ByzanTune

ByzanTune is original educational software for teaching and learning Byzantine chant notation and traditional Greek music. Designed for both children and adult learners, it offers a contemporary and accessible learning experience.

Drawing on many years of teaching experience, it introduces a child-centred approach informed by contemporary music education methods. It aims to make music teaching and learning more meaningful and creative, responding to learners’ needs.

Learners can study notation symbols through personalised exercises, randomly generated examples and dictation exercises based on what they hear. Experiential and exploratory features include playing exercises using solmisation or the chant “Kyrie eleison”, and recording the voice so learners can assess their performance through repeated practice.

The software supports multimodal and differentiated learning by representing musical information in several ways, from graphic notation to visual scaffolding for voices and numerical interval representations. These options help make learning accessible to a wider range of students.

Saving and uploading files allows learners to keep their work on their computer and return to it whenever they wish, to revise or develop it further.

Before release, ByzanTune was used in teaching for two years at the Synagma Music Workshop. It developed gradually through practice: children’s needs and interests were explored and translated into software features, linking its pedagogy directly to the teaching setting.

ByzanTune was created through the collaboration and academic guidance of music educators Yannis Mygdanis and Nikos Fragkakis. Their teaching experience informed its content and features. Designed for Greek Music Schools and schools of Byzantine music, it is a specialised yet flexible learning tool connecting tradition with innovation.