Practica Musica & Ear Master

For more information on Practica Musica, including a demo, visit our web site at http://www.ForMusicTechnology.com/practica.asp

Originally only available for the Mac, Practica Musica has become a cross-platform ear-training program available to both Mac and PC Users.  Practica Musica offers detailed student tracking, the ability to create custom exercises and a very in-depth text entitled “Exploring Theory with Practica Musica”

Textbook

The textbook includes a thorough examination of theory, from the very basics to advanced harmony.  Virtually every musical example in the text can also be found as a file for use in Practica Musica, allowing you to listen and experiment with the examples.  Also included in the text are pullout worksheets and exercises, along with extra staff paper.

Display options

There are a number of choices for answering questions in Practica Musica, including:

·         An on-screen keyboard (with the option of labelling the key names)

·         An on-screen fretboard

·         A MIDI keyboard connected to your computer

·         Letter names from the computer keyboard

Customizable

In addition to the many exercises and examples included, Practica Musica allows you to create your own activities from scratch, or edit existing activities.  The options available are overwhelming – virtually any element of an exercise can be customized, including the layout of the staff, the instruments used and the instructions given to students.

The activity editor is not WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), which can take some getting used to if you are not familiar with programming.  Instead, you go through a series of menus, choosing various options for your exercise before testing it to see if it gives the results you want.  Until you have created a few activities on your own, it is far easier to edit existing activities.

Activities & levels

The activities that come with Practica Musica range from basic to complex.  Beginning and advanced levels are included, and you can create your own or modify existing levels.  All clefs are included (treble, bass, alto, tenor, baritone, mezzo, French G, etc.) as are compound meters.  Keys include all major and minor keys, along with various modes and the option of creating an arbitrary scale of your own.

The general types of activities that the program covers (either in pre-defined exercises or by creating your own) include:

·         Pitch & Rhythm matching, reading and dictation (including two handed rhythmic reading)

·         Interval and chord playing, spelling and ear training (all intervals are included, along with triads, sevenths, 9ths and all borrowed chords)

·         Chord progression writing, reading and dictation

·         “Choose your own” where you can more easily custom the level than by creating a new exercise

For each activity, the piano or fretboard display is used to enter answers, check your answer and compare your answer to the original.

Summary

As with many hybrid programs originally written for one platform and then “ported” over to another platform, Practica Musica does display some strange behaviour.  Windows users will immediately notice Practica’s Mac roots, such as the lack of a Help menu. 

The custom exercise option allows you to create many great exercises, but it would be nice to see a wider range of levels in the pre-defined exercises.

Of the many programs I have tested, I found Practica Music to be one of the most comprehensive, with a huge range of options and settings.  This also makes it one of the most challenging to learn.  Unlike most other programs, it took me a while to figure out all of the icons and options.  Using the included exercises was fairly easy, and most users would be able to start on basic exercises within a few minutes of installing the program.  Although I could probably create my own exercises, it would take quite a bit of my time to get it working properly.

Comprehensive and complex are not necessarily bad attributes for a program, but be aware that Practica Musica will take some time to master.  Once mastered, it will be well worth your time!

Although there is not an on-line help, it does come with printed documentation, which is included in the accompanying textbook.  The textbook is a fabulous resource for both students and teachers and provides exercises that can be done away from the computer.

Practica Musica addresses a wide range of melody, rhythmic and harmonic tasks for beginners and advanced users.

(c) 2003, Kelly's Music & Computers