J. Brian Post, University of Northern Colorado

A computer-assisted instruction program for theory skills development was written to complement the freshman and sophomore music theory programs at the University of Northern Colorado. During the fall semester of 1994, the computer program Practice Room was re-purposed and used to both tutor and test first and second year theory students in their abilities to translate the theoretical knowledge acquired in the classroom to the piano. Previously, students were required to prepare for the keyboard tests on their own. These tests were given once a week by undergraduate students who had already taken and done well in the first and second year theory classes. The students who administered the tests will be referred to as monitors from this point on. Unfortunately, for various reasons the monitors were incapable of giving the theory students an unbiased exam. Consequently, some of the teachers and many of the students in the theory program did not take the piano exams seriously. Many students could get through the exam without any preparation because they were good friends with their monitor, other students, would practice hard and receive a poor grade from the same monitor that allowed his or her friend to pass without practicing.

The problems discussed above did not go unnoticed by the head of the theory department Dr. R. Evan Copley. He asked me if there was some way to computerize the keyboard theory tests so the students could be tested more efficiently and fairly by the computers in our Synthesizer or Keyboard laboratories. After having researched dozens of music programs I discovered the Practice Room program that was created by Coda Music. This program was originally designed to facilitate good sight-reading habits for piano students at the intermediate and advanced levels. I was able to manipulate the program in such a way that it could be used for our theory keyboard tests as well as a tutorial for the keyboard tests. After re-purposing the program for use in our theory curriculum, I presented it to Dr. R. Evan Copley and received his approval for replacing the monitors with the computer program.

The keyboard exams have now been given through the computer to both the sophomore and freshman theory students on a weekly basis for the entire Fall semester of 1994 At this point in time both the students and especially the teachers have given the program high praise for its effectiveness in tutoring and in testing the weekly keyboard assignments.

Theoretical concepts in music that the computer program was designed to tutor and test during the Fall semester of 1994 included:

The theory keyboard tutorials and exams are based on the keyboard assignments located at the end of each chapter of the texts Harmony- Baroque To Contemporary Parts I and II written by Dr. R. Evan Copley (1991a, 1991b). The first and second year theory classes at the University of Northern Colorado use these books exclusively. The keyboard exercises, designed to encapsulate the important theoretical concepts covered in each chapter were the basis for all of the tests and tutorials to be given on the computer.

The example below shows the first measure of a practice session based on the construction of minor scales. The numbers one through eight are indicators of what scale degree the student is playing. After the student plays the first note correctly the cursor or dotted line moves to the next number. The numbers represent scale degrees and are there to help the student keep track of what tone of the scale they will need to play as they progress through the exercise. If the student does not play the correct note the cursor will not move until the correct note is played. Notice that the location of the correct note is highlighted on the keyboard at the bottom of the example. This is one of the ways that the program tutors the student. If the student cannot figure out the correct answer on his or her own, then as a last resort, he or she can refer to the keyboard to see what the correct response should be. By giving the students the answer, it is hoped that they will be able to see how to solve the problems presented in the weekly practice session so that when they take their keyboard exam they will understand the theory concepts well enough to be able to pass the test easily.

Fig. 1. First measure of a practice session based on the construction of minor scales.

Another important tutorial aspect of the program is the capability to drill the student for as long as the student needs. Everybody learns at a different pace. Some people learn quickly and with little reinforcement. Others take a long time to become familiar with new ideas and require much reinforcement to come to grips with what they are learning. Unfortunately, the classroom situation is not geared to deal with all the different learning abilities brought in by the students. Consequently, some students are left behind because they need extra time to work out the new ideas that have been presented in the class. The computer can help these students by giving them all the extra time they need to understand the new ideas that they have been presented with. Also, it can give them hints on how to understand what it is they are trying to learn. Exercises that drill the student and give immediate feedback is an effecvtive way for a computer to be used in assisting the student on a subject where extra help is needed.

