This website provides strong beginning to advanced lessons in fundamental Music Theory concepts. The site provides a wonderful array of tools, lessons, and exercises that can help with providing a foundational basis of music theory. The site has been cleaned up and polished to allow the most user-friendly interface that I have come across in some time. As a music instructor, this site can be used for many different learning levels and help provide supplement to any music course.
The lessons stretch from basic music theory to advanced part-writing and ear training. It also has lessons incorporating the piano and guitar, truly making this a must-use site for music educators.
See the Good stuff about this app, as well as the Not so good and our verdict after the jump...
The Good:
Everything you may need as a supplement for beginners in a music course is here. The lessons are not only well developed, they also provide very helpful flash images to help reinforce concepts throughout the lesson. Each lesson is built off the previous activity with a seamless transition between concepts.
It also explores a variety of customizable exercises that help reinforce new concepts and ideas. From a Music educator standpoint, this is helpful in monitoring understanding of lessons as well as creating assignments and quizzes for students. Since the site is available free to anyone, this is also a great tool for students to use on their own to help review ideas, or simply practice at home. The exercises range from beginning to advanced, truly making this a site for all ages.
The tools section is both easily accessible and varied. There are basic tools such as a staff paper generator and metronome, along with advanced tools such as chord calculators and analysis calculator.
The Bad:
Although this site has a wealth of information and many interactive tools to create success, it is unrealistic to think that you can learn Music Theory from this site alone. Don't think that you can put a student in front of this site for a month and get a Mozart on the other side because it won't happen. There are many great beginning lessons and concepts shown through this site, but it will need a good amount of clarification from an educator. Though the interactive flash animations are helpful in clarifying the idea, it still can leave a few people in the dark. The ideas of each lesson are very basic and to the point. There is not much stress on all ideas or enough examples to think that this will be a one-stop shop for a person learning music for the first time. Now, that being said, what about as a refresher course? Yeah, this is a powerful site. It will give you everything you need to jump back on that horse you so long ago fell off from.
The Verdict:
Use this site! Even if you have other sites, books, programs, or any other tool you use to help learn or teach music, use this site. I have seen this site develop from the start and all I can say is "Bravo!" Ricci Adams has done an amazing job creating a bug-free and thorough site, and to be giving it away for free is simply amazing. It has everything you need to help create a better learning environment in your classroom or at home. It also has exercises available through an iPhone/iPad app called Tenuto (though that isn't free). I use the site for my classroom and push the students to download the app to allow them to practice anytime and anywhere. It truly is strong way to help promote music education in a much more engaging way.
Octavio Cedeño
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