By Tom Mulhern
Until only a couple of decades ago, the word "computer" often evoked images of white-coated scientists scrawling on clipboards, or large, sinister machines covered in blinking lights, spewing out erroneous multi-million-dollar telephone bills to hapless customers. Few envisioned computers outside of the military or industry, and virtually no one foresaw them sitting in family rooms, entertaining and teaching with complex graphics high-quality sound. And the 1970s’ "zero-billion-dollar" industry called software is now so huge that companies like Microsoft, Netscape, and Oracle are practically household names, and some of their leaders are as well-known as John D. Rockefeller or William Randolph Hearst were earlier in the century.
Software and the computers to run it are almost ubiquitous. It’s not uncommon for Gram and Gramps to be surfing the Internet, or kids to be learning to spell as colorful characters cavort on their screens. You can buy software to balance your checkbook, do your taxes, play games, learn a foreign language, learn cooking techniques. But where is the educational software for musicians? It’s out there, even though there isn’t a lot of it yet. But as computers continue to proliferate beyond the corporate office and into more schools and homes, the market for software also expands.
In the last issue of Playback, computers in the classroom were the focus, and the article provided a look into how some educators are using computers to help them in the classroom. This issue we look at computerized music instruction beyond the classroom, and its impact at the retail level.
Do you wonder why there isn’t a flood of commercially produced software for teaching music? Cost is a good guess. Not the cost of the product at the wholesale or retail level, though, but at the "front end." Anyone who has written or produced a book is aware of how much work is involved in writing, producing, and printing a high-quality product. But software requires not only writing and page layout, but real, live instructional design software programming to create interactivity, video, and audio–the essential elements of engaging multimedia. To put it in plain terms, it can cost a bundle to develop a software title. Best-selling games such as Doom, Myst, and Riven can cost well over a million dollars to develop. It can be worth it, though, because games currently have a much larger potential audience than music-education titles, since no special skills are necessary to use the software.
So, you don’t see a lot of instructional software–musical or otherwise–being produced by small operations, simply because of the expense in producing it. If software costs too much to develop, then it will be too expensive for the consumer. So, who is the target audience that makes it worthwhile for bigtime productions? In April, more than 500 professionals who make their living by creating instructional software gathered in San Francisco at Influent Technology Group’s WBT Producer Conference (WBT is short for "web-based training). Were people there to learn about creating games? No. Entertaining kids? No again. They were there to gather tips for creating more effective teaching via computer to the corporate world, where learning isn’t just a matter of passing a quiz, getting a degree, or being a better trombone player in the school band–it can mean the edge that a company needs to beat their competitors in an ever-tougher global marketplace. So far, the biggest audience for computer-based instruction is inside of big companies who can afford the development costs because they can measure the benefits of good instruction: increased sales, productivity, etc.
It’s abundantly obvious where the benefits to their bottom line come from: Learning from a computer works. And whether it’s in conjunction with a teacher in a classroom situation, or in a self-directed environment, computer software can be very effective.
Even though the market is comparatively smaller for music-related software, compared to games and corporate training venues, some companies in the music industry have created excellent software without cutting corners, and their products are the first wave of what will eventually become a "given" of education. As more and more computers move into the classroom, family room, and public library, teaching (regardless of subject) will be an important part of the computers’ function.
The Cost Of Really Selling
There’s not doubt that we’re in a transitional time. The price of computers and the tools to create good instructional materials is dropping. However, computers aren’t as cheap as, say, VCRs, which have proved themselves as excellent teaching equipment. The "front-end" costs involved in carrying and properly demonstrating instructional software can be hard for some stores to justify. Consider how much it costs just to purchase a computer with a decent-sized monitor (so that customers don’t have to put their faces right up to the screen to see the notes), a CD-ROM player, extra RAM (random-access memory), a sound card, and speakers. And you can’t plan on that computer being a one-time purchase: It needs software upgrades, and it’s almost a given that computers become "obsolete" in just a few years. (In the computer business, a well-known maxim called "Moore’s Law" says that the capability of computers doubles approximately every 18 months.)
