Half Notes

NoteCard 3.1.5.0 Release Notes

This is the first public release of NoteCard 3.1. The download and buy links on the AheadWithMusic.com home page and elsewhere on our site have been updated to refer to this new version.

NoteCard 3.1 adds a feature (in Paid Mode only) that didn’t quite make the cut for 3.0: the capability of using an external MIDI instrument to enter notes into the program. This should be particularly useful in group teaching situations where each student is equipped with a keyboard, as well as for private users who have a MIDI keyboard as part of their computing configuration.

Also new in v3.1 is a more efficient ordering set-up that provides for a quick license code purchase from within the program, together with full RegNow tracking support for sales affiliates.

NoteCard 3.0.5.0 Release Notes

Starting now, the first public release of NoteCard v3.0 is available for download on our website, and for sale through our payment processor, RegNow. See the download and buy links on the AheadWithMusic.com home page and elsewhere.

Several minor bugs have been fixed in this version relative to the recent internal release candidate. In particular, some user account issues arising from switching between Free and Paid modes were addressed.

For a decade or more our NoteCard 2.0 freeware has languished in relative obscurity as an unassuming little tool to help beginners learn the musical notes. In fact (as the ‘2.0’ reveals), an even more primitive NoteCard once walked the Earth. That NoteCard ran on the Commodore 64, a very popular machine from the Dawn of Personal Computing.

But even NoteCard 1 wasn’t the real beginning. That was a year or two earlier when I was teaching piano in Toronto. Like many piano teachers, I had several students who found it frustratingly difficult to master note-reading, to such a degree that it was a real barrier to progress. And, again like many others, I had the idea of creating decks of musical flash cards — small cards with a staff note on one side and the note name on the other.

Flash cards are great. They are the quintessence of manual drill: there’s nothing like them for learning foreign vocabulary, for instance. Anyone who has tried to learn vocabulary from a simple written list has probably noticed an inherent problem with that method: you end up learning the information as sequenced. What flash cards contribute is randomness. They let you develop your ability  to recall information without the crutch of a predefined ordering. They teach you to be mentally ready for the rough and tumble of information in the real world. Another benefit of flash cards is total focus on the learning task: there is no overhead, no frills, no distracting frivolities. And they work just as well for musical notes as they do for languages.

Flash cards are great, but in an era of personal computing they’re not as great as they used to be. In fact, we can now do much better. When you start thinking about ‘computerizing’ flash cards, what probably comes to mind first is the convenience of not having to shuffle the deck, and not having to keep track of little pieces of cardboard any more. And those are good things. Even better, though, are the things only a computer can do, things like:

• measuring your response speed
• storing your results for analysis
• playing back notes as you enter them, to involve aural memory
• allowing different clefs without needing a new deck for each
• including optional complications like sharps and flats
• offering a choice of on-screen ‘instruments’ for note entry
• focusing on the weaker notes for extra practice
• providing an impartial measure of achievement

The new release, NoteCard 3, includes all these features and more. For instance, another key addition is support for multiple users, each with their own settings and records. NoteCard 3 allows up to three users to share a single installation of the software. With all these enhancements, the software is no longer limited to being just a passive tool. Now it can serve as an active guide, a tutor able to react and respond to the user’s individual learning situation.

NoteCard 3 is available for download and purchase immediately from AheadWithMusic.com. The software includes a 10-day trial of its two modes: Paid and Free. Users can learn their notes perfectly well in either mode, but the Paid mode offers a cluster of bonus features that I hope many users will value. If a Paid License has not been purchased during the 10-day trial, the software continues indefinitely in Free mode.

We are still looking for a handful of additional volunteer beta testers for NoteCard 3.0 as we get ready for public release. Particularly if you fit one of the following profiles, we would love to hear from you by Saturday, May 9 if you are interested in participating:

• elementary school music teacher
• private music teacher with good experience at beginner level
• adult guitarist, any level, but starting to grapple with notation

We look to our beta testers for several kinds of information: for bug reports and anomalies; for suggestions about possible enhancements; for criticisms, cavils and complaints. But the core idea is always to find out how the software behaves on actual machines ‘in the field’, with actual users at the helm. The beta test team is our Reality Check Chorus. It doesn’t have to sing in tune, just loudly and often. That is, we count on beta testers to:

• get involved with the product
• consider actively what they like and don’t like about it
• devote a significant amount of time to exploring, using and belaboring it
• take careful note of the circumstances in which any problems occur
• share their observations and experiences with our private beta tester’s group

The ideal beta tester has a lively curiosity, good communication skills, a tenacious approach to problem-solving, and enough free time to exploit these virtues. A final quality, no less necessary, is discretion. Testers must agree to respect the confidentiality of the beta process: to refrain from sharing with people outside the beta group any information not publicly available through this website.

And what do testers get in return for their service? Our profound gratitude. A chance to help shape NoteCard 3.0 and its sibling products-to-be by participating in our little beta community. And at the end, a free product license.

If you think you belong on the NoteCard 3.0 beta team, are prepared to offer the product a serious pummeling and tell us what you discover, please drop us an email giving just a few lines about yourself and your reasons for wanting to get involved with NoteCard.

We’ve just finished setting up a discussion forum on our site. It‘s called ‘The Salon’ (let us know if you think of a better name). We hope it will develop in time into a thriving community for those of us with an interest in software tools for elementary music education, while also offering scope for our members’ wider interests.

The public message boards should be pretty quiet until NoteCard 3.0 is released in the next few weeks, but the private beta-testing area is beginning to see some activity and should soon be in full swing.

If you stop by our public boards and don’t see much going on just yet, please check back soon. Or you might even leave a message…

While anyone is allowed to read our public message boards, you have to sign up (enter a user name and password in the boxes on the main forum page) in order to be able to leave messages or otherwise participate in forum activities. These are the very earliest days, so you’ll never have a better chance to help set the tone for conversation at The Salon than you do right now! Why not drop in and start up some dialog?