Music Ace Maestro: Music Educator's Professional Edition (w/CD).

Music Ace Maestro: Music Educator's Professional Edition (w/CD). Harmonic Vision. http://www.harmonicvision.com. Single-computer version that tracks the progress of 240 students is $127.95. Current users of Music Ace or Music Ace 2 can apply a credit of 60 percent of their installed product's retail value to purchase an upgrade. Check website for network and lab configurations pricing. Ages 8 to adult.

Music Ace just keeps getting better! If you have used Music Ace and Music Ace 2, you already know how these programs help your students learn in a very enjoyable way note reading, rhythm reading and beginning music theory, while keeping track of their progress. Now you can upgrade to Music Ace Maestro and find new ways to make these lessons the backbone of a well-organized computer lab.

Music Ace Maestro comes with three sets of syllabi. You can choose to work only with Music Ace lessons, only Music Ace 2 lessons or a combination of all the lessons in both Music Ace and Music Ace 2 in pedagogical order. But if this is not your preferred order, then it is very easy to change the order of the 48 lessons into any order. This feature is a time-saver because lessons can be set up once, at beginning of the year, and if the arises, can be manipulated at any time into any other order.

The network version can track up to 3,600 students, 60 per group. The single-computer version tracks up to 240 students, which can be set up in small groups, with a unique syllabus for each. The program will also import the assessment databases from previously installed versions of Music Ace and Music Ace 2, as long as they are installed on the current computer or network.

This software is easy to install and use and comes with a user-friendly 68-page manual. During installation, I ran into a problem, which was easily solved by looking through the Installation Guide under "Solving Common Problems." Ten sheets of theory pages, theory page templates and student certificates follow the manual. Of course, it includes the Doodle Pad, along with lists of all of the pieces in the Jukebox and ideas on how to correlate them to Music Ace and Music Ace 2 lessons. Reviewed by Michelle Gordon, NCTM, Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.