MiBAC Music Lessons

MiBAC Music Lessons #1 Fundamentals
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MIBAC Music lessons #2 Chords and harmony
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MiBAC Music Lessons #1 Mac - Fundamentals
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MiBAC Music Lessons #2 Mac Chords and harmony
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MiBAC Music Lessons #1 Fundamentals

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Mac Screen shot

This award winning software helps you understand music and play any instrument better. It's easy to use, requires no previous musical background, and provides unlimited hours of enjoyable practice. Learn to read music, improve your sight reading, play new scales, and sharpen your listening skills. Whether you're eight or eighty, it's the perfect accompaniment for learning music, no matter what instrument you play.

Learn Essential Skills

MUSIC LESSONS' drills move gently from elementary exercises to college level music theory. These essential musical skills will improve your music making no matter what instrument you play.

Learn By Doing

You get interactive feedback on every question. The software even shows you the answer when you're stuck.

Learn By Listening

The ear training drills help you understand what you hear.

You're In Control

Nearly every aspect of the program's interface is under your control, including your choice of sounds and the colors used on the screen.

MUSIC LESSONS Drills

Most ear-training programs do a pretty good job training your ear, but they fall short when it comes to actually teaching you about the fundamentals of music. MUSIC LESSONS goes further than simple ear-training. It helps you learn the basic theory necessary to really understand music. MUSIC LESSONS provides unlimited hours of practice. Its eleven drills each have multiple skill levels and can be done in treble, bass, and alto clefs. Comprehensive help screens explain every musical term and concept necessary to master the drills and progress reports provide a detailed record of your scores.

Note Reading

Learn to read notes and improve your sight reading skills. Sight reading is one of the most important musical skills you can develop, because the better you are at sight reading, the more easily you can learn music. Skill levels use treble, bass, and alto clefs, with notes on just the spaces, to notes with double sharps and double flats up to two ledger lines above and below the staff. This is an essential drill for beginners, and very useful for advanced musicians learning new clefs.

Circle of Fifths

Learn how the Circle of Fifths is used to identify major and minor keys based on the number of increasing sharps and flats found in the key signature, the order that sharps and flats appear in key signatures, and the ability to play through the ascending or descending Circle of Fifths beginning with any note. Circle of Fifths motion is used extensively in jazz, pop, and classical music chord progressions.

Key Signatures

Learn to identify major or minor keys based on the number of sharps or flats appearing in the key signature. Key signatures appear just after the clef symbol on each line of music. When you know the key signature and the notes of the corresponding major or minor scale, you know the notes the composer used as the raw materials for the melodies and harmonies in the piece. Skill levels let you select any combination of major or minor keys, using sharps or flats. You can control the number of sharps and flats that will be used.

Major / Minor Scales

Learn what notes are used in the major, natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor scales. The notes of these scales are the raw materials used to construct melodies and chords.

Modes

Learn the modal scales. Modes were commonly used by Renaissance composers and are used today in jazz, pop and some 20th century concert music. The major and natural minor scales are derived from the Ionian and Aeolian modes.

Jazz Scales

Learn the notes of several jazz scales. The notes of these scales are used as raw materials for improvising. The more advanced musician can practice playing scales like Dorian Flat 2, Lydian Sharp 5, Mixolydian Sharp 4, Mixolydian Flat 6, Minor Flat 5, and Locrian Flat 4.

Scale Degrees

Learn a note's position within a major or minor scale or key. Each scale degree (position) has a name. The different scale degrees have melodic and harmonic tendencies. Knowing the scale degrees will be very useful when studying intervals, melodies, and chords.

Intervals

Learn to visually identify intervals. An interval is the distance in pitch, measured in half steps, between two notes. Quick visual recognition of intervals is very important in sight reading and transposing. You begin with diatonic intervals in a major key, and advance to fully chromatic intervals without key reference. Covers ascending and descending, doubly diminished to doubly augmented intervals, spanning a unison to a tenth.

Note / Rest Durations

Learn how many beats a note or rest receives in various time signatures. This is essential for understanding how rhythm and counting work. The lower number in the time signature can be a two, four, eight, or sixteen. Note and rest values can range from a sixteenth to a whole, including dotted values.

Scales / Modes / Jazz Scales Ear Training

Learn to identify scales by listening. Learning to recognize what you hear is an important musical skill. You'll have to listen closely to distinguish between the four types of major-minor scales, the eight modes, and the seven jazz scales played on any pitch level. You can work with each group independently or in combinations.

Intervals Ear Training

Learn to identify intervals by listening. Learning to recognize what you hear is an important musical skill. From diatonic intervals in a major key to fully chromatic intervals spanning a unison to a tenth, this drill will really improve your ear.

Multiple Skill Levels and Progress Reports are built-in.

Each drill has multiple skill levels that make it just right for the beginner, yet challenging for the advanced musician.

