{"id":6270,"date":"2008-09-08T17:07:08","date_gmt":"2008-09-08T16:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/back-to-school-music\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T02:27:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:27:46","slug":"back-to-school-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/back-to-school-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to school &#8211; Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-images.sftcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2008\/09\/piano2.gif\" alt=\"Learn the piano on your computer\" align=\"right\" \/>Music was always one of my favorite subjects at school. However, I invariably ended up just banging two blocks of wood together during our orchestral performances. Perhaps if I&#8217;d had some computer software at my disposal in those days, I would have been able to master some of the proper instruments. In the latest in our Back to school series I&#8217;ll outline some programs that may be useful for training your ears.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Primary<\/strong>: A good way to introduce yourself to music is to learn the notes on a scale. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.musicmasterworks.com\/midi_video_game_sheet_music.html\">Note Attack<\/a> makes this an easy process, helping you to read music by blasting notes into submission in a fun game. Once you&#8217;ve got the basics of what the notes are and where they appear on the scale then get hold of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pianoeletronico.com.br\/index-en.html\">Electronic Piano<\/a>. This free program offers the perfect way to learn the basics of the piano by hammering the corresponding keys on your keyboard.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Secondary<\/strong>: You may wish to start your secondary music education by consolidating what you already know and building on this knowledge a bid. Install <a href=\"http:\/\/www.solfege.org\/Main\/HomePage\">GNU Solfege<\/a> and you&#8217;ll be able to test your existing music skills through a series of quizzes, based on the recognition of notes, scales, chords and the like. You&#8217;ve already had a stab at the piano, and if you&#8217;ve mastered that you may want to switch to the guitar. <a href=\"http:\/\/music4classicalguitar.com\/fretfun.php\">Fret Fun<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.100chordsmethod.com\/?a=pad\">100 Chords Method<\/a> make for excellent training aids for learning guitar chords. To help you keep time you should also install a decent digital metronome, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earpower.com\/metronome.php\">Fast&amp;Soft<\/a> Metronome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>College<\/strong>: If you&#8217;re musical ambitions stretch further than being able to strum a few chords, you&#8217;re probably thinking about composing your own works. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.musicaleditor.com\/\">MagicScore Maestro<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gvox.com\/encore.php\">Encore<\/a> are both excellent music notation applications for professional composers. Of course, you should make sure your ear is trained to perfection first, which you can achieve by installing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.silvawood.co.uk\/pitch-intro.htm\">Absolute Pitch<\/a> onto your PC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Music was always one of my favorite subjects at school. However, I invariably ended up just banging two blocks of wood together during our orchestral performances. Perhaps if I&#8217;d had some computer software at my disposal in those days, I would have been able to master some of the proper instruments. In the latest in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/back-to-school-music\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Back to school &#8211; Music&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2006,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-6270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2006"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335885,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6270\/revisions\/335885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6270"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=6270"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=6270"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=6270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}