MUSIC ACE MAESTRO
Reviews

teaching k-8

The Magazine for Professional Development

     Music Ace Maestro is now available in a professional edition for music educators; it has expanded management tools, including functions to let teachers sort, save, and access records for up to 5,000 students, as well as to create a course of study for each student. These features are especially useful for group and classroom teaching. Student information from previous versions of Music Ace and Music Ace 2 easily transfers into this program. Teachers can evaluate students’ overall progress by checking reports that show the number of times they completed a session and the highest scores they achieved.
   The strength of the programs in the Music Ace series continues to be an excellent educational curriculum produced with great visual and aural appeal for students. The cartoon character Maestro Max introduces young musicians to notation, rhythm, and a variety of theory topics, such as key signatures and major and minor scales. A series of games is a fun way to review these concepts and offers a variety of difficulty levels. Each lesson is preceded by an illustration of the concepts to be covered, leaving no guesswork for teachers to create assignments.
   Students of all ages enjoy the exercises and

drills, which are full of colorful notes, three-dimensional graphics, and digital sound effects. The rhythm games have strict scoring and relaxed scoring, which gives students leeway by allowing for timing that is slightly off.
     The Doodle Pad, a concept continued from previous Music Ace programs, helps students to explore the world of composition in an imaginative way. A wealth of music samples are available in the jukebox file, giving students a chance to change existing pieces or compose original music.
   This program is a valuable resource for students who like to experiment; it provides an exciting way to learn about music and at the same time gives teachers useful tools to monitor and analyze students’ progress.
    Minimum system requirements:
Windows: Windows 98/2000/Me/NT/XP/Vista, 166 MHz or faster, 32 MB free RAM, 640x480 256-color display, 60 MB free hard disk space, 16-bit sound.
Macintosh: PC/iMac/ OS9 and OSX, 32 MB free RAM, 640x480 256-color display, 60 MB free hard disk space.
Price: $128. (Harmonic Vision, 800-474-0903; www.harmonicvision.com)
                        - Elizabeth Ann Reed