System Requirements

For PC

Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or Windows NT 4. VGA or SVGA video display. Sound card recommended. MIDI keyboard is optional. MUSIC LESSONS supports any MIDI synthesizer, MIDI interface (including Roland MPU-401) through the Windows Multimedia Extensions Drivers.

For Macintosh

Version 3.0. Power Macintosh or Macintosh with 68020, 68030, 68040 processor. System 7.0 or higher. 2 MB available RAM and 4 MB free hard disk space. MIDI optional.
Version 1.2. Macintosh Plus or later. System 6.0.x or System 7.x. MIDI optional. Version 1.2 is included with the Version 3.0 package for older black and white Macs.

MUSIC LESSONS II Chords and Harmony

MUSIC LESSONS II is the most comprehensive Chords and Harmony software available. It's recommended for intermediate to advanced musicians, ages 12 and up.

PEDAGOGICALLY SOUND

MUSIC LESSONS II develops all four areas of music perception essential to the study of music:

Visual Recognition
Written Notation
Keyboard Skills (Piano and Guitar)
Ear Training

SIX AREAS OF STUDY

Chord Elements
Triads
Triads Ear Training
Seventh Chords
Seventh Chords Ear Training
Roman Numeral Chord Identification

THREE STUDY ACTIVITIES

Naming
Writing
Playing

The three study activities, Naming, Writing, and Playing, develop three of the four essential areas of music perception: Visual Recognition, Written Notation, and Keyboard Skills. The fourth area, Ear Training, is covered in the two Ear Training drills, which can also be practiced in the Naming, Writing and Playing activities. Being able to switch between the three study activities in every drill keeps you motivated and interested, while reinforcing the musical concepts being learned.

YOU'LL LEARN TO:

NAME chords you see in all keys, clefs, qualities, inversions, and open or closed voicings;

WRITE chords on the music staff in all keys, clefs, qualities, and inversions, using the program�s drawing tools;

PLAY chords in all keys, clefs, qualities, and inversions on the program's two instruments (piano and guitar) or from an attached MIDI synthesizer;

HEAR and identify chords in all keys, clefs, qualities, and inversions in the ear training drills.

MULTIPLE LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY

Each area of study has three to four subdrills, and each subdrill has multiple settings. The easier settings work well in the middle school, while the advanced settings are suitable for college study.

CUSTOM DRILLS

Custom drills are easily created to target specific areas of study. For example, you could create a drill to work on the ii - V - I chords in the keys of C, F, and G.

FIVE CLEFS

You can work in treble clef, bass clef, alto clef, tenor clef, grand staff, or any combination of these. In treble clef they can work with three or four part chords in open or closed voicings.

PIANO AND GUITAR INSTRUMENTS

In the Playing activity drills, you answer questions by playing the on-screen Piano or Guitar instruments, or an attached MIDI keyboard.

DRAWING TOOLS

In the Writing activity drills, you answer questions using the program's built in music notation tools.

EAR TRAINING

Ear training is a challenging area for most students. With MUSIC LESSONS II, you can create custom ear training drills with a learning curve that fits your needs.

ROMAN NUMERAL IDENTIFICATION

These drills help prepare for Advanced Placement Music Theory exams.

INTERACTIVITY

You get immediate feedback with on screen scores, and you can work at your own pace. If you don't know the answer, the program will show you. If you don't understand the answer, the built in Help screens clearly and completely explain every musical term and concept used in the program.

OPEN-ENDED DESIGN

Because MUSIC LESSONS II is open ended, you can work on the drills in any order. The software is easily integrated with any existing curriculum.

FLEXIBILITY

MUSIC LESSONS II works with a wide range of learning styles and preferences. Nearly every aspect of the program's interface is under the your control.

HUNDREDS OF DRILLS

The program provides hundreds of possible chord and harmony exercises formed by combinations of the six areas of study, the three study activities, the multiple levels of difficulty, the five clef choices, and the piano and guitar instruments.

PROGRESS REPORTS

Progress Reports provide a detailed record of student scores on every level of every drill. It's easy to view or print the current assignment, any assignment from the past, or the cumulative listing of scores for all drills done in the past and up to the present. The cumulative score listing provides an end of term assessment for each student. Progress Reports can be printed and saved for an unlimited number of students.

BUILT IN MUSIC THEORY REFERENCE

A comprehensive Music Theory Reference explaining all concepts related to the drills is built into the program and is always available on screen.

PRINTED USER GUIDE AND REFERENCE MANUAL

These two manuals thoroughly explain every aspect of the program's use.

SOUND OPTIONS

Win: Sound card or optional MIDI synthesizer
Mac: Computer speaker: sampled sounds or QuickTime sounds
MIDI: MiBAC routines, MIDI Manager, OMS, FreeMIDI

WINDOWS SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Win 95, 98, NT4, Win 2000 Sound Blaster and MIDI compatible

MACINTOSH SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Mac 68K or PowerMac MacOS 7.1.1 or newer, MacOS 8 or MacOS 9 MIDI optional