Groovy City named as BETT 2008 Finalist

London, UK, 12th November: Groovy City – the third in the Groovy Music series of music education programs for 5-11 year-olds from Sibelius Software – has been named as a Finalist in the 2008 BETT Awards, supported by Becta, BESA and EMAP. The animated music program is one of only four products shortlisted for the ‘Digital Content Primary – other curriculum areas’ category, products defined by BETT as being of the highest quality, the most effective and well designed.

Groovy City immerses children in a futuristic city landscape adventure that inspires them to understand, learn and create great music. The program is highly engaging and incorporates the latest proven approaches to child learning and development. It is designed for the music curriculum for 9-11 year olds, within UK Key Stage 2.

Groovy City follows on from Groovy Shapes and Groovy Jungle, which are designed for 5-7 and 7-9 year olds respectively. Both specialist and non-specialist teachers can teach music easily and effectively using all three Groovy Music programs, whether or not they themselves are able to read music.

Jeremy Silver, MD of Sibelius Software says: “We wanted to enable primary teachers to make music lessons compelling but simple and to create an immersive experience for students – so we made Groovy more like a computer game than the advanced sequencer and music editor that it is. We’re honoured and delighted to make the BETT Awards 2008 shortlist.”

Groovy City provides stunning loops and sound effects that enable children to compose hip-hop, house and other contemporary styles of music as well as more traditional genres. It also explores tone colour, rhythm and notation in greater detail than the other Groovy Music programs, which are designed for lower age groups. Children are also able to compose music by attaching a MIDI keyboard.

Characterized by eye-catching cartoon animations, each Groovy Music program is split into two parts, ‘Explore’ and ‘Create’.  In the Explore section children are guided aurally through a series of musical activities and games that teach them how music works. Once the students are familiar with Explore they move into Create where they are able to put into practice their new knowledge by creating original tunes. Groovy accommodates any style of music, giving it huge appeal to the broadest of tastes.

Groovy Shapes (5-7 age range) is the first of the three programs in which children learn about basic musical concepts.  Shapes are used to represent elements of music such as rhythms, melodies and chords.  The progressive exercises simplify class preparation for teachers, and because instructions are given aurally, no reading is required.

Groovy Jungle (7-9 age range) continues to explore notes and notation and simple musical terms. Music can now be added to a composition by recording from a keyboard or other MIDI instrument. In addition, more complex musical instruments and textures can be explored and developed.

Groovy City (9-11 age range) is designed in a cool, futuristic city theme which appeals to the older primary school child.  It teaches students more about notation and asks them to complete more complex listening tasks.  The program has a library of sounds, including repeatable patterns. Students are also introduced to question and answer phrases and the blues scale, so that they can begin to build up more sophisticated compositions.

For more information on Groovy Music, visit www.sibelius.com/groovy

Print resolution GROOVY CITY box and screen shots can be downloaded from www.sibelius.com/press/groovy.html.