After graphics, music on the micro must be the most popular application for the young. Kevin Jones has written Exploring Music With The Bbc Micro And Electron. It's published by Pitman and sells for £9.95.

It's a large format book and distinctively portrays a young Beethoven playing the BBC keyboard! The most interesting piece of information on the dust cover is that fact that the author has had one of his orchestral works, with a part for the BBC Micro, performed in Salzburg! You learn something new every day.

Actually this is a very nice book to read. The large format means that the text is not as crowded as some of the technical books we usually encounter in the computer field. It proves to be an introduction to sound and music in general with the computer as an aid to learning. Of course, you discover much about how to produce sounds through software but the angle of approach is always from the musical angle.

The programming technique is not as suited to this sort of manual as I would have liked but none of the programs is long enough to create any confusion. Within some of the programs there is considerable use of the random factor and no real attempts to get into the area of probability tables to replicate musical styles.

Although not a complete exploration of making music on the BBC, this book is an attractive introduction and should prove valuable in the music classroom.

Peter Mujtaba