MusicEase Traditional Songbook for Children and Adults 1.0.

MusicEase Traditional Songbook for Children and Adults 1.0, by Gary Radar. MusicEase Software (P.O. Box 9219, Grand Junction, CO 81501), 2004. $19.95. Easy.

MusicEase Traditonal Songbook for Children and Adults 1.0, created by Gary Rader, is easy-to-use software that is ideal for any kind of musician or music teacher. MusicEase prints customized sheet music for any of the 370 public domain songs that are included with the software. While the pieces are most useful for beginners, many of the songs--Christmas carols, folk tunes, nursery rhymes and hymns--we use all our life.

Customization tools in MusicEase include transposition; lyrics that can be viewed, not viewed or changed; choice of font and the number of measures in a line; optional chords; and a note editing feature. In short, one can do anything with these pieces and then print them. In a culture where the word "musician" generally implies a lean budget, MusicEase can ease the financial pain.

For first-time users of MusicEase, a few suggestions might be in order. First, the "back" button on the software is inconsistent, so it might be helpful to print the various pages of shortcuts, tools, operations and so on, and have them next to the computer for fast reference. Second, while the software is refreshingly simple and straightforward, free of cutesy characters and annoying pop-ups (but a bit of color wouldn't be so bad), ...