Trope Trainer Deluxe (Includes 5 Megillot)
World's Best Bar Mitzvah / Bat Mitzvah Trainer Plus 5
Megillot!
Ages: 9-Adult
Media: CD-ROM
Version: Windows 98/2000/NT/ME/XP
See also: Trope Trainer Standard
About - Trope Trainer Deluxe
(Includes 5 Megillot)
Chanting Torah, Haftarah or Megillot is a great challenge for
both Bar Mitzvah student and adults learning cantillation.
TropeTrainer software is a revolutionary new program that
accelerates learning Torah and Haftarah chanting and makes
learning fun and easy. You'll love using the TropeTrainer
software because you learn at your own pace, with features
customized to suit your learning level. The full set of
tutorials and exercises get you chanting with ease. All the
Torah portions and their associated Haftarot are presented,
taught and chanted in your choice of trope melody, in
Ashkenazic or Sephardic pronunciation. Choose any musical key,
a wide range of singing speeds, voice selection, and much much
more. You'll be amazed how much time and effort you'll save!
Features - Trope Trainer Deluxe (Includes 5 Megillot)
Play a word, phrase, verse or entire reading.
Adjust the speed and pitch of
singing to match your voice and level of proficiency.
Select the pronounciation (Ashkenazic or Sephardic) that you
wish to hear.
Select a melody (niggun) style. Various styles standard to
many Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform synagogues - from
Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions -are included.
View an English translation of each verse and a
transliteration of every word with your pronunciation
selection and see musical notes in your selected melody.
Display texts in your choice of Chumash, Torah (Stam), or
two-column Tikkun style.
Display and print whole portions or selected aliyot. Single
verses or user-selected combinations of verses can also be
selected for display and print to account for local customs.
Learn from portion itself, or
learn from for beginners and reviewers alike that demonstrate
the important aspects of tropes and cantillation.
Use the more than 35,000
exercise examples from actual Torah and Haftarah phrases and
verses to get almost unlimited practice. (Exercises are
organized by groups of tropes.)
Identify reading stops for full, triennial,holiday and weekday
readings.
Optionally show customizable colored highlights that identify
common trope phrases and optionally show colored tropes that
distinguish lord and servant tropes.
Distinguish Sh'va-na and Sh'va-nach, Qamatz-gadol and
Qamatz-katon to aid in proper pronunciation.
Use the Reading Selector to
automatically display combined and separate Torah portions
based on year and location. Special holiday Maftir and
Haftarah readings are automatically displayed. Readings can
also be selected from a "perpetual" Jewish Holiday calendar
showing all days when Torah is read. Bar Mitzvah planning
couldn't be easier!
"Singing" trope charts are included for those with previous
cantillation experience.
PERPETUAL HEBREW CALENDAR
Trope Trainer (tm) software includes a "perpetual" calendar
including every Shabbas and Jewish Holiday during which Torah
is read. The calendar features adjustments for the difference
between weekly Torah portions that are read in the Diaspora
versus those read in Israel. Outside of Israel, Sukkos, Pesach
and Shavuos are celebrated one day longer than they are inside
Israel. When this extra day occurs on Shabbos, in Israel the
regular weekly Torah portion is read, while the Holiday
portion is chanted everywhere else. Several weeks after that
Holiday, those outside of Israel read a double Torah portion,
while those in Israel read a single portion. In this way,
those in the Diaspora catch up to the portion read in Israel.
The "perpetual" Jewish Holiday calendar included in
TropeTrainer(tm) software helps you find the right portion for
your BarMitzvah. Simply click to the year and month of your
birth, click on the date, and see your Hebrew calendar
birthdate. (Note: if you were born after sunset, the Hebrew
calendar birthdate will be the next day.)
New Features in Version 4
Choose between chanting or speaking of Hebrew text
Improved Navigation
Instrumental accompaniment with your choice of over 100
instruments. Select accompaniment with chanting, no
accompaniment, or just instrumental
Improved speech synthesis with higher quality of voices
Optional Download Audio* to your iPod™ or other MP3 players
using iTunes™ (allows 3 downloads)
Images - Trope Trainer Deluxe (Includes 5 Megillot)
Learn to Read the Torah in No Time!
Reviews - Trope Trainer Deluxe (Includes 5 Megillot)
Shimon Lewin (4/16/2004) wrote:
If you frequent Jewish
websites, I am sure that you have come across the name “Trope
Trainer” before. After seeing it so many times all over the
place I decided I wanted to see for myself what all the hype
was about. The version of the program I was able to review was
the Deluxe Edition. This program is very unique and has a lot
to offer; it definitely is something that deserves the hype it
has been getting.
The Trope Trainer installation was relatively easy and fast.
This program is packed with so many great features, I don’t
know where to begin. The program is not just for students who
are practicing for their bar mitzvah — but in fact all ages
can benefit from this program.
