Solfége, the system assigning Italian syllables (do, re, mi, and so on) to musical notes, is the method commonly used to teach musicianship — that is, pitch and interval recognition, sight singing, and intonation. It’s the bane of many a freshman music major, a profit center for the grad students who tutor them, and an essential part of a musician’s training.
Claire could forever change the way musicianship is taught. The program designs a 500-exercise curriculum based on your age and level of musical knowledge. A warm voice steps you through the process of determining your vocal range and a comfortable key, then introduces the exercises, providing encouraging words throughout. You sing into the Macintosh’s microphone, and Claire’s pitch-recognition algorithm determines the note and how accurately you have sung it, within a tenth of a half-step.
The interface, while nonstandard for the Mac, is logical and easy to learn. Claire tracks each user’s progress and charts pitch accuracy. The exercises flow logically and build a solid foundation of musicianship. Claire even suggests you don’t overdo it, prompting you to take regular breaks.
The initial release of Claire had its share of glitches. At the start of my tour of the program, the required New User Registration screen was off my monitor, somewhere in cyberspace. I quit the program, reloaded it, and selected New User from the File menu, and the registration screen appeared in position.
Other bugs ranged from mildly annoying — the program sometimes galloped at double speed, accusing me of singing in an octave I can’t begin to reach — to amusing, such as when Claire echoed the last bit of speech (often “Good” or “Excellent”) when I stopped in the middle of an exercise. None of the problems were fatal, and Opcode has since cleaned them up; version 1.0.1, now shipping, is going out to all registered owners.
Nested under Claire’s Edit menu is an item called Modules, which now contains only Solfége. Other modules are being developed with sound files and intonation profiles for instrumental musicians. Opcode will sell these modules separately.
Opcode, marketing for developer Arpeggio Software, will find a large and receptive educational market for Claire. With its reliance on repetition and accuracy of pitch, teaching musicianship lends itself to automation, and many of the educational markets already have a large Macintosh presence.
Fenno, Richard. (May 1994). Claire, The Personal Music Coach 1.0.1. Macworld. (pg. 88).
Opcode Systems, Inc.
Applications
out of 10 (0 vote)
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2015-08-13 / 
b091fe56877073509162a46be46d8d2e0bd1bb58 / 
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Opcode_Claire_1.0.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Basilisk II
