Hey bloggers! Its been a few days, but I'm back! I've been preparing for a studio recital, as well as taking care of my 6 month old son. Things can get crazy at this time of year! To mix it up a bit, I'm going to give the rest of my reviews in narrative form.
In this review I'll be looking at Teoria (www.teoria.com), the first free online music theory program that I reviewed that is both written and aural theory based. It's actually a little bit addicting to use, mainly because of the variety of exercises and lessons, as well as the ability to customize the exercises. For example, if you are doing rhythmic dictation, it is easy to focus on just common time signatures and simple rhythms; or for the more advanced, select some compound meters and syncopated patterns. The program is a great challenge for all levels. For advanced features such as grade tracking, or access to the website content offline, there is an annual fee of $20 (includes updates for that period of time). This is the best way of tracking your students progress, turning this free online program into a powerful classroom teaching, exercise and assessment tool.
Ear training lessons and exercises include rhythm, notes, and intervals, as well as various scales, chords, and melodies. The method of answering each question is also customizable. You can select to answer via note name, a visual keyboard, or chord type (more simple). Therefor, if you want your students to use keyboard skills, they can be a little more challenged this way. Setting a timer for the exercise is also an option, as well as changing the clef that the exercise is presented in.
There are several more written theory based exercises (much more than listening). There are three categories of Music Theory and Reading Skill: 1) Clefs, Reading, and Writing: reading and writing transposing instruments (great for students interested in composing or conducting), interval construction and ID, jazz theory (chords, scales, modes, etc.), key signatures, scales, rhythm; 2) Chords: Triads, seventh, ninth, and extended chords; and 3) Harmonic Functions: Triads, seventh chords, secondary dominants, diminished sevenths, augmented sixths, and neapolitan sixth chords. These are customizable as well. Each exercise is always followed by immediate feedback via a percentage (based on how many wrong clicks made in the time given), and auditory feedback (the playing of the correct form of the exercise. This helps connect theory to practice, an extremely important function of music theory.
Tutorials (or lessons) go along with the exercises, which are designed to enhance the tutorials. The categories of tutorials include reading music, intervals, scales, chords, harmonic functions, and music forms (not found in the exercises). Many of the lessons are accompanied with visual and aural examples, and sometimes historical context and application. However, the placement of each aural example doesn't always go along with the visual. Some examples make it less obvious to be able to start or stop an example, as it is imbedded into each page via Adobe Flash (no pause button; must "right click" to select stop). Some students would probably prefer to read and absorb information before being presented with an example. Although controlling the example could use some improvement, the example itself is presented clearly and is fully annotated, such as the lesson on form.
Some tutorials include applets, such as the interval constructor in the interval tutorial. This allows students to select whichever interval they like so that they can see it on a staff, and hear its sound. These applets are great reference tools, in addition to the reference section. The reference section contains a "clickable" dictionary of music terms, some of which have visual explanations. It is not the strongest part of the website, and I would probably use another site like Wikipedia for detailed descriptions of terms, however it is good for a short reference and for use with student assessments.
In contrast to the reference section is the articles section, written mostly by the website's author Jose Rodriquez Alvira. For example, one of the articles is written on J.S. Bach's The Art of the Fugue, which contains a visual/audio example of the main fugue subject, followed by examples of the other fugues, and canons. Most of these are elaborated in sub-articles (sort of like a wiki) that explains elements of the fugues with examples. These lessons provide either a great framework for shaping your own in-class lesson, or perhaps as a starting point (reading assignment) for your students. These could be used in an ensemble in conjunction with learning a particular genre or style, or in the theory or general music classroom. In addition to analyses, there are several general articles on playing, reading music, and tools for teachers.
Teoria is a cheaper alternative (or free) to some of the other programs like Musition and Auralia, although it is not as slick or flashy. However, the content is on par and in many ways easier to navigate. With the Teoria website, users can get the full experience of the software for free, making the free version much more valuable than most demos. I would give Teoria a 9/10 for learning curve, and a 10/10 as a learning tool. I recommend this program, particularly for schools or students that cannot afford other programs. This tool can be implemented throughout all music curricula to enhance written, aural, and performance skills.
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