Shareware Universe - The Gold Collection

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Text File | 1996-04-19 | 11.9 KB | 302 lines

RECORDER TUTOR Version 1.1 ---------------- ***************************************** * * * Copyright Sue Pardoe / Softsell 1992 * * * * Distributed by Transend Services Ltd. * * * ***************************************** INDEX ----- Page Authors Details & Limitations -------------------------- 3 Hardware/ Software Requirements ------------------------ 3 Program Overview --------------------------------------- 4 Mouse/ Key selection ----------------------------------- 5 Running the Program ------------------------------------ 6 Using the Program -------------------------------------- 7 i ) Description of Main Heading --------------- 8 ii) Selecting Tutorial Easy ------------------- 9 iii) " " Medium ----------------- 10 iv) " " Hard/Expert ------------ 11 Playing your First Notes ------------------------------- 12 RECORDER TUTOR ---------------- Authors Details: ---------------- This program is a product of Softsell, if you enjoy using this program please send the registration fee of £25 (UK) stating disk size. This will enable us to continue producing and updating software for the Shareware market. In return you will be sent the registered version of the program. Which gives you mouse control and more tunes for each level. Printed documentation (in booklet form). Details of any updates and full list of other software available. Sue Pardoe, Softsell, 65 Heol Rehoboth, Five Roads, Llanelli, Dyfed. SA15 5DZ U.K. Telephone 0269 860-206 Hardware/ Software Requirements ------------------------------- This program will run on any P.C. with an EGA monitor or above using DOS version 3.3 or higher. RECORDER TUTOR ---------------- Program Overview ---------------- Recorder tutor is designed to teach children and anyone else to make music by playing the recorder. It will teach you how to hold the recorder, finger correctly, breathe in the right way and give a sound understanding of the principles of music. You don't need to know how to read music before using this program but hopefully you'll learn along the way. The program also is not intended as a comprehensive guide on how to read music and younger recorder players especially may find they need a little outside help. The program shows how notes are written down and how to fin- ger the notes on the recorder in a pictorial way. Mouse / Key Selection --------------------- The registered version is mouse compatible and also accepts keyed com- mands. When selecting with the mouse, click the option required on the menu-bar at the top of the screen. Mostly another menu will drop down. Select an item by moving the mouse pointer over the choice and clicking the left mouse button. Clicking on the right mouse button or pressing Esc on the keyboard cancels the menu without choosing an item and returns you to the main screen. When using the keyboard, press the highlighted letter of the main options to drop down the menus. Then select an item by using the up and down arrow keys and pressing Enter when the item you require is highlighted. Running the program. -------------------- a) Power on. b) Place disk in the appropriate drive. c) Run the program by typing in "recorder". For unregistered users this will bring onto the screen SOFTSELL information giving details of how to register. For registered users there will be a pause while the program is loaded and then you will be taken to the main screen. The options now available are: 1) Learn. 2) Change-Level. 3) Play. 4) Tempo. 5) Options. 6) Select Tune. 7) Help. Using the program. ------------------ Before we start learning the notes and playing the recorder, we ought to know a little about the instrument we are playing so to begin with we shall enter the HELP option. By either clicking the mouse pointer on Help or by typing on the keyboard H, a drop-down menu will appear showing you the main headings, i.e. Types of recorders. Choosing a recorder. Holding the recorder. Starting out. How to blow. Pinched notes. Care of the recorder. Tuning the recorder. Tutorial Selecting CHOOSING A RECORDER tells you the full range/different types of recorders available. The descant is the most popular of the range, is widely available and more importantly, this program is written to suit. Selecting HOLDING THE RECORDER tells you how to hold the recorder so that your fingers will be in the correct fingering positions. Selecting STARTING OUT you are ready to play your first "proper" note, i.e., B. Before playing this note refer to the next head- ing so Selecting HOW TO BLOW you are told the correct way to blow with the correct tongue position (tonguing). Selecting PINCHED NOTES (which you will need to know about in the hard level) tells you how to play the notes in the hard level. Selecting CARE OF THE RECORDER tells you how to warm-up the recorder before beginning to play, and how to clean it after use ready for another day. Selecting TUNING THE RECORDER tells you how, should a few of you budding musicians get together, to go about tuning your instru- ments for group playing. Selecting TUTORIAL. ------------------- The tutorial is set out on each level of difficulty, i.e., Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. When beginning the program you are automatically started at the easy level. If you now select Tutorial, wait a few seconds, on screen will be shown Page 1 of 5 Pages