What's Cool About Music

A program for students to build literacy skills by exploring music

Attainment Company's What's Cool About Music is an engaging introduction to music for students of all ages. The talking-book format includes real music built right into the text. Each page contains text with a full-size photo illustration, professional narration and highlighting of text, and an additional music feature unique to this program.

Icons appear next to certain words or phrases. Each icon has a corresponding music or sound snippet, which plays along with the narration and replays when touched. This way, musical terms and information are explained with words, illustrated with icons, and demonstrated with sound.

This free version provides a sample topic, "What is Music." An in-app purchase unlocks all six "talking books" covering a wide range of topics, including:

the definition of terms like "melody" and "rhythm" (The Big Picture of Music) instruments from the ancient past to the electronic age (Musical Instruments) descriptions of Indian ragas, Irish jigs, and yodeling (World Music)

the history of jazz and blues (Music Styles)

Each story has a multiple-choice test, and students' answers are stored on the system. Teachers can customize program settings for students and track their progress in the Options menus.

What's Cool About Music, with its innovative use of sound, is a complete learning experience for people with a wide range of abilities. Spoken narration and highlighting help struggling readers follow the text. The varied topics ensure that users will learn quite a bit for the first time. Music snippets add interest and engagement. And as a bonus, users who tap an icon to repeat the music are rewarded with sound-frequency animation.

We hope you will enjoy Attainment's What's Cool About Music.