Encore+5.0.5

INSTRUCTIONAL SOFTWARE REVIEWS

1. CITATION AND GENERAL INFORMATION • Title: Encore 5.0.5 • Publisher: [|GVOX] • Copyright Date: 2009 • Platforms: • Grade/Age: Junior HS/Middle School, High School, Adult • Type of Class: General Music, Band, Orchestra, Choir, Music Theory
 * Macintosh. System Requirements: G3 CPU or better, 32MB of RAM, 16MB Hard Disk space Mac OS 10.3 or higher
 * Windows. System Requirements: Pentium class CPU or greater, 32MB of RAM, SVGA video, PC running Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
 * Other Requirements/Recommendations for Mac and Windows: MIDI interface and MIDI keyboard (or other MIDI instrument or software) for live recording, and a compatible ink-jet or laser-quality printer for printing sheet music.

2. TEACHER SUPPORT
 * Encore 5.0.5 comes with a complete downloadable user manual as well as a downloadable quick start manual. All the user manuals can be downloaded in pdf form and reproduced for instructor and student use. In addition, the on - board help menu comes with a search feature that both searches out features within the program itself as well as online resources.
 * Because this is notation software and not instructional software, learning objectives and lesson plans are developed and implemented by the instructor. None are included with Encore.
 * Encore does come with two key resources. 1. Hundreds of works by J.S. Back are already formatted in Encore, ready to use. This resource could be especially valuable in music theory form and analysis units. 2. Thirty different staff templates are included with unlimited potential for user generated templates to be designed and saved.

3. INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT • Specific Musical Content: Encore 5.0.5 provides the user with an easy to use basic music notation platform. For example, it could be used for composition, arranging, technology performance, and classroom music theory projects. • National Music Standards that could be addressed through this software:
 * National Standard 2: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
 * National Standard 3: Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
 * National Standard 4: Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
 * National Standard 5: Reading and notating music.
 * National Standard 6: Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
 * National Standard 7: Evaluating music and music performances.
 * National Standard 9: Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

4. INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND PEDAGOGICAL SOUNDNESS

Instructors must carefully gauge their student's level of musical understanding before allowing them to begin work with this program. Because it is a notation program primarily designed for compositional use, students must have a firm grasp of music basics before using Encore. While the basic interface of the program is quite easy to use, some of the interface features are not intuitive. For the most part, when not using MIDI entry methods, the user simply clicks on a note or rhythm and places it on the staff. Playback is easy to enable and basic editing features are easy to find and use. Encore allows for real time or step time entry using MIDI keyboard or controller.

6. OVERALL EVALUATION

Encore is a basic music notation software program containing an arsenal of notational tools sufficient to care for most compositional needs. Notable features include MIDI, VSTi playback capabilities as well as support for Garritan Personal Studio. It supports score notation as large as 64 staves/8voices per stave as well as full guitar tab features including automatic tab notation. Encore will print an entire score, individual pages, or a complete set of extracted parts.While Encore contains an impressive array of features, its interface design is dated; especially when compared with other prominent music notation programs in use today. Encore's menu design had not changed significantly since its design for pre OS-X mac architectures. Its menus are difficult to navigate and basic functions such as selection tools and erasure tools are not intuitive. I feel students utilizing this program would need a basic tutorial in order to access features beyond the very basics of notation.

Overall Rating for Encore: fair (rating scale is poor, fair, good, excellent) Review by Anthony Jirschele, 06/16/2010