Travels With Music
© 2006 Listen for Life Productions
Rich in content but limited in design, this is a collection of facts, videos and quizzes on 57 lesser known musical instruments from 15 countries. (This disk is not about typical US band instruments.) An in-depth look at each instrument is presented through print and video. For example, the Nigeria Shekere (a type of drum) features footage of a master percussionist named Baba Ken Okulol, who proudly shows how the instrument is constructed and played via nine short demonstrations. The videos are well-done, and the central part of this program features live concert footage and first-person narration from original sources. After learning about the instrument, you can take a 10-question multiple-choice quiz. If you get a perfect score, you "earn" the instrument. The idea is to eventually earn all the instruments. The quizzes are dry and lack in any sort of feedback, and the objective of the game is not clear. Fortunately, because students sign into the program, their progress is saved over time. Extra content includes a very useful game of musical concentration (with three levels) that lets children match sounds with the instruments. The content comes from a music education foundation called Listen for Life. There are several series of this program as well as pricing structures. The program was designed in Macromedia Director. All in all, this is a very useful addition to any music education library.
$10, Windows XP, Mac OSX
Teaches: music, culture, instruments, history
CTR Rating: 82%