Yesterday I spoke of a number of improvements that are free in Finale 2010a, but I indicated that I saved a nice surprise for my music educator friends. Many of them were aware that Finale 2010 included more than 300 music education worksheets, but not everyone knew where to find them. Finale 2010a makes them easy to find. Just look in the File menu for “Open Finale Worksheet….”

Even better news is that once there you’ll find that we’ve added to the list of worksheets with the following music education tools:

• 271 Classroom Flash Cards – Designed to be printed double-sided (with the answers on the back) and to be used in front of a classroom. Topics include keys, note names, rhythm, vocabulary, and musical symbols.
• 126 Individual Flash Cards – Designed to be printed double-sided (with the answers on the back) and used by individual students for self-quizzing. Topics include keys, note names, and musical symbols.
• 30 Ear Training Worksheets – Designed to be used with the free, downloadable Finale Reader, students can print the worksheets, use Reader to play the examples, and write the answers on the printed worksheets. Topics include intervals, chords, and melodic dictation.

I always think of these worksheets and flashcards as being specifically for general music educators, but just the other day one of my musician friends commented on how he’d be using some of these worksheets with his son at home. Pretty cool.

I’m working on an upcoming blog post about Finale and the general music teacher. Their requirements are very unique among music notation users as a whole, and I’m excited to share some tips specific to their needs that I’ve picked up in the course of my Finale travels!