of text. To change pages either click on the Page Up or Page Down at the top of the screen or press the Page Up or Page Down keys. From page 1 use the "Page Down" only and from the last page use the "Page Up" only. Page 1...gives advice on Holding your recorder Playing your first note Tonguing Page 2...gives advice on Reading music, the stave, treble clef and how to write notes. Page 3...gives information on Bars, bar lines, beats and time signatures. Page 4...gives information on Reading music - note lengths covering whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes. Page 5...continues with Note lengths covering eighth notes and sixteenth notes. This concludes the easy tutorial level. To get to the medium level tutorial either click the Right hand mouse button or press Esc, which takes you back to the main screen. Select change-level and select medium from the drop-down menu. The medium level will then load, shown by a new tune appearing. Select the help menu again and click on the tutorial you should now have page 1 of 4 pages where you are given information on the following. Page 1...Low notes Page 2...Rests, Whole note rest, half note rest, quarter note rest and eight note rest Page 3...Sharp notes and key signatures Page 4...Flat notes and key signatures This concludes the medium level tutorial. Hard level tutorial covers. Page 1...Pinched notes Page 2...The tie and dotted notes. Page 3...Sixteenth note and sharps and flats This concludes the hard level tutorial. The Expert level tutorial is a chart showing all the notes and fingering positions playable on the descant recorder and is included for reference. Page 1...Fingering chart for notes from low C to A. Page 2...Fingering chart for notes from B flat to high F sharp Page 3...Fingering chart for notes from High G to high D This concludes the Expert level tutorial. Learning to Play your First Notes. ---------------------------------- If you are not in the main screen, or a drop-down menu is open press escape or the right mouse button to get you back. Now select the change level option and select Easy (if you are not already in that level). Then select the Learn Option on the screen a box will appear with the easy selection of notes for you to learn. I.e. B A G C D Select each note by either clicking with the left mouse button or moving the cursor arrow with the up or down arrow keys and pressing enter. You will then hear the note sounded. You will see the fingering position on the recorder represented by the red dots showing, which holes to cover with your fingers and see how the note is written on the stave. We suggest that you practice these notes first, one at a time until you are familiar with the finger positions and can blow them cleanly. Once you feel you have done this try playing some tunes. To do this press Esc or click the right hand mouse button to return to the main screen. There will already be a tune on the screen. To play this simply press the space bar, a count in will start so you can be ready to play the recorder. Listen to the tune first, play it again and try to play along. You'll probably find that the tune is playing too fast for you to keep up! To slow it down select the Tempo option and select SLOW. Play again and you will find it much easier to play along. As you practice and become better at playing the tune you can reselect the Tempo option and speed things up. With the slow tempo it also becomes easier to follow the fingering positions shown on the recorder picture. You can even follow this without reading the music. Moving on. To select a new tune Click on the Select Tune or press the S key to bring down the tunes menu and choose a tune from the list. Once chosen the tune will be displayed and you can continue playing the new tune. The alternative to pressing the space bar to play the tune is to select the Play option from the menu-bar, there are two options; play through and play along. Play through plays the tune with no count in, and play along plays the tune with a count down. To change levels select the Change level option from the menu-bar. There are four levels Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert each with a different selection of notes in the Learn option, different tunes to play and a different lesson on music in the tutorial. Don't worry if you haven't learnt to play all the notes yet you can always listen to the tunes and get a feel for reading the music even in the expert level. As you get more experienced you may find that you don't need to look at the fingering positions or have the note letters printed above the music. You can turn these off by selecting the Options item. Selecting Show fingering ON/OFF will toggle the fingering display on or off. Similarly the show notes ON/OFF option will toggle the showing of the note letters above the music on or off, but note that this will not be in effect until a new tune is selected. Also in this menu there is the exit program, selecting this option will return you to DOS, (but you will be asked if you are sure in case you made a mistake). That covers the main items of the program. When you use this program for any length of time you will find that you can move about the menus quite quickly. As mentioned earlier, take your time so that you move your fingers to cover the holes fully and practice until you blow each note cleanly. We hope that this program is of great use to you and encourages you in your music studies.