The Problem
Despite the importance of developing musicianship and theoretical understanding, many music educators feel that their students are lacking in this area.  Providing the necessary time and individualized attention that is required to ensure success is often difficult.  Developing exercises and providing feedback is time consuming for the teacher and practicing these skills can be difficult for students to do on their own time.

The Solution
Computers excel at presenting drills to students.  They can accurately and immediately assess students’ responses and formulate further questions based on this assessment.  Exercises can be customized based on the student’s individual needs and as a result students experience much higher rates of success.  Tracking student progress is an easy task, and reports can be generated at any time for the teacher.

Pitfalls
It is important that the skills developed at the computer are applied in class.  Although playing a musical version of Tetris by fitting falling rhythmic blocks to form complete measures may be fun, care must be taken to transfer those skills to musical reading and writing.  Of course this does nothing to develop a student’s sense of pulse, without which the falling blocks may be meaningless!  The principles of comprehensive musicianship require that learning that takes place on the computer must be put into action in performance.

How do I get started?
If I had to choose just one program to start with, it would be Music Ace.  It provides some excellent basic instruction, while including fun games and a way to experiment with your own compositions.  It also has an excellent teacher's guide!

How do I get the students involved?
If you aren’t sure how to get started, or don’t have a lot resources, think about getting just one CD-ROM and have students work with the CD-ROM on their own, or in a group.  If possible, go through the program yourself, and develop a mini guide  to help lead the students through the important aspects of the program.

Most programs are available in lab packs or site licenses for implementing them in the classroom.  Besides having the advantage of allowing the entire class to focus on the same activity at once, lab packs often come with teacher’s guides that can be very useful.