eMusicTheory archived news

| 31 October, 2006 |
There are larger updates under development, but for now just a few minor updates:
· Replaced the audio used in the Guitar drill.
· Fixed a notation problem in the Chord Functions drill with diatonic 7th chords; now any Major-Major 7th chord is marked with an "M" (e.g., IVM7), to make it clear that it's not a dominant 7th chord.
· ...and a few other minor changes, mostly behind-the-scenes to manage the growing number of teachers and students of music using the site (we recently passed 2,000 assignments given by registered teachers, and in September alone we had more than 33,000 visitors... hello there).

Update: drill updates are available for teacher assignments and software owners immediately (software owners, you should have already gotten an email.. check your Junk mailbox if you don't see it).

| 11 February, 2006 |
Quite a few changes this round.... First, in the drills:
· NEW: Chord Functions - given a major or minor key and a chord function (like iii, V7 of V, or Gr+6), build the chord on the staff.
· New versions of the drills for Intervals, Chords, and Scales, for bass clef and tenor (viola) clef.
· Two new interactive learning units: Chords and Scales.
· Rewritten audio support for everyone with Java™ 1.4 and above, to fix the occasional choppy/stuttering sound problem.
· Work quietly: instead of playing a horn sound when you make a mistake, the drill will just shake to tell you.
· Clicking "Give up" in any drill now will wait for you to click a "Go Ahead" button before showing the next question.
· New option in the Scales drill: Major "pentascale".
· More specific options in the Intervals drill.

For teachers:
· Changes to make it easier to keep track of how many students you have added.
· On the subscription page, you can now upgrade your subscription instantly (no payment required).
· Saving and testing an assignment is simpler: one button for "Save & Test".
· Assignments on the same day are now ordered by name, so you can keep them in order.

Update: the new and updated drills are now also available for teacher assignments and software owners.

| 15 August, 2005 |
The changes are mostly MIDI support and features for teachers:
· MIDI input support: You can now use an attached MIDI keyboard to enter your answers for all of the applicable drills in the downloadable software.
· Student groups for teachers: you can now divide your students into groups -- plus you have the option of giving assignments to an entire group at a time with a single click.
· Also for teachers: You can now copy an existing assignment into a new one (instead of making the new one from scratch every time).
· Various small changes to the drills to make them easier to use.

| 1 May, 2005 |
eMusicTheory now has a discussion forum -- students can get help with their music theory questions, teachers can discuss instruction methods, and anyone can offer suggestions on how to make eMusicTheory a better place.
There are also a few changes to the drills and interactive exercises:
· The Rhythm drills (Dictation and Performance) now have a "silent" mode like the other drills (using flashing lights to replace the audible metronome).
· Two new Interactive Exercises: C-Clef Note Names and Intervals -- try them out at Interactive theory.
· All of these updates have been made in the downloadable software as well. If you own the software, check your email for a software update message with instructions on getting the new version.

| 20 March, 2005 |
One big update and a couple of smaller ones:
· Finally, stand-alone software for everyone who wants to run the drills offline, on their own computers (or on computers without internet access). It's cheap (only $12!), and these purchases will help fund further development here.
· For teachers: added the guitar and rhythm drills to the list for building assignments.
· For teachers and students: now you can see the details of your assignment right next to the drill. No more wondering how many you have to get right!
· Updated the audio for the guitar and rhythm drills.
· Updated the message displayed when a student score wasn't good enough to meet the assignment.
· Other little website changes to keep everything running smoothly.

| 13 February, 2005 |
Lots of updates:
· New drills! Guitar Note Reading, Rhythm Dictation, and Rhythm Notation. Try them out, and send in feedback if you have ideas for improvements. (Note: the long notes in the rhythms sound shaky, and the guitar sounds like a piano... these will be fixed soon.)
· A new feature: interactive learning. There are only a few so far: Note Names, Piano, and Guitar. More to come! Click the "Interactive learning" link on the left to try them out.
· Updates to the Key Signature Drill: now it's much easier to see what's a "hint" and what's not, plus if you choose the option "Just tell me major or minor", now that part of your answer is automatically filled in.
· Teachers: Your student list has a new link next to it -- click on "Progress Report" to see a page with that student's list of assignments, if a score was reported, and when.

| 15 September, 2004 |
First, some updates to the teacher's view on the website:
· On the score list page, now you can delete individual scores. This is useful if students submitted multiple scores.
· Also on the scores page, now you can click a column heading to sort the list (by submit date, student name, or assigment completed).
I also updated the website and the drills to make reporting scores safer. A few students were running into problems reporting scores, so this will make sure that the score isn't lost: now, if there is any problem reporting a score, the drill program will try to report the score in a new browser window, and include a web address in the drill's error message that can be used to report the score if necessary.

