Morton Subotnick's Hearing Music
© 2004 Viva Media
This simple, well designed program makes a perfect first ear-training experience. Four activities ask children to listen and differentiate between musical notes, patterns, pitches and rhythms. As kids progress through each leveled activity, they'll learn to recognize the difference between a major and minor chord, changes in tempo, and what the same piece of music sounds like played backwards. One activity, for instance, has children finding bits of matching melodies. Another asks kids to decide whether two musical interludes are identical or played at differing tempos or pitches. The software is smart, automatically getting easier or harder based on the child's responses. When a child completes a level, she is treated to a rousing, animated rendition of Handel's Messiah. Music used in the program includes works from Mozart, Schumann and Beethoven. If all this sounds like serious work rather than play, it's not. The graphics and animations are fun and appealing to children, and the activities are presented much like puzzles to solve. It's a compelling, entertaining experience. Parent and teacher options allow for records to be kept for multiple children. Although the packaging says the program is best suited for ages eight and older, we can see five, six and seven year olds really enjoying the listening challenges.
$29.99, Windows, Macintosh
Teaches: music, ear training, pitch, rhythm