The computer does not care how long it takes for someone to grasp a new idea, it will work with the person as long as it takes for them to understand the concept that they are learning.

This program is essentially a computer based drill. It relies on the professor to teach the concepts and then once the student has a basic grasp of the material covered in class, the computer is then used to reinforce the knowledge that the student has acquired in the classroom. Unfortunately, computer based drills have received a lot of criticism in the past. Some of this is deserved some is not. Many educators claim drills do not capitalize on the power of the computer and that drills can be easily accomplished through workbooks. While it is true that most existing drills do not utilize the computer's power, it is also the case that computers can be used to create drills of much greater effectiveness than flashcards or workbooks (Alessi & Trollip, 1991). This holds true particularly in the field of music and music theory. With the use of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) and a synthesizer with MIDI capabilities, the computer can go far beyond workbooks or flashcards by giving he student an opportunity to play and hear his or her answers.

Pacing of the drill was an important factor in the design of the program. Most drill based programs give the student a limited time to respond to the question. However, pacing is not the only way to increase fluency. In the case of music theory it is better to allow the student as much time as is needed to solve the given problem because the goal is to have the student think theoretically about the problem rather than give a pre-programmed response. Consequently, none of the practice sessions made available to the students were time based. They were allowed to spend as much time as they wanted on each problem. The tests on the other hand only allowed the students five minutes to complete the entire exam. One of my goals in designing the practice sessions, was to drill the students to the point where they would be able to complete the test that they were preparing for within three to four minutes. As the semester progressed I would ask students who could not complete the test within the time limit if they had used the practice sessions for the test during the week. Most of the students questioned would admit that they had not used the practice sessions at all. When I asked students who had no trouble completing the test within the time limit if they had used the practice sessions, most of them said that they had used the drills to help them prepare for the test. This showed me that even though the students were not under time restrictions when they worked with the practice sessions, they were still able to complete the test faster than those who did not use the practice sessions. Because students who used the practice sessions were passing the exams with high scores and within the time constraints, I was able to conclude that the practice sessions were doing their job without using the timed response method.

As I mentioned earlier the program was not designed as a stand alone program for teaching the concepts listed above, but was developed to assist the teacher in drilling the students on concepts already discussed in the classroom. Many designers of computer assisted instruction attempt to replace the teacher with the programs that they develop. In some cases this can be accomplished to a certain degree. In many fields replacing the teacher with a computer program is not possible. Either the field is too broad or it is simply too complex to be taught efficiently with a computer program. College level music theory is one of the many fields that is too complex to be taught with a computer program. However, this does not mean that computers cannot be used to facilitate the learning of music theory. Computers can do certain things extremely well, drills are one of the areas that computers exceed at and many theoretical concepts need to be practiced repeatedly by students before they can be completely internalized. It is my feeling that programmers need to keep this in mind when they are developing educational software. They should work to assist the teacher in a given subject with the computer rather than attempt to replace the role of the teacher with the computer.

The last topic I would like discuss regarding the development of my theory program is the use of and the development of shells. Shells are becoming more popular in all areas of computer technology as author ware systems become more complex and more costly. Basically, a shell is a program that a user can start with and fine tune to his or her specific requirements. That is, essentially, what I have done with the Practice Room program from Coda music. Even though the designers at Coda had not intended for their Practice Room program to be used as a shell, I found it quite useful for that particular purpose. Shells can be most effective for the use of teaching college level music theory because many schools use different text books and use different approaches in teaching the various concepts. With a shell that provides facilities for ear training and theory exercises, instructors could then set up the program in a way that would best enhance their curriculum. At this point in time I have only seen theory programs that use a primarily predetermined curriculum. Practica Musica offers the users a chance to input their own melodies and chord progressions for ear training purposes but the program is mainly aimed at high school level music students. Because there is nothing available at the college level that offers a shell program for music theory, I implore those who are writing programs for college music theory classes to consider creating a shell for instructors to input their own theory curriculum into. Otherwise, the program will only be of use to a handful of college and university music programs.