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Aural Training Resource Site

Curriculum
Written by Chad Criswell
I remember in my college aural training class having to memorize intervals based on familiar songs, i.e. perfect fourth is "Here Comes The Bride." Well, as I have been noticing lately all the tunes that I grew up knowing and recognizing for this purpose are no longer well known by the current generation of elementary and high school students. Luckily the folks over at EarMaster have created an online page full of interval examples from more modern songs that many of today's students will actually know (am I really so old that no one recognizes the Star Trek theme for the minor seventh any more?).
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Skip To My Lou- Free Sheet Music and Lyrics

Folk Song Sheet Music
Written by Chad Criswell
This document contains links to view and download the music to the traditional childrens song, Skip To My Lou. The files provided below are in Adobe PDF format. There is also a folder of Sibelius format files that users can edit if they have a copy of the Sibelius music notation software program.
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Notion 3 Review- Music Notation Software

Computers
Written by Chad Criswell
Having the opportunity to review a new piece of software is always fun, and even more so when it is one that until recently I had never even heard of. We have all heard the names of other music notation programs, but as educators I would bet that few have heard of a product called Notion, at least until now. The newest version of the Notion music notation software has just been released and while it may not sit on the high pedestal with names like Sibelius and Finale, they definitely need to move over and make some room for the new kid on the block.
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Instrument Alternatives For Special Needs Students- The Soundbeam

Tales From The Podium
Written by Chad Criswell
I've been a fan of the Beamz virtual musical instrument for quite a while now, and had mentioned how it was a perfect opportunity for students with special needs to create music both in a classroom environment and also as a recreational activity. Now I have been exposed to another virtual instrument called the Soundbeam that works in much the same way only using ultrasound instead of laser beams to detect the movement of the person playing it. It reminds me a lot of the old Theramin musical instrument that I used to play with as a kid at the local science center. The closer you are to the device the higher the pitches will be while as you move away from the device the sounds go down. The difference is that the Soundbeam sends MIDI data to a MIDI keyboard or other device to produce the sounds while the Theramin uses pitch modulation. I first heard about the Soundbeam in a blog post by Dr. Jim Frankel of Soundtree (Soundtree also sells the device in the USA). In his blog post about the Soundbeam he also has an embedded video of a wheelchair bound student using the device that is worth taking a look at. For even more information about the music therapy benefits of the product take a look at the Soundbeam web site.

Converting Music Between Sibelius and Finale

Computers
Written by Chad Criswell
I recently received a question asking how to move music back and forth from Sibelius to Finale. I too have this problem quite often as almost all of my old lessons and beginner music that I wrote out for my classes was done in Sibelius but now I would also like to be able to use it with SmartMusic (which requires Finale to create custom arrangements). Since neither company wants to allow the other to begin reading and writing their own proprietary formats, the grand dream of one day having an open, comprehensive transportable music file format is probably never going to happen. For now there is a format called MusicXML but it leaves a lot to be desired when working with complex scores.
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