NoteNames for the Web
and a little history
(Are you a student looking for the app? Play it here)
(Are you a teacher who needs instructions on capturing scores? Click here)
NoteNames began in the mid 90s when I was teaching elementary band at Maplebrook and Elmwood elementary schools in Naperville, IL. I quickly realized that reading music was a huge stumbling block for most kids. In rehearsals they would often get lost because they couldn’t read the notes fast enough (not to mention process rhythms, remember fingerings and so on). So I tried to write something that could help.
I credit NIU Theory Professor Dr. Tim Blickhan with the idea for NoteNames. When I was a freshman at NIU he had written flash card programs for the Apple IIe that took us through note recognition, intervals, keys, etc. Those apps saved me because like a lot of freshman music majors my theory skills were lacking. I spent hours and hours in the lab until I understood everything.
The first iteration of NoteNames was written in HyperTalk for the Mac. Later I made a version for Windows, and eventually when the iPad launched I got a version into the App Store in 2015. All of that was only possible because I used LiveCode (the next iteration of HyperTalk) so I could basically write code once and it would compile for those platforms. But even then I was bothered that there were lots of kids/schools who couldn’t use NoteNames, not to mention how quickly technology kept changing. The biggest request I’ve gotten over the last decade is “will it run on a Chromebook?” But programming for the web was so different than what I knew how to do. Learning javascript has been on my list for long, lone time.
Being retired has finally afforded me the time to learn it. And so here we are with the beginnings of a new NoteNames that is device agnostic. There are no record keeping capabilities yet, but who knows maybe I’ll be able to get there (the iOS app sends results to your Google Sheets). The main point for now is that *any kid who wants to become truly fluent in note reading can do so* on their own time, on their own device, easily and for free. If you can challenge your kids to get through
NoteNames on the “Expert” setting… you’re home free. Your kids will be able to sight read like you can’t believe.
Right now there are 12 levels that take students through a progression starting with the staff and progressing through the ledger lines (yes, ALL of them), key signature application, enharmonics, key signature identification and scale spelling. If you have suggestions, send me a message.
I still believe the number one issue for young musicians is not quickly recognizing what they are looking (if at all). This leads to things like rote memorization, writing in fingerings, names of notes, etc. When young students write things in, *that is what they will look at* instead of the notes. And then when it’s time to learn the next piece of music, they can’t read it because their “cheat codes” aren’t there. And so they grab a pencil and… well you get the idea. NoteNames can put an end to that.
Reading music is really not difficult, we just need to isolate it away from the instrument. NoteNames does that. Several apps and sites do, but what makes NoteNames different is it provides a sense of urgency and a solid sequence of new challenges. Just like when students perform on their instruments…being right matters. To maintain your level in NoteNames you need to be accurate, and to advance levels you need to be quick. That is the approach that challenges kids and helps them achieve fluency more quickly than other apps. The timing difficulty is scaled so students can self-pace if they want to, or you could require a particular difficulty setting. It also includes alto *and even* tenor clef for your cellists, bassoonists and trombonists.
