisher: @Electric Peel Software Copyright Date: 2009 Platform: Macintosh Peripherals: N/A Grade/Age: Late Elementary to Adult Type of Class: General Music, Theory

Teacher Support
You can get a free trial version at the Electric Peel Software site, but the full program version costs $9.95. According to the order form, "one license allows you to use Note-A-Lator on any computer that you own." Electric Peel Software advertises Note-A-Lator as "a music reading quiz program that helps parents improve their child's music reading abilities. Unlike regular tests, Note-A-Lator provides immediate feedback by drawing every wrong answer on a staff after each question, eliminating the need for a proficient adult to look over the student's shoulder."

Instructional Content
Note-A-Lator offers two quizzes, Note Identification and Rhythm Identification (in the trial version - there may be more offered in the full program). Before beginning the quiz, the user has the option of setting parameters such as number of questions; type of clefs (offering treble, alto, tenor, and bass); whether or not to include accidentals; note values (for the Rhythm Identification quiz) and key signatures (number of sharps/flats).

National Standards addressed:
 * Standard 5: Reading and notating music.

Instructional Design and Pedagogical Soundness
This is a very simple program - the interface is easy to follow and clear in its expectations for the user. It is appropriate for a wide variety of ages, though it is not particularly engaging, so younger students may become bored. The graphics are clear and illustrate each question without confusing the user. The program controls are intuitive - the user may end the quiz at any time. One complaint might be that instead of simply selecting the note name (i.e. C), the user must also select "natural" each time in the Note Identification quiz and "no dot" for regular whole, half, quarter notes, etc. in the Rhythm Identification quiz.

The Note Identification quiz asks the user to name each note while the Rhythm Identification quiz asks the user to identify the length of the note highlighted in blue. Quizzes can be up to 100 questions long. The program is interactive, but it only offers a quiz interface which becomes repetitive in time. However, one positive offered by the quiz format is the immediate feedback offered when an incorrect answer is supplied - the program shows and names both the correct and incorrect answers so the student may compare the two.

The user may control the pace of instruction by selecting specific areas to be quizzed on. There is little motivation offered - again, this is a very basic Drill-and-Practice program.

Record Keeping
After the completion of each quiz, Note-A-Lator provides a "report card" with the name of the user, the date, the time taken on the quiz, the subject, and the grade achieved in percentage. Also included on the report card is an assessment of "problem areas," which offers specific details on aspects of the quiz that the user struggled with. The report card can then be printed.

Overall Evaluation
Note-A-Lator is an acceptable program - it's nothing groundbreaking and I've used more interesting programs. I do like that it offers the possibility to work with Alto and Tenor Clef in the Note Identification quiz, which is something that most other programs do not offer, so for that it could serve as a useful drill. However, the simplicity of the interface does not offer much motivation for students to remain engaged, so I would not be likely to purchase it. If the full program was free, I might suggest it to students for practice with drilling note identification (especially the Alto and Tenor clef options), but I don't know that it's worth spending the $9.95 when you could purchase another program with additional features.

Rating ** (fair)

Reviewed by Allison Paetz on 11/12/2009