When it comes college reading material –textbooks specifically– this is one area of product distribution that seems to stay legitimate among its perpetual student client base because whether students buy, rent, download or even if students borrow from friends, college texts and professor requirements are typically stringent and straightforward, with little room for product deviation. Hence, publishers of texts are pushed to always provide more options for book formats, access and bundle pack pricing.
College texts are also the reason why some publishers might be more recognizable than names of others; especially if that publisher accompanies a student through the majority of the work in their major. Such is occasionally the case for music students, as publisher W.W. Norton, has been a top name in music based texts for years; covering everything from theory to sight singing and orchestration and disseminating materials to universities across the country.
One of Norton’s music theory texts, The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis, has a partner workbook and both are part of “The Musician’s Guide” series. Norton’s newest effort to enhance the college learning experience is being tried out on this text set and involves the online music composition application, Noteflight.
Announced this morning, the music software company has worked with Norton to convert the theory workbook component to an online resource, whereas previously the book was solely offered in physical print. Choosing Noteflight’s digital compilation also gives students a two year subscription to the program and at the enhanced “Crescendo” membership level to boot, which provides more extensive composition options and editing tools. 600 exercises in total are currently available through Noteflight and Norton.
The benefits for students and professors in the present semesters for which they utilize Noteflight are significantly useful. Universal access from any computer (or mobile device with Crescendo) make it much easier for students on the go between classes to get work done and for professors to get work edited, corrected or uploaded for review and completion. This structure is easily accessed among course members but kept confined to those with Noteflight accounts; similar to a selective cloud system or like the circles in Google+. The way Noteflight’s software is built, as a service pushing for publisher customers, it is easy for companies like Norton to get their material integrated and to customize the organization of their material, (in this case musical scores), through syncing of lesson-enhancing elements like audio and video clips.
The toss up between ease of access while in a course, versus permanent access after a course is completed, might be the only aspect that could cause some hesitation. When it comes to major-centric materials, some students are liable to want to keep their texts for future reference and review. While exercises written in print can only be done once without erasing and re-writing, there is the eventual total loss of access if one decides not to maintain their Noteflight account past the two year period. All in all though, as a concept, W.W. Norton is taking a confident step toward technology rather than shying away from it and after adjusting for other subject matters, music courses across the board might see this decision as one worth pursuing as well.
Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1
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