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Have you ever wanted to learn to sight-read music, or do you find teaching - or being taught - music boring? Well here's a package of programs that could solve the problems.

The cassette contains three programs. On one side is a game called Note Invaders, which is a musical variation on the overworked theme. On the other side are Staff1 and Staff2. Their aim is to help you understand how music is written.

Staff1 introduces you to the musical staff (pronounced stave) and the treble clef. The program is in the form of a lesson, though not a very long one. It starts out by drawing the staff and clef and telling you what they are for.

It then introduces the notes and plays each one while drawing them into the screen. To help you remember these notes, two sets of mnemonics are given. Every Good Boy Deserves Football - in my day he deserved favour, but times change - and the well known FACE.

That about wraps it up for the lesson so the program chains the next one. In Staff2 you are presented with a test, or competition. It can be used by one pupil or by a group of pupils with teacher supervision.

If a group uses the program, it becomes a competition. The pupils are asked to enter their names, then to identify 20 notes, each of which is presented on the screen and played. At the end of each pupil's turn a score is put into a table and the next pupil has a go, giving a list of how good they all are. The program can also be used by one person, in which case you play against yourself.

Note Invaders is an educational game that teaches you to identify notes on sight.

The object of the game is, of course, to get as high a score as possible. The more you play the game the better you get. It can be played with either the bass or treble clef.

In play a staff is drawn on the screen and a note is moved from left to right across it. To shoot down the note, all you hate to do is press the note's name on the keyboard. If you get the wrong name then the note changes into a letter and you get a bomb dropped on you.

All in all this is a useful educational aid for schools, or for anyone wanting to learn sight-reading.

One problem I found was that on a green monitor there were times when the instructions were a little difficult to read. On a colour monitor there was no problem at all.