Duolingo Music Review - Who is this for?

Duolingo has added music into its educational courses roster but how good is it really?
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[@dermanater]

Duolingo can advertise however it wants because nobody else really provides competition for them, so all press is good press

[@RichardAshbyMusic]

You're right about that. Comparing them to Babbel, who takes a more traditional route with their advertising, Duolingo just seems to be the more "hip" learning platform which definitely attracts the attention and then converts that into customers so they've definitely got it all figured out :)

[@mr.duck1248]

I skipped to the final chapter of duo music and passed it immediately and I’m not even that good at reading sheet music so I’m not totally sure who it’s for and why we needed like 70 chapters to read sheet music

[@RichardAshbyMusic]

That’s basically how I feel, it really feels like a stretch to call this Duolingo “Music” if its just basic notation reading and just note placement at that not even ornamentation or dynamics or anything

[@TheGrindelwald]

Seems like they missed some stuff. Normal Duolingo uses phrases instead of just basic words. They could have used famous Melodie’s that does not have copyright and used both c clef and f clef etc. To just focus on what aspect a time seems reasonable, but not making the music itself simple. That’s a bit oversimplified. Is music really THAT hard to some. I think most people start with imitating music they like and enjoy. The Duolingo approach would be using ring tones, or other familiar kind of funny music. And not really so much classical composers. Also rhythm is crucial. It’s the way music is spelled. Or say the consonants while the tones are the vowels. That course seems way too incomplete

[@RichardAshbyMusic]

I agree 100%, the whole course is really juts an introduction to reading sheet music. Which does have merit but it feels strange to call this a "music" course when only showing how to read notes on a page. But who knows, maybe they actually will update the course and add more robust learning tools in the future or have different sections to have actual ear training or something like that. There's tons of avenues to go down lets hope they do decide to take one :)

[@nycurbanist3616]

I am shocked that Duolingo is still as big as it is. I feel like it’s not really useful as a language tool and it’s been around now for over a decade with ever increasing hype. When will the bubble burst lol?

[@RichardAshbyMusic]

Honestly I’m not sure if it will ever truly “burst”. They’ve invested a lot of money into marketing and it’s all paid off for them as they’re the first name most would think of when they have that idea to learn a language, the only real competition I can think of is Babbel and it still feels like a large gap