BowTIE screenshot - music behind, control panel in foreground

BowTIE (Brass Transposition Instruction Environment) is free Windows software designed to help brass players learn to transpose. The new 0.21 (alpha) release boasts new content from Jay Lichtmann, principal trumpet of the Hartford Symphony. It also sports improved support for more complex input files and provides improved record-keeping functions. Teachers, BowTIE tell us, will appreciate new documentation for defining instructional units, and players will notice the improved appearance of the musical notation.

The way the software works is that the player tells the program what music they are playing, and which transposition is in use, defined by a pitch for the part on the stand, and one for the (virtual) instrument in the hand. As the music is played over the computer's sound system the player fingers the notes on the number keypad as if they were the valves. The music won't move on till the correct fingering is in use, and the player receives feedback in the form of a numerical score: it sounds bizarre but actually works rather well, surprisingly so for low-numbered early version software! The program has a wide range of configuration options and appears to be the product of a great deal of careful thought about this problem.

The authors David Randolph and Tim Schellenberg add, "If you play (or teach) trumpet or horn, please check out our website. We would like to know what you think."

Website:
BowTIE