If your store has a computer, you must devote floor space to it, and somebody has to know how to run it and deal with it when its software needs upgrading or replacing, or the entire screen turns deep blue and announces in big, bold letters, "FATAL ERROR." And who’s available to "drive" the computer during demos? In a small establishment, there may only be a few salespeople available to handle all sales, and devoting them to just one facet of the store’s business might be as economically impractical as permanently devoting them to just selling reeds, effects pedals, or drum machines. Don’t forget to factor in the time it takes for an employee to learn the software well enough to do a convincing demo without stumbling or forever rifling through the manual. Another monkey wrench in all of this: With a strong overall economy (at least in the U.S.), finding good help for some stores is harder than ever, as echoed in MMR’s December 1997 "State Of The Industry" article, in which Mills Music’s Mike Mills lamented, "In over 30 years of being in the music biz, I’ve never seen it as bad as it is now for finding employees! This is our toughest challenge looking ahead to the new year."
But every business has display fixtures, cash registers, and plenty of other things that aren’t sold to the customer. Look in most electronic keyboard departments nowadays and you’ll find computers. Look in the back office, and again you’ll find a computer (maybe several). They’re part of the business and educational landscapes, and they’re becoming important selling tools. And, as electronics have increased their presence in music, so has the need to train employees to sell the stuff. Software is a natural step in the progression.
An alternative to using a computer to demo the software is to simply stock instructional CDs as if they were sheet music or songbooks. But anyone who knows anything about software will tell you that’s not a good approach. The point, and for that matter, the selling point, of software is the way it looks, works, and interacts with the user when it’s running on a computer. Pictures of the computer screen on a brochure, or shrunken to a postage-stamp-sized image on the back of the CD’s package probably won’t lure many people to buy the product. And you’re trying to appeal to customers–particularly the young, who have never lived in a world without video games, MTV, and multimedia. Their expectations aren’t geared toward static representations of something that moves; they want to see the real deal.
There are ways to sell software without running it on a computer. It’s mostly a matter of knowing your options–and there are some you may not have considered.
Providing seminars on the software is one viable approach to drawing musicians in. Whether you put on a single-title seminar ("Learning Oboe By Computer") or one that embraces many titles ("Teach Yourself Music With Your Computer"), a little creative spin can go a long way. Team up with the software companies, local schools, or instructors for a cooperative venture. Instrument, amp, recording gear, and signal-processor manufacturers often work with stores to produce successful artist-related showcases for their products. Applying similar strategies to plan and publicize software showcases doesn’t require a large conceptual leap.
Video can be a useful tool for stores that can’t afford the space, money, or personnel to demo software, and even if you a computer and resources to demo the software are available, a well-produced video can draw musicians in as effectively as any live demo. A tape giving an overview of the features and showing how to accomplish some of the results touted by the manufacturer can do a pretty good job of selling. All it takes is a TV and a VCR, which most people can operate without an inch-thick manual. Pop in the tape, and hit play. When the tape ends, rewind it and play it again. Repeat as necessary.
Other powerful selling tools are often supplied by the software manufacturers themselves, chief among them their web sites on the Internet. Pointing customers to the online demonstrations serves two positive functions: It gives the customer an opportunity to get a self-paced demo in an environment they’re used to (their home, school, or office), on a computer they’re used to, and it makes it easy for them to get answers to even the most technically challenging questions, just by emailing the manufacturer or reading the online FAQ (frequently asked questions). They can take any part of the "test drive" over and over again, as quickly or as slowly as they like–without soaking up salespeople’s time.
In addition, many software companies offer demo discs for free, or at a nominal charge (Coda’s Vivace Practice Studio demo CD-ROM is a good example). The user often has to call, write, or email the manufacturer for the demo disc, but when it arrives, they can then pop it into their computer and review a product’s (or line of products’) features, again without time constraints (unless mom wants to check her email, or sis has a term paper due tomorrow).
You might think that software companies would be tempted to forego the "middleman" and sell downloads of their software directly to customers via the Internet. Some just might, but don’t expect many to do it, because it usually doesn’t make sense to a software company or to a musician/consumer. The first reason is that the amount of material held on a typical CD-ROM would take hours–maybe even days–to download with a modem. Add to this the fact that whatever’s downloaded must be stored somewhere. Consider this: many people’s computer hard drives have a 1- or 2-Gigabyte capacity (a Gigabyte equals 1,000 Megabytes), and it usually has to hold other software. A CD-ROM can store 650 Megabytes of information. It’s just too expensive to devote a hard drive to a single piece of software. The second, and perhaps most important, reason why companies won’t be selling much instructional software over the Internet (at least for the foreseeable future) is what practically everybody already knows: There just aren’t that many people online yet, and of those who are, few actually buy online.
