Version 1.0 reviewed by Darrin Koltow - 02/08/00

Anyone wishing to learn more about how to read, perform and understand music is going to benefit from using Fanfare. It's like a textbook on music theory converted into software; only, it's a lot more engaging and useful than a hardcopy text. However, there are opportunities to increase its effectiveness as a learning tool.

The Interface

The interface is laid out in a way that's logical and easy to interpret. Below the menu bar you'll find, in addition to having icons for all of the drills, icons for configuring Fanfare to your needs. Among these icons is one for selecting the instrument you'd like to use to play the answer notes and chords. Clicking this icon brings up what is apparently a full list of the patches your MIDI out device supports. For fun, I selected the "Gunshot" sound patch to use in the drills; sure enough, I was barraged with notes of a gunshot timbre.

Under the Options menu, you can easily choose between melodic and harmonic drilling. For example, instead of being presented with a chord, you'll get an arpeggio, if you select "melodic." Note that, unlike the speed setting, this option doesn't get saved between sessions. Whether you chose melodic or harmonic intervals in your prior session, the setting reverts back to harmonic for your subsequent session.

A user interface element common to all drills is the Answer button, which provides the correct choice for a question. Although it's useful to have the correct answer immediately available, there's something to be said for deferred gratification. It's easy for an overly impatient student to click Answer the moment they feel stumped. An interface more conducive to learning would have a means of providing the correct answer in degrees – hints, essentially.

Help

The help file contains many lessons in music theory, but getting to them may be difficult due to sketchy indexing. For example, typing in the name of one of the exercises, "Cadence," brings no result. However, help does contain a wealth of music knowledge that's worth fishing around for.

The Drills

The chord, interval, and cadence exercises are going to be very useful to musicians. In each of these drills, the dialog box is laid out in an organized fashion, with the clef appropriately placed at the center of the player's attention. However, although the variety of seventh chords and triads seems complete, there are no 9th chords or "slash chords," (ie. C major chord with a D in the bass), nor is there a means to add them.

Intervals

Before you customize the interval exercise, you'll see the interval notated on the clef, when you start the exercise. Musicians may balk at identifying the interval, since it's already identified for them; you need only have the rudiments of reading music to pick out the interval – your ear never gets involved. You can bring your ear in on the action by simply unchecking the "Staff" checkbox. Still, having the interval displayed for you is useful for those needing to learn music notation.

An apparent problem arose when I ordered up a new interval, and was served with what my intermediate-level ear knew to be a minor second. I submitted "minor second" as an answer, which was marked as incorrect. After some experimentation, I saw that the app was looking for "augmented unison." To my knowledge, there's no difference between an augmented unison and a minor second. The consequence is that, in certain cases, your right answer will be marked wrong.

Tuning

This is an exercise that seems simple, but is crucial to musicianship. The goal for the player is to match up misaligned pitches, using a slider, as opposed to discrete notes. Unless you are a trombonist or a player of a non-fretted stringed instrument, this exercise is going to challenge you well. More traditional ear exercises will certainly improve your aural recognition, but tuning, as presented in this exercise, will perfect your ear. If you're even a hair off, your answer is wrong. All ear training apps should have a feature like this.

Cadence

If you've drilled on the other exercises and are still griping about the relatively high price tag, the Cadence exercise will stifle those gripes. In this exercise, where you identify and notate five different types of cadences, you'll know that Fanfare was written by people who understand music and ear training. You'll know this because the cadence is actual, moving music. You're not just identifying the notes to a particular chord or phrase. Rather, you are identifying the aforementioned notes, and learning how they work together with other notes. In short, you're not just learning how notes sound; you're learning how music works.

Rhythm

The rhythm drill is a great tool for building your sense of rhythm, and your ability to read it, but it's a little confusing at first: when you tap out the beat, either on the space bar or the rhythm pad, you don't get any aural feedback; you expect to hear a drum beat, but you hear nothing. As with the other drills, you have the option of either notating or performing the assigned rhythm. If you choose to perform it, you can do so by clicking on the "Rhythm Pad" icon, or by tapping the space bar.

Other Drills

The other drills perform and look like those already described, and help round out your ear training. In particular, Scales gives you a chance to identify - by ear or by sight - modes such as Mixolydian and Phrygian, as well as Blues and the minor scales. The Notes drill is perfect for those completely new to ear training; you need identify only one note at a time. The Keys drill will bolster your skill in identifying keys - very useful for those just beginning to learn music theory and sight-reading. Finally, Seventh Chords and Chord Doubling will appeal to the more advanced student.

Conclusion

Fanfare's gravest limitation is its inability to let players add their own enhancements to the drills. In particular, the app needs to let players add custom chords. However, the other gripes described here are intended to show the possibilities of an already great learning tool. As it stands now, serious music students would benefit greatly from the drills it provides, and knowledge it imparts from the help file.

Pros

• Well-designed, common interface across all exercises.
• Help contains many useful music theory lessons.
• Overall utility in developing aural and musical perception is exceptional.
• Features distinctive and highly useful non-discrete tuning drill.
• Cadence drill builds true music skill, and not just ear-training.

Cons

• Can't add user-defined chords.
• Speed can't be set very high.
• Melodic/Harmonic option isn't saved between sessions.
• Answer button not conducive to learning.
• Help is insufficiently indexed.
• No MIDI controller or keyboard support.
• User statistics don't get saved.
• Interval exercise may mis-identify some correct guesses.
• Lacking time countdown incentive.