| 29 August, 2004 |
A few updates (been busy this month moving from New York to Michigan), mostly adding website features instead of changing drills (though I also fixed a few bugs with score reporting in the Intervals drill):
· Students can now see on the assignment list if they've sent in a score and completed the assignment. The page also shows if they submitted a "best effort" score but didn't fulfill the assignment yet.
· The assignment list for students is now easier to read.
· Teachers with less than 30 days left on their subscription will now see a message in red text when they log in, showing how many days are remaining.

| 17 June, 2004 |
Lots of changes to the practice drills:
· Smart accidentals (scales): natural signs and cautionary accidentals are now automatically shown as needed.
· New options for note names: Do Re Mi Fa So La Si, and C D E F G A H.
· Larger, easier-to-click staff for chords and scales.
· New scale: added the blues scale (the "blue" note only needs to be enharmonically correct).
· Smarter question engine (all drills): now you won't see a repeat note/scale/chord until you've done them all.
Students who are doing assignments will still be using the previous stable versions, for a week or so.

| 25 February, 2004 |
I updated the practice drills, mostly with a lot of changes that you won't be able to see but which will hopefully make the drills work better with newer browsers (NOTE: I'm not supporting older browsers like Netscape 3.0 anymore). So if you've had problems before, make sure to try the new versions of the practice drills, and let me know how it goes! Students who are doing assignments will still be using the previous stable versions, for a week or so.

| 05 February, 2004 |
I've been working a lot on changes you won't really see (just making the site run better), but I've also made a few changes the teachers will probably like: the assignments page is easier to read, and lists how many scores have been reported so far (and the date of the last one). The scores list page itself is also easier to read (same thing with the printed version, when you click that "Print" link), plus now it lists the students who HAVEN'T submitted a successful score yet, instead of just listing the scores you have so far. Try it out! I've also made a lot of internal changes to the drills, but I'm still testing (I'm hoping to fix the problems some Apple users have run into).

| 17 November, 2003 |
eMusicTheory is accepting the first teacher subscriptions! For this first step, we're limiting it to teachers with less than 75 students. If you work with more students, you have two options -- you can wait a little while for the next phase, or you can run a "pilot" program with just one or two classes. This will give you a chance to see how you and your students like it, and you can make suggestions for improvements you'd like to see before the next stage!
We are also not yet accepting online payments (check or money order only). Online payments need a little more testing, but I'm expecting to enable them soon.

| 09 November, 2003 |
Many of you have been asking when I'll be accepting subscriptions (understandably... read the news below where I keep hinting it'll be within a week... as weeks pass!). The good news is that all of the important changes I needed to make are done, but I've still been handling a number of little problems reported by beta testers and teachers trying out the test teacher account. I've fixed all of those issues, plus added in a few helpful features, like a printable version of the scores list, and better handling of the demo account (a number of people thought it was safe to use with their students... it's not, because that same demo account is shared by anyone who wants a demo!). I'm going to wait another week (I'm sorry!) to make sure that I haven't introduced any new problems with these changes, then I'll start accepting subscribers. Thanks again to everyone who's been sending encouraging emails!

| 09 October, 2003 |
Many of you probably noticed that the site was returning errors recently. I made some important changes to the website design to address those problems. The good news is the updates have gone smoothly, I've ironed out more bugs thanks to the beta testers, and I expect to be accepting subscribers in about a week. I apologize for the delays... but it's important to postpone taking on paying subscribers until the site is stable.

| 14 September, 2003 |
I made a few fixes and enhancements based on feedback from a beta tester teacher (thanks, Sam). I also added a Downloads page (nothing really there yet), a page of links to other sites where you can learn music theory, and I turned on the help system - try clicking the little question mark on the upper right, on any page! There isn't a lot in there yet, but the list of questions and answers will grow as more people use the site.

| 07 August, 2003 |
I wrote a new page all about the origins of eMusicTheory.com for anyone who's interested (or if you're wondering what happened to the Java Music Theory website).

| 24 July, 2003 |
eMusicTheory.com is born! For those of you coming from the old JavaMusic site that was hosted at Hamilton College: make yourself at home. This new site will continue to offer everything that the old one did, plus much more. A lot of you asked me about running the drills without being connected to the internet -- that's the next thing I'm working on.

If you're a teacher interested in subscribing, you'll have to wait a few weeks while I do more testing and add a few more important features. If you want to try out some of the features that will be available, you can log in as a teacher and wander around:
  username: teacher
  password: music

Also feel free to try out the drills I have so far (use the "Music practice" link on the left). For now, don't worry too much if you run into any problems on the site -- it's a work in progress, and there are a few kinks I need to iron out before it is fully operational.