Music theory Software

Hi all,

As a uke player for a few years I'm considering learning more music theory...I Have a few books and am ploughing through them slowly but would prefer an interactive software program I could use to learn.

Anyone have any experience of them, and any recommendations,

Chris
It may be useful to include I come from the UK as I am told some of the terms are different in music in the USA so the ability to switch to these terms would be useful,

Cheers for reading,

Chris

It's funny you should mention that. Until I transferred to our business systems group a couple of years ago I worked developing courseware for use in classrooms. Just this week I was thinking it would be fun to put together some software for teaching scale and chord theory. The problem is I don't know if I really have the time to commit to that (so many projects, so little time).

I'm not aware of any really good theory training software out there, but to be fair I haven't researched the market, either, so there could be some.

John

I think there are a number of different courses out there, both paid and for free.

One I just found that looks pretty good is called "Easy Music Theory."

I haven't used it myself, but it seems to cover the basics.


Be aware too, since you are in the UK, that there are variations in the terminology depending on where you are in the world. In North America, we use names like half note, quarter note and eighth note, whereas in the rest of the English speaking world the same notes are called minims, crochets and quavers.



If there's something in particular that you want to know about, let me know and i'll do my best to explain or guide you to a better explanation.

If you want to learn ear training, intervals and dictation, Macgamut is a pretty good tool. All those things are very useful when trying to learn theory and the software has pretty good exercises if you have the patience to go through them. It was a required thing for my introductory music theory class and it helped with getting better at listening. Its not free, but if you put the time in, its a good teaching tool

http://www.macgamut.com/

I used Musition and Auralia from Sibelius (not free) and both courses were great. Takes quite a while to get through but that's because they have drills, practice quizzes etc which help you practice the info. http://www.sibelius.com/products/index.html

Free Open Source alternatives:

http://www.solfege.org/
http://www.lenmus.org/en/phonascus/intro
http://www.jalmus.net/?lang=en

Possibly some interesting stuff here (I skimmed it)
http://www.musescoretips.com/2011/0...t-your-music-reading-and-ear-training-skills/

Whatever you do, use the trial version prior to puchasing software. I work at a university school of music, and our students do not like using Macgamut.

Thank you for all your deeply thought out answers. I say this because I imagined I may get ridiculed, saying I didn't need it for a uke, but I played rhythm guitar for years, along with mates (about 20 years!) and never even considered music theory or had the inclination. You may have heard this before or experienced it yourself and I don't mean to make you yawn at the cliché but it is only after my trandsfer to uke that I have really givien it thought. I even have a full scale keyboard I have hardly played!

If you ever did do something for the uke John (Oldefart) I'm sure you would make a killing as there is nothing I have found in depth on the uke out there.

I will have a look at 'Easy Music theory' cheers Jamie.

Since I posted I actually found a demo of Musition and am looking at it now. It looks great, but I would be interested MaryMac to hear how you got on with it and what prior music theory you knew.

Thanks for taking the time for your list Whetu and I assure you your time is not wasted as I will check every link in this research stage.

Finally Stmace as I've said I've downloaded Musition now, but will research everything posted here and any more I find before making my final purchase. Not only will they vary in depth and quality, but as you point out, what suits some people does not suit others.

Thanks everyone and I'll post here with what I decide as reference to others....I must admit though Musition looks very good,


Chris

freackykit said:

Since I posted I actually found a demo of Musition and am looking at it now. It looks great, but I would be interested MaryMac to hear how you got on with it and what prior music theory you knew.

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Hi Chris - I played trumpet in the marching and symphonic bands in school many years ago (25?) but we never did theory. Still, I do know how to read treble clef and the basics of notation so that probably helped my theory study. I suck at bass clef and know nothing about what key a song is in, perfect fifths and all that more complex stuff. I got Musition to learn it! I haven't finished the course yet but I do some periodically so I do plan to get through it eventually. I just have a whole lot going on at once...

