Sibelius Educational Suite
The Sibelius Educational Suite (www.sibelius.com/education) not only makes learning music interactive and fun, it also offers instructors a way to save hours on preparation time. The latest component of the suite is Compass, which was developed to aid middle school- through university-level students in the art of composition. The program covers all of the topics associated with successful music composition, including melody, harmony and rhythm. It leads students to complete composition projects, as well as allows them to write and play back their own pieces. Compass, which includes extensive lessons, worksheets and 33 built-in quizzes, also features an educational sequencer called Tracker, which boasts more than 1,200 built-in chord sequences, rhythms, scales and motifs to help students build up compositions.
This article originally appeared in the 10/01/2004 issue of THE Journal.