As we are all aware, there are many different customs amongst
our people. Trope Trainer has taken that into consideration
and has included close to 20 different melodies on how to lain
(chant) the torah. Melody samples include customs from all
over the world, such as according to German custom, Chabad,
Galician, etc… The list is too long to itemize but you get the
picture.
This program is really flexible and diverse; it allows the
user to learn to lain with approximately seven different
accents, i.e. Ashkenazi, Sefardi, Chabad, etc. What I found to
be quite interesting is the way you can manipulate the
program, feature by feature, so that while the program is
teaching you how to lain with a Sefardi tune, (unless you
specify otherwise) the words are pronounced in an Ashkenazi
accent; the same goes vice versa.
True, there is nothing like a real teacher/cantor to teach you
how to learn. In fact, Trope Trainer encourages you to have
your training reviewed by a ba’al koreh to make sure that you
are laining the way your community does, because even with all
of the different customs this program has, some communities
might have their notes slightly different, so therefore it
would be a good idea just to double-check.
Learning how to lain requires you to first familiarize
yourself with the notes. Trope trainer starts off by teaching
you the basics while giving you tips along the way. The
tutorial is very extensive and does not only teach the basics.
It is packed with challenging exercises that will be sure to
keep you on your toes and at the same time help you walk away
knowing the material.
Guessing when your son’s bar mitzva parsha or trying to figure
out what is supposed to be lained the following week/weekday
is eliminated with the calendar option. The calendar lets you
peek into the near and distant future or even go back in time
to see what was lained in the past. The calendar shows you
both the secular and Hebrew dates.
If you already know what parsha you want to lain, then proceed
to the reading section in the program. The reading section
lists off all the parshios in the Torah. Upon selecting a
parsha, assuming that you have input the right year and
correct region (Diaspora/Israel — when the last day of Yom Tov
falls on Shabbos, the weekly readings in the Diaspora and
Israel are different until a double parsha is separated and
the Diaspora catches up), the haftarah feature will
automatically generate all the possible haftarahs that can be
lained for that week. Sometimes there may be one haftarah
because all communities will read the same one, yet other
weeks there may be a few because some communities have
different customs for that week and will be reading different
haftarahs.
You can also choose to view special lainings such as the Yomim
Noraim, Yom Tovim, Chanukah, Purim, fast days etc. In fact,
you can make your own custom readings.
The display controls are quite extensive. You have the choice
of viewing the text in regular format or Stam (the way the
words are written in the torah (without vowels or trope) or
view both, side by side.
Practicing certain trope groups (such as munach esnachta), the
program allows you to highlight all of the texts that contain
these cantillations. The highlighting feature allows you to
assign different colors for different groups. You can also
assign colors to the actual cantillation symbols — it’s like
highlighting the notes in your notebook with different color
highlighters. This comes in very handy when you want to
practice certain groups.
There are times when within a parsha that there is a special
tune for that particular piece, such as in Parshas Beshalach
when we lain Oz Yashir. For instances like these, the program
has an option that allows you to underline these texts in
order to remind you of the different tune.
To listen to the laining, all you have to do is hit the play
button. The program will start laining from the word the gray
cursor is at. Want to stop? Just simply press the stop button.
Not too hard if you ask me. I think even those who are scared
of their computer will be able to handle this task.
As Trope Trainer starts laining, the cursor moves along and
highlights each word that is being said. At the same time, on
the bottom of the screen, it shows the translation of the
verse, the transliteration, the particular musical note it is
reading and the name of that musical note.
The more advanced playback features can make a real difference
when learning and practicing how to lain. Many times a verse
needs to be repeated over and over until it is perfected. This
can become quite cumbersome if you need to constantly be
hitting the play and stop button. With the repeat play option,
you can get the program to constantly repeat a certain
segment. Other options you have instead of listening to a
continuous flow of text is to listen to a word, trope group,
or until the end of the verse.
Aside from melody and pronunciation options, there is a
feature that allows you to change the pitch from -12 all the
way to 12. You also can change the voices (i.e. bass,
baritone, tenor, alto, soprano and child).
One thing that students will love about the program is that it
enables you to change the speed of the program’s laining. When
students first learn how to lain, they need to hear the text
slowly, but as they become more experienced, the pace can be
picked up. Trope Trainer allows the student to change the
speed from 1 (slow) to 15 (fast). By allowing the program to
‘grow’ with the student, Trop Trainer helps ensure that the
student stay motivated and not become bored because they are
not challenged.
Trope Trainer is a steal for the price you will pay for it.
This program is the next best thing than a human teacher. If
you want, you can buy different versions of the program such
as the Standard, Single Parsha, and Deluxe. But to have the
largest variety of resources, you will want the Deluxe
Edition. With this version, you will be able to learn it all.
In addition to the weekly parshiyos, you can also learn how to
lain Megillas Esther, Shir Hashirim, Rus, Eichah and Koheles.
Trope Trainer requires a PC with at least a 120 MHz processor.
Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP. An SVGA display, 32 MB RAM, a sound
card and, of course — last but not least — speakers.
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