GNU+Solfege+Ear+Trainer

1. CITATION AND GENERAL INFORMATION
 * Title: GNU Solfege
 * Author: Tom Cato Amundsen (and others)
 * Publisher: [|GNU Solfege]
 * Copyright Date: 1999-2008 V. 3.14.9
 * Platform: Windows, Macintosh, Linux
 * Peripherals: Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers (or headphones)
 * Grade/Age: Junior High School-Adult
 * Type of Class: Music Theory/General Music

2. TEACHER SUPPORT


 * There is some documentation included with the program, including a user manual. However, the documentation isn't teacher-specific, and lesson plans specific to this program are not provided. An additional copy can be found [|here]

3. INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT

National Standards 5- Reading and notating music. 6- Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.


 * GNU Solfege can be used to develop everything ear-training, from harmonic and interval recognition to scales to dictation- harmonic and rhythmic! It doesn't have the most user-friendly interface, but it is highly versatile and free. It has modes for training recognition of major, minor, diminished, augmented, 7th, 9th, and other chords. In addition, it has a built-in feature for testing reproduction of chords or chord tones- it plays a note in the chord and the user is supposed to sing the rest of the chord or the specified chord tone. At this point, the evaluation is self-check since there isn't support for analyzing vocal input, but it is still a valid and useful trainer.

4. INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND PEDAGOGICAL SOUNDNESS


 * This is definitely a drill and practice/tutorial-type program. This program is not the easiest to use straight out of "the box," but once a user is familiarized with the general layout and basic operating syntax, it works smoothly and understandably. Statistics and configuration options (overall range of pitch selection, etc) are included with most of the tutorials. From an educational standpoint, this means that students' progress can be tracked with the click of a button and the exercises are adjustable to suit the needs of individuals (to a point). The exercises are not timed and don't have an incorrect answer time-out limit, so students can progress at their own pace while learning from their own mistakes. This sort of learning method requires a level of maturity and independence that makes this program mostly unsuitable for younger ages, especially if they are unsupervised.

6. OVERALL EVALUATION


 * While this is a basic program with a very simple GUI, it is still a very versatile and rather full-featured ear-training program, especially considering its price tag. Once familiarized, it is quick and easy to use and the overall program takes up virtually no memory footprint.

Rating -- four stars/four stars Reviewed By: Nathan Knox 11/13/09