Practica Musica 5 (Academic Pricing)

Whether you need to practice your sight reading skills, improve your ear training abilities, or just learn the fundamental principles of music theory, Practica Musica 5 allows you to do it all. With the release of version 5 and its associated new features, Practica Musica is now, more than ever, the most complete music education package available for music theory and ear training. This award-winning music training software includes more than 80 theory and ear training activities, each allowing students to focus on specific skills, such as rhythm tapping, interval recognition, chord spelling, polyphonic dictation, etc. Best of all, Practica Musica 5 allows students to work at their own pace, providing interactive feedback and tracking user progress until mastery of each concept is achieved! Practica Musica currently features more than 80 activities, 27 of them specifically designed to accompany Ars Nova's new textbook, Exploring Theory with Practica Musica. As more activities are created, they are posted to a special section of Ars Nova's web site for free download. Difficulty levels range from beginning to advanced. Activities featured included: * Pitch Matching * Pitch Reading * Rhythm Matching * Rhythm Reading * 2 Part Rhythm Reading * Pitch & Rhythm Reading * Interval Playing * Interval Spelling * Interval Ear Training * Scales and Key Signatures * Spelling Scales * Scale Ear Training * Chord Playing * Chord Spelling * Chord Ear Training * Chord Progression Ear Training * Pitch Dictation * Rhythm Dictation * Pitch & Rhythm Dictation * Melody Writing * 2 Part Pitch Dictation * 4 Part Pitch Dictation * Hearing Altered Chords * Progressive Dictation * Visual Chords New Features in Version 5: Practica Musica 5 contains all the great features found in previous versions, plus these useful new additions: Big Notes option At any time you can toggle between normal and double-sized music by clicking the music size tool at the upper left of the music window. This enlarges everything in the music window, including text. Exploring Theory onscreen A new digital edition of our coordinated textbook Exploring Theory with Practica Musica is now included onscreen in its own menu. Pages are laid out just as they are in the print version of the book (available separately). What's most impressive about the digital textbook? The music examples are "live!" Each music example in the digital book is now a QuickTime movie - click and you'll see it come to life and play (Windows users can download Apple's QuickTime free). Most examples are brief but several are much more extensive than the examples in the printed book - for example, the illustration for Sonata form is the entire first movement of Mozart's 29th Symphony, in which you watch the 1st violin part and read scrolling comments on the form as the music plays. Note: the Exploring Theory textbook with movies is a large file (40MB); we've made it a separate and optional item in the program installer for that reason. If you have a slow internet connection and want to use the digital book you may prefer to order the CD rather than the downloadable edition. MIDI Export You can now export any music example or problem as a MIDI file. This is also useful for your compositions made with the writing tools - an exported MIDI file can be played by any computer and can even be converted to an MP3 using software such as Apple's QuickTime Pro and iTunes. WebStudent activities Instructors who have made customized versions of Practica Musica activities can now upload them to their class's WebStudents account. Once the special activities are on Ars Nova's servers, students using WebStudents anywhere in the world can open those customized activities within Practica Musica simply by clicking the new "Choose a class activity at WebStudents" command. The program will automatically open the remotely stored activity and run it on the student's computer - there is no need to download the file and locate it; all that is required is an internet connection on the computer. Skill Graphs We've had requests for a scorekeeping device that would show changes over time. The new Skill Graph is an optional addition to progress reports that displays a chart showing how the student's scores have changed since first attempting an activity. The graph also states the date of the first and most recent use of each activity. The graph is based on percentages of correct answers versus problems attempted. New activities Several version 5 activities are based on a new design that resembles questions in the AP Music Theory exam: four music examples are displayed and one is heard: the student decides which was the one that sounded. Another new idea is found in two of the beginning-level activities of Course1: instead of identifying an interval or chord alone, the student is presented with two in succession and is asked which was played first. This technique is particularly helpful in the beginning stages of learning. New capabilities Added the ability to incorporate moveable-do solfege symbols (tonic is always do) into an activity. These can be displayed on the keyboard, or above the notes, or both. There is a new ability to play a multistaff piece while emphasizing one of the voices - particularly useful in polyphonic dictation exercises. Music files of your own creation can be used as audible examples playable with a button. Activities can automatically move on to a specified different activity, allowing you to create activities in series. Easier use on school computers The new Student Edition CD can run from its CD even if write access is available only for the student's own partition on the computer. This is particularly useful when combined with Webstudents online record storage. Course One "Course 1: The Basics" is a linked series of 10 activities that takes the student from one exercise to another. Each activity is a prerequisite for the next one, and each activity automatically launches the next activity once a student has gained proficiency on the current topic. Reaching the conclusion of the series provides a real sense of accompishment: the student has learned and has shown evidence of having learned. This beginner course provides a carefully planned introduction to the basics of music theory and ear training: Activities featured included: * 1. Distinguishing whole steps from half steps * 2. Playing whole steps or half steps * 3. Introduction to the major scale. * 4. Playing a major scale melody (with automatic accompaniment) * 5. Beginning to read pitches, using the treble clef * 6. Distinguishing interval types (2nd from 3rd, etc.) * 7. Distinguishing interval qualities (major/minor, etc.) * 8. Reading simple rhythm notation (uses the computer keys for tapping) * 9. Reading rests (adds understanding of rests) * 10. Major and minor triads. System Requirements: Macintosh * OS 8.6 - 10.2.x * PowerMac * 64MB RAM * CD Drive Windows * Win 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP * 133mhz CPU * 64MB RAM * CD Drive