Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory 2.0 Complete
© 2003 Alfred Publishing
This is a complete music theory curriculum by Andrew Surmani, Karen Farnum Surmani and Morton Manus that consists of 55 lessons, divided into three volumes (Volumes can be purchased individually for $29.95, and the student edition costs $70). Lessons start with note names and progress through inverted chords and ear training. This is the second edition of the series; with improvements including optional Alto or tenor clefs, the ability to customize a single students curricula and require a passing passing grade for students to go on to further units (optional), online updates, MIDI compatible exercises on some lessons--meaning you can play notes on an attached MIDI keyboard and see the results on the screen, a very valuable feature. Management tools in the teacher edition include the ability to import lists of students or individualize a curriculum for a particular student. The content is based on the material in the Alfred’s Essentials of Music Theory book series and includes narration of new concepts, animation, exercises, games and ear training. Notable features include a music glossary in which each term is illustrated musical when possible, and the record keeping is excellent. Overall this is not a fancy program; for example it doesn't know when you are guessing, hints are rare, and the presenation is anything but fancy. But the navigation is clean, and students are given plenty of control to repeat difficult content, if the teacher lets them. The bottom line? This is an incredibly useful comprehensive music teaching tool that makes learning music theory much easier than previous traditional methods.
$199.95, Macintosh, Windows
Teaches: music theory, from staff lines to chord structure