Good luck! - Mary

Cheers Mary,

I can read single notes the treble slowly and the bass....very slowly....lol

So far the Muitsion has it.... Interface on Macgamut does not do it for me,


Chris

I'm interested in this stuff as well. Thanks for all the good suggestions!

I'd guess that Musition i pretty good - I'm downloading it as we speak to give it a try. I've had reasonably good experiences with AVID (the makers of Musition) before, and I use Sibelius (their flagship notation software) on a regular basis.

I'd be eager to hear what all of your experiences with theory learning software have been. What do you like? What can't you stand? etc


I'm a music teacher myself who works in the field of kids music educational software. It's always great to see someone do an outstanding job with a piece of software.

marymac said:

Hi Chris - I played trumpet in the marching and symphonic bands in school many years ago (25?) but we never did theory. Still, I do know how to read treble clef and the basics of notation so that probably helped my theory study. I suck at bass clef and know nothing about what key a song is in, perfect fifths and all that more complex stuff. I got Musition to learn it! I haven't finished the course yet but I do some periodically so I do plan to get through it eventually. I just have a whole lot going on at once...

Good luck! - Mary

Click to expand...

Hi Mary, I'm a trumpet player, too, but haven't played as long as you even as a comeback player. I'm in 2 bands (1 with 110 musicians). My wife (flute) and I play duets with BIAB backup at retirement homes, church, hospitals, and schools. I barely knew what a chord was when I started. I got some good help from the book, "A Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory." I had to learn a lot about transposition since we do our own arrangements. Now I want to learn more about harmony so I'm using a book Harmony & Theory." I'm only interested in learning enough for our stuff though. I started learning all the modes to improv better, but finally quit since I just have go with the flow and let the notes come out naturally and spontaneously. This process takes time and experience, IMO. I will say that BIAB has helped me a lot and they have some learning modules in their programs also. However nothing to learn uke. They do have a feature for uke chord charts and tabs though. When people say they want to learn music theory, I wonder if they know how extensive a pursuit that might be. Even now, after playing for years in a symphonic band, I come across some symbol or word on a chart that I've never seen before. I think learning to read music would be the best thing to do initially. No real need to learn the bass clef unless you are going to play an instrument that uses it or you have to transpose from it for some reason. Just my 4 cents worth.

Out of all those I have come accross I think I'm going with Musition...The student edition looks a good deal but just got to find out if I can uninstall and install to a new PC when I get one next year or whether the cheaper license agreement limits to one install in total,

Thanks for all the comments
Chris

Not heard anything back about the license yet, will let you know when I do...

In the meantime

http://www.jaydemusica.com/download.php is great for learning notation and

found this guy on YT...I know it's not uke based but he looks to cover a lot of theory,
http://www.youtube.com/user/Lypur

Chris

This isn't directly what you asked for, and being at level 2 is going to be hard if you've never studied before. But:

http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/a224.htm

60 points equates to about 16 hours per week. There's no direct qualification from it, however if you took another 60 points before, you could get a Certificate in Higher Education. Or even a degree!

There's financial support available - so no harm in looking!

Of course, if you can't take the plunge, it's worth seeing if you can find a set of the materials somewhere. There will be books, but there'll also be interactive materials on CD-ROM. Mind you, if you take the course you'll get a tutor, tutorials and a forum!

I'm not currently studying music, but I love the OU.

Sorry for the late reply...I didn't get an updated email for the forum this time and have just come back by chance.

I must admit...I have seen this course and am interested at a later date as I am getting more into the theory and practice of music than I ever imagined, and agree that it would give structure - but I will get that up to grade 5 with Musition and am quite happy to take my time getting there!
I believe the OU also has a related course on music technology using Sibelius as well that looks good
...Never studied with the OU myself but know plenty whom have and all relate a positive experience!

Of course all this interst in the finer aspects of music I hold all you here at UU responsible for your encouragement and deepening my interests! I mean where will it all lead!!!

Seriously thank you to everyone for feedback here and the sharing of info...As usual it is truly appreciated,

Chris

As an update I've decided to go with the Musition and put in an order yesterday