Has anyone used Smart Music?

[king2ba]

It's a wonderful program. Fun to work with and for the most part easy to use. I'm not always sold on the accompaniments for solos, but it does help to be able to hear the accompaniment before you sit down with a live person. The method books are great for beginners and the trainers are fun for any level. My only real complaint is that you can only use it on one computer. I have mine loaded on a laptop. Not a big deal to take the laptop back and forth to school, but carrying one more bag can be a pain for a tuba player. You'll also need some pretty good speakers if you want to hear the accompaniments at a volume that would be equivalent to someone playing a real piano.

Overall a good purchase!

[MaryAnn]

That is the downside of anything sold by MakeMusic....you do not own the program but only the right to put it on a computer. For that reason, I no longer buy anything from them.

MA

[Gorilla Tuba]

I use it in my studio all the time. The scale studies seem more fun for students and the tuner/metronomes are good aids... as are playing drones. I often record students in their lesson on it then email it to them. Great tool. The accompaniments are helpful... but the lit is limited. My institution pays for it, but I get tons of use out of it.

[Bignick1357]

My school has it and they have tons of songs/excersizes for any instrument I actually picked up trombone by using smart music. It gives you readouts and 'scores' so if your children are using it, you could turn into a reward deal and track their improvements.

[TubaTodd]

That is the downside of anything sold by MakeMusic....you do not own the program but only the right to put it on a computer. For that reason, I no longer buy anything from them.

MA

I do software licensing for my company. When you purchase any software from any commercial company, you are only purchasing the right to install the software on 1 computer and make 1 backup copy [specified by copyright law]. No one "owns" the software they purchase. You have just purchased a specific* right to installation.

For this reason (among others), I am not a fan of commercial software products. I promote open-source/GPL'ed software whenever possible.

* A company called Psystar has been selling unauthorized Mac clones (more or less a PC with very specific hardware) with properly purchased copies of Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6. Apple has sued them because even though they purchased the copy of the OS, installing it on anything other than an authentic Mac built by Apple is a breach of contract. There really isn't a precedent in the courts for this particular type of software licensing challenge.

[Tom Beck II]

I'm a retired band instructor and give private lessons to music students. There are several students here that attend either non-public schools or are home-schooled and have no music programs. SmartMusic is now set up for private lesson teachers with the same yearly fees as for a school. The teacher pays one fee which allows for setting up, monitoring and grading individual student's lesson materials from a wide array of methods, including Rubanks', solo and contest literature. Students minimal fee includes letting each use their own home computer to practise during the time between lessons. Tempos for testing can be assigned but students can work up to assigned level by starting slower. I can monitor students' progress at my computer and make email suggestions.
I have found SM's Help personnel to be very cordial and their constant upgrading of material to be quite useful.
Hope this helps.
Tom Beck II