One of the things software companies can, and do, deliver via the Internet are "bug fixes," periodic updates, and support. This can be of tremendous positive value to the retailer, who doesn’t need to keep track of every minor change in the software. And software companies, through their web sites, often sponsor ongoing discussions among users and between the users and software companies’ experts, building brand loyalty while solving or averting problems and passing good tips onto other musicians.
What about freebies online? Well, you can find cheap or free music-ed software online to download, and some of it is good. But it’s usually very narrowly focused, and it isn’t often slickly produced (or even debugged, in some cases), mostly because it’s created as a musician’s, computer programming student’s, or music department’s labor of love or necessity. They don’t have the budget or time, in most cases, to create something that can compete with the well-produced software in the mainstream of the marketplace.
A final note about the Internet: The number of people connected to the Internet in the U.S. may seem large, if you judge by the hype. The number is in the millions, but compared to the number of people with, for example, cable TV, the number is small. Plus, many of the hookups to the ’net are in businesses. Outside the U.S., access is either unattainable or prohibitively expensive. A lack of reliable telephone service, a dearth of computers, or both, contributes to this disparity.
Software can be used to teach just about any aspect of music. However, it can only be as good as the content it contains. And that means teachers are vital to the process of making good software (in fact, you’ll often find that music instructors have been integral in the development of most music software).
Video has been extremely successful as a learning aid, simply because it can include sound and moving images, in addition to "screen shots" of pieces of sheet music, tablature, or fingering charts. Well-designed instructional computer software can go further, including those elements, plus interactive quizzes, multiple approaches to the same material (fingering, notation, tablature, etc.).
For someone who lives where they can’t find other musicians to perform with, there’s software to solve that problem. For students who want supplemental material, or something to drill along with, besides a metronome, there’s software to guide them through exercises, etudes, and even complete pieces. A bonus to both the student and to any teacher who assigns computerized lessons is that the computer is endlessly patient, even if the student needs to repeat a single measure a thousand times.
While some software, such as the titles designed to teach music theory, targets an audience consisting solely of musicians, other software is geared toward a specific instrument or family of instruments. One example is Virtual Virtuoso’s Practice Assistant and Performance Assistant families of software designed for violin, viola, and cello. Practice Assistant includes scale studies, tuning assistance (click a button with the mouse, and you hear a reference pitch for each string). The user sets the tempo, sets the metronome’s subdivision (half-, full-, or double-time), and start and stop points, among other parameters. Performance Artist is a series of pieces with tracks that include a General MIDI (GM) version of the accompaniment and the notes of the piece embedded for playback through the computer’s sound card and speakers. That way, the student can have a piano-like accompaniment while rehearsing a piece, rather than simply playing along with a metronome’s click. A tuning reference tone (A=440), measure settings, tempo settings, and the ability to loop (play a section repeatedly) are all included.
Guitar software, such as Alfred’s Guitropolis, eMedia’s Guitar Method, Play Music’s Play Guitar (and Play Blues Guitar and Play Rock Guitar) make good use of the rich multimedia environment that computerized learning can create. Playing with "virtual bands," learning scales, licks, and chords, and seeing fingerboards, notation, tablature, and video performances–complete with customizable audio (in some cases), gives the user a huge range of options to learn from.
Is there a "shelf life" to music-teaching software? It’s too soon to tell, actually, since there hasn’t been much instructional software until recently. And, certainly, shelf life depends to an extent on what is taught. If it’s music theory or a "how-to" (how to play guitar, how to play accordion, etc.), the chances of it going obsolete in even a few years is unlikely. On the other hand, if the software focuses on something current–this year’s Grammy nominees, for example–then it’s quickly going to gather dust. So far, though, the economies of producing "one-hit wonders" don’t make it worthwhile for anyone to expend the development costs.
What this means is that unlike the computer industry at large, which was inundated by "shovelware" (software that consists of old printed material dumped onto discs), the music industry should see mostly high-quality original teaching software. And if this first generation of software for teaching music sets a good precedent, then students will be inspired to learn more–maybe even enough to forego their video games for some even more engaging musical adventures.