MacGAMUT software provides a flexible, graded ear-training and fundamentals
learning environment
for serious music students, from novices to the most advanced.
Some History:
Though Ann Blombach's students at The Ohio State University had been using her ear-training software for several years as it went through various incarnations and permutations in the course of development, Mayfield Publishing released MacGAMUT: Intervals, Scales, and Chords in 1988. This first published version of MacGAMUT ran only on Macintosh computers (hence, the "Mac" in the name). In 1991, Mayfield published Ann's MacGAMUT: Melodic Dictation as a separate title.
By 1995 Ann Blombach realized that, in order to serve both instructors and their students effectively, she needed more control over the software from initial conception right through production and distribution. In that year, she formed her own company, MacGAMUT Music Software International, and began publishing MacGAMUT software herself, combining the two titles Mayfield had marketed separately into a single product. In 1996, Ann added Harmonic Dictation to the list of MacGAMUT software components. She introduced student-defined Make-My-Own drills for both Written and Keyboard Theory in 1998.
Before 2000, MacGAMUT software ran exclusively on Macintosh computers, which had been fine for music computer-lab installations, where Macs had long been the computer of choice. By the close of the 20th Century, however, a growing number of students had their own computers, and most of those were Windows machines. Students wanted to work on MacGAMUT in their own rooms on their own time rather than trekking off to some computer lab . In response, Ann devoted two years' work to porting her Mac-only application to Windows, introducing MacGAMUT 2000 for Mac and Windows, the first cross-platform version of her software, with installers for both computer platforms on each CD.
In 2001, Ann retired early from the OSU faculty to devote her energies full-time to software development and maintenance. In 2003, Ann added Rhythmic Dictation to her MacGAMUT software package. And in 2006, she completed reprogramming the Macintosh version to run natively in OS X, a task that proved even more difficult than porting the software from Macintosh to Windows! In 2008, the 20th anniversary of the first MacGAMUT publication, Ann introduced mastery-based Written and Keyboard drills with the publication of MacGAMUT 6. And in 2009, she added the on-screen Virtual Keyboard to make MacGAMUT fully portable. Now, students can complete their MacGAMUT assignments, including the Keyboard drills, anytime and anywhere they have access to a computer, with no additional equipment required.
This year, more than 25,000 students will use MacGAMUT 6 in hundreds of post-secondary and secondary school music programs throughout the U.S. and Canada.
MacGAMUT 6
offers unlimited mastery-based drill and practice in Aural Skills for
Intervals, Scales, Chords,
Rhythmic Dictation, Melodic Dictation, and Harmonic Dictation,
and unlimited mastery-based Written and Keyboard drills for
Intervals, Scales, and Chords.
