937 Press Release Edited by Applelinks Contributing Editor Charles W. Moore

Practica Musica, Ars Nova's award-winning music theory and ear training software, has received its most significant upgrade to date: Version 4. Now compatible with both Windows and Macintosh, Practica Musica 4 has many new features that make it the new standard for music education software.

Whether you need to practice your sight reading skills, improve your ear training abilities, or just learn the fundamental principles of music theory, Practica Musica allows you to do it all. With the release of version 4.5 and its associated new features, Practica Musica is now, more than ever, the most complete music education package available for music theory and ear training. Download version 4.5 now for $100 and start learning. (Existing Practica Musica owners also can download the version 4.5 Edition upgrade now. For schools the Site Edition is also available for download.)

This award-winning music training software includes more than 80 theory and ear training activities, each allowing students to focus on specific skills, such as rhythm tapping, interval recognition, chord spelling, polyphonic dictation, etc.

Best of all, Practica Musica allows students to work at their own pace, providing interactive feedback and tracking user progress until mastery of each concept is achieved! Purchase a copy and begin enjoying Practica Musica's many features and benefits right away.

A Wide Variety of Customizable Activities
Practica Musica currently features more than 80 activities, 27 of them specifically designed to accompany Ars Nova's textbook, Exploring Theory with Practica Musica. As more activities are created, they are posted to a special section of Ars Nova's web site for free download. Difficulty levels range from beginning to advanced. Here is a list of many activities included with Practica Musica:

â—Š Pitch Matching
â—Š Pitch Reading
â—Š Rhythm Matching
â—Š Rhythm Reading
â—Š 2 Part Rhythm Reading
â—Š Pitch & Rhythm Reading
â—Š Interval Playing
â—Š Interval Spelling
â—Š Interval Ear Training
â—Š Scales and Key Signatures
â—Š Spelling Scales
â—Š Scale Ear Training
â—Š Chord Playing
â—Š Chord Spelling
â—Š Chord Ear Training
â—Š Chord Progression Ear Training
â—Š Pitch Dictation
â—Š Rhythm Dictation
â—Š Pitch & Rhythm Dictation
â—Š Melody Writing
â—Š 2 Part Pitch Dictation
â—Š 4 Part Pitch Dictation
â—Š Hearing Altered Chords
â—Š Progressive Dictation
â—Š Visual Chords
â—Š Visual Intervals
â—Š Building Intervals
â—Š Interval Series
â—Š Speed Intervals
â—Š Active Listening
â—Š Real Transposition
â—Š Tonal Transposition
â—Š You-choose Scales
â—Š You-choose Intervals
â—Š You-choose Chords
â—Š Composition Tools
â—Š 2 Part Writing Tools
â—Š 4 Part Writing Tools
â—Š Vertical Reading
â—Š Dictation with Chords
â—Š Atonal Dictation
â—Š Non-Harmonic Tones
â—Š Modal Melodies
â—Š Pitch Errors
â—Š Transposed Pitch Reading
â—Š Reading in Keys
â—Š Rounds
â—Š 4 Part Writing Tools
â—Š Chorale Writing
â—Š Shaping Melody
â—Š Reading Syncopation
â—Š Reading Triplets
â—Š Tonics
â—Š Building Triads
â—Š Recognizing Sevenths
â—Š Tonal Sequencing
â—Š Playable Textbook Examples

Additional Beginning Activities:

â—Š The Keyboard
â—Š Wholestep and Halfstep
â—Š Octaves
â—Š Reading Treble Clef
â—Š Reading Bass Clef
â—Š Reading Accidentals
â—Š Placing Barlines
â—Š Lines and Spaces
â—Š Meter Examples
â—Š Single Pitches
â—Š Transcribe Alto Clef
â—Š Recognizing Triads
â—Š Recognizing Primary Chords (in progression)
Activities with full descriptions

Each of the above activities can be customized to meet the needs of a specific individual or curriculum -- instructors can even create their own activities for inclusion in their students' activities folders.

New Coordinated Textbook
Exploring Theory with Practica Musica (Evans) is a friendly and engaging textbook that provides full coverage of music fundamentals topics, plus a section of tear-out written exercises and music for class use . Using Practica Musica in conjunction with Exploring Theory... enables students to put concepts into practice with immediate feeback -- the new "Textbook Activities" illustrate and reinforce nearly every topic introduced in the book. Students also can refer to Practica Musica to hear all of the music examples printed in the text. Students respond enthusiastically to this multimedia approach because it makes the subject matter both more accessible and more vital, and the new Student Edition makes this advantage available to academic institutions at textbook prices.

Polyphonic Capabilities
Many theory and ear training activities have been included in Practica Musica that take advantage of the program's unique polyphonic capabilities. Practica Musica can now perform rhythm tapping or sight reading exercises in two parts and can tutor students through more advanced ear training exercises such as four-part dictation or chord progression identification. In the chord progression exercises, the voicing of each chord can be displayed in full.

New Sounds
Practica Musica for Macintosh can use Quicktime instruments for output, as well a variety of sampled instruments with 16-bit output resolution for clarity in inner voices. Practica Musica for Windows uses either the sampled sounds, the computer's sound card sythesizer or SoftSynth (if available).

MIDI Compatibility
Though MIDI is not required (except in sight-reading exercises involving both pitch and rhythm) it is often helpful. Practica Musica for the Mac OS X uses OS X's built-in MIDI capabilities so no third party MIDI management software is required. Mac users with OS 9.1-9.2 can use OMS or FreeMIDI, either via a serial port or USB. Windows users can plug directly to the joystick port found on most sound cards, or to a USB port with a USB interface.

Vocalis Voice Input Technology
New Vocalis voice input technology allows Practica Musica users to sing or play instruments into activities such as Pitch Reading, Interval Playing, etc. Voice input is done using any standard USB microphone.

Notation Tools
Practica Musica's notation tools allow students to write not only melodies, but also chorales and other polyphonic compositions. Music can be heard, saved and printed -- perfect for class assignments. The music file format is the same for both the Macintosh and Windows versions, so files created on one platform can be read and edited by the other.

Requirements:
Practica Musica 4.1 or later (full registered version).

For more information, visit:
http://www.ars-nova.com/practica.html

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