Review of Lamb Chop Loves Music

Installation was easy and automatic. There were no problems involved with the installation process, and a piano teacher and/or parent can easily install this software without any help. The installation process is well-described in the manual accompanying the program.

Lamb Chop Loves Music is based on the classic story The Musicians of Bremen, told with the addition of Lamb Chop's witticisms and silliness. In this retelling of the story, different animals learn about the members of the different instruments of the orchestra. The Raccoon gets involved in the Percussion family, Cat gets into the woodwinds (mainly the clarinet), Lamb Chop decides upon the flute, because who wants to lug a piano around on their back. It's great! What this reviewer loved about the telling of this story is that, when the narration was finished and the background music was playing, the student could click around each individual screen to find fun surprises and some silly musical jokes. The grand finale of the story comes when the user can choose the style of music they want for the concert finale - they can choose from classical and jazz to rock and marching band music. The basis of the retelling of the story is to expose the "new to music" user to the different families of the orchestra, the sounds that the instruments in each family can produce, and some ideas and thoughts about the concepts of practice, dedication to music, and the love of music.

After the student has finished the story of the Musicians of Bremen, he can go to the Music Store, where he can learn the shapes and sounds of the string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. In the Music Store, Shari Lewis describes how each instrument is played and where each instrument fits into the families of instruments. You also hear the sounds of the music produced by each instrument. The descriptions and renderings of the instruments are extremely accurate.

The student can also go into the Game Room where he can play five musical fun-filled activities. All these games help with the understanding of music. The games include Musical Memory, Find the Sound, Song Jumble, Wacky Musicians and Stop the Robbers. Each game is related to some aspect of the story, and to the Music Store, and is a fun way to find out how much information was retained.

Lamb Chop Loves Music is a wonderful program to sit down and share with your student or child the discovery process of learning about music and the instruments. Kids will appreciate Lamb Chop's frustrations, crabbiness (when she needed to go to bed, but wouldn't until Shari told her a story), and jokes/puns about music and life in general. We have recommended this software to other teachers and to parents as a good introduction to music and the orchestra.

Lamb Chop Loves Music, list price:$39.95, Distributed by Philips Media, Inc., 10960 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90024. Customer support 1-800-340-7888. Minimum System Requirements: IBM PC and Compatibles, 486sx/25MHz processor, DOS version 5.0, Window 3.1, Double speed CD-ROM drive, 4 MB RAM (8 MB recommended), 1MB of free disk space, Standard keyboard and mouse, Video display with 640 x 480 resolution and 256 colors, 8-bit sound (16-bit sound recommended. Minimum System Requirements Apple Macintosh and Compatibles, 68030/33MHz processor, (Performa 600, IIvx or better), System 7.1, Double-speed CD-ROM Drive, 5MB RAM (8 MB recommended), Standard keyboard and mouse, video display with 640 x 480 resolution and 256 colors