Making Music is promoted not as a CD-ROM but as a "composing space for kids," and that's not far from the truth. The space metaphor holds up pretty well within Making Music's layout. Better yet is the program's basic idea: let kids learn about writing and playing music by manipulating objects on screen rather than trying to grasp the abstraction of notes on a staff.
Electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick came up with the clever design of Making Music, dividing the software into five sections. The main composing section looks very familiar. In fact, it's a dead ringer for many online drawing systems, such as MacPaint. And like MacPaint, a kid can grab a paintbrush and dab shapes on a canvas. Only these shapes correspond to notes and rhythms. A child can literally paint a new or old tune, which is a great way to learn. For years, Scandinavian schools have been teaching math using blocks similar to Lego, taking abstractions such as 1/10 and making them concrete. On the Making Music screen, when a kid wants a note to go up, he or she can paint it higher than the previous note.
There are four other sections on the disc, and all follow the pattern of making ephemeral notions solid. Building Blocks literally lets kids take simple melodies apart in chunks, then rearrange and combine them with other melodies to see how a song fits together. Melody and Rhythm Maker allows kids to move hatching birds on telephone wires to experiment with tunes and rhythm combinations. Flipbook lets kids match melodies, rhythms, and instruments with tunes and pictures of other kids who become a kind of stand-in for the kid playing. Games lets children use their tunes or default ones to train their ears in pitch and rhythm.
Making Music is attractive without being flashy and distracting, useful without being too much of a burden for kids or their parents. There is a learning curve, however. As with any musical tool, it's easier to make noise than melody with Making Music. Learning to use the different sections and coming up with something besides musical gibberish will take a little time. But it's definitely possible, and any motivated child (especially with a helpful parent) can work it out. If your kid can finger paint, he or she can get something out of Making Music.
Making Music for Mac and Windows: US$39.95. The Voyager Co: (800) 446 2001, +1 (212) 431 5199, on the Web at www.voyagerco.com.
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