GROOVY SHAPES

Groovy Shapes, by Sibelius, is an interactive children’s music program designed for ages 5-7 years old. One of the facts about the software is that the exploratory lessons and creative functions implement the national standards for music. Also, no previous musical knowledge is required to use the program.

How to Begin

One the installation disc has been inserted into your computer, a pop-up screen appears, giving you several options to choose from.

Once the software has been installed, double-click on the application icon to begin. When the program has begun, the first thing that you will be instructed to do is to login using a previous account or create a new profile by typing in your name.

After you type in your name, click next. You will then be instructed to choose a profile character.

Once you have chosen your profile character, click next. You will then have to decide whether you want to continue in Create mode or Explore mode.

Create Mode

In Create mode, users have to capability of using various tools to create original compositions from pre-recorded samples of rhythms, melodies, arpeggios, chords, and bonus sounds. The user’s profile character is animated and walks to the music as it is being played.

Inserting sounds from the menu bar is easy. Simply drag and drop the sounds in the section of the music that you wish it to be played. To delete sounds that you have already inserted, simply click on the icon and hit delete.

Explore Mode

In Explore mode, users can participate in guided lessons on various musical concepts. The plans for these lessons can be found in the printed guide that comes with the software. These lessons include:

• Tone Color • Loud and Soft • Music Words • Long and Short • Beat • Fast and Slow • Sounds and the Beat • Upward and Downward • High and Low • Steps and Leaps • Making Melody

The screen shot below was taken from the lesson on tone color. After already hearing the sounds of the instruments in previous checkpoints, the user must now match the sounds with the correct instruments. This is done by clicking on the shapes to hear the sounds and dragging them to the correct instrument.

Occasionally, students are rewarded for their efforts with new bonus sounds that they may use in Create mode.

The explore lessons in Groovy Shapes are progressive, which means each new checkpoint builds on the previous checkpoints. The screen shot below was taken during the same lesson on tone color. However, the user must now identify more sounds with the correct instrument or object.

As the user completes each lesson, the computer will record his or her progress so that the same lessons do not have to be completed more than once. However, navigation through the various lessons is only accessible for those students who have completed all of the lessons in Groovy Shapes.

Other Information

Teachers have several options for customizing Groovy Shapes to fit their needs in the classroom, and the program makes it very difficult for students to access these functions. Teachers may change preferences, such as MIDI volume and Audio volume by accessing the Preferences menu. This menu may only be accessed by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+T.

In the printed guide, there are also instructions for importing MIDI files, instructions for controlling lab settings, and instructions for actually setting up a computer lab to use Groovy Shapes.