ScoreDate

Behind every musical masterpiece are not only countless hours of practice, but also heavy documentation. Music is created on heavy sets of rules, just like spelling and grammar help you properly write. As such, specialized applications like ScoreDate want to help you learn all there is about music, notes and rhythm.

Even before running the application you notice a neat advantage. The lack of a setup lets you keep it on a removable storage device to take learning sessions wherever you go. However, you need to make sure the target machine is equipped with Java Runtime Environment because it's built on this platform.

In terms of visuals, elements are polished and intuitive, making accommodation one of the least things you need to worry about. This helps you better focus on learning, which is also greatly enhanced by interactive games and tests.

A main menu holds all areas you can access, such as note, rhythm and score reading, statistics, exercises or ear training. These are mostly fitted with the same tools, such as an interactive keyboard and settings that determine the difficulty of sessions and elements you want to learn about.

An accuracy meter lets you know if you're on the right track, but one too many errors forces you to try from the start. This isn't a major inconvenience because lessons are not based on a specific pattern, with randomly generated notes and layouts created according to your specifications.

If you think you mastered what the application throws at you, there's an option to use musical notes, breaks and other elements to design custom scores from which to be tested. Statistics are displayed in a graph, with options to simply view areas of interest. There's also the possibility to save them to file so you can easily analyze progress later on.

ScoreDate is a trustworthy application that can be used by beginners and experts alike. You can learn a thing or two if you skipped one too many music classes in school or simply want to practice your skills. It uses little system resources, can be used on the go, while the intuitive design makes sure you don't get stuck along the way and the overall experience is fun.