Lenny's MusicToons
© 1993 Paramount Interactive
Five matching and music activities are accessed by clicking on objects in Lenny's room. In Lenny's Theater, children produce a concert by selecting a star (e.g., "Country Chicken and the Clucks"), along with rhythms, tempo, volume and props. Pitch Attack combines an arcade setting with the names of notes, showing bass and treble clef (the first we've seen of this kind). Children increase in rank as they score points. Another unique and clever game is Lenny's Puzzle Book which turns a melody into puzzle parts. Children can "hear" each part as they use sounds & visual clues to piece a song together. PTV lets you record up to 8 simple videos. Also included is a 3 by 6 square concentration game (our tester's favorite), and a realistic view of Times Square with a brief overview of New York City (we weren't sure about the purpose of this activity). This very easy-to-use program has clear sounds, vivid graphics, and the activities are unique in their approach to helping children learn notation. The program offers a wide range of difficulty levels although the range of styles is somewhat limited (no classical or jazz). Some of the choices within the activities are narrow, e.g., although there are many stars to select from in Lenny's Theater, they all move in a similar way.
$34.99, DOS CD-ROM, Windows CD-ROM, DOS disk
Teaches: names of notes, scripting, matching & memory, musical notation