Non-Technical Questions:

Tell me more about the creation of Music Magic.
It took the effort of three people, with technical help and advice of nearly half a dozen other people to create Music Magic. The whole site took about nine to ten months to create. Several hundreds of hours were put into Music Magic. In addition, our site as a whole (including all Perl scripts, web pages, audio, images, etc) takes up more than 65 megabytes! Music Magic utilizes about two dozen Perl scripts. Music Magic was created by the three ThinkQuest '98 Team #15060 members: Paul Kim (team leader), Tom Warne, Xiaoqin Yan. Music Magic is provided to you for both entertainment and educational purposes free of charge.

Tell me more about the site creators of Music Magic.
Music Magic was created by three previously high school students: Paul Kim (team leader), Tom Warne and Xiaoqin Yan. Paul is now 18 years old, Tom is 16 and Xiaoqin is 17.

Paul: Paul is a violinist for about nine years now. A freshman at Cornell University in the College of Engineering, Paul enjoys running (he ran the Los Angeles Marathon twice - in 1996 and 1998), Read books, write novels/short stories/poetry, program in Visual Basic, Perl and JavaScript. In addition, Paul loves to design web pages.

Tom: Tom is a very talented Java programmer. His extraordinary brilliance is visible when one looks at the fact that Tom graduated high school one year early. Living in Utah, Tom is currently enrolled in Brigham Young University. Tom has had extensive experience in Java. If ever you need someone to code in Java, Tom is your man.

Xiaoqin: Xiaoqin, a female, is a talented clarinetist. She can boast being a bandmistress and winning many awards. About to attend Princeton University as a freshman, Xiaoqin likes fencing, reading and playing her clarinet. Be sure to get in touch with Xiaoqin if you ever need advice or help with the clarinet or any other wind instrument.

Why exactly did you make Music Magic?
We decided to create Music Magic because we realized that there were no real piano web pages out there - one which would allow interactivity, extensive information, a concert hall and fun piano/music games.

Why the piano?
We do not exactly know why we chose the piano. However, we all agreed upon the instrument and stuck with it throughout the creation of the site. We tried not to digress from the piano too much - only where we thought it was appropriate.

General Questions:

All the text and graphics are jumbled together. I can't see anything clearly!
You are probably using Netscape Navigator 2.0 or lower or Internet Explorer 1.0 or an outdated version of another browser (such as an old version of Lynx or Opera). Download the latest at http://www.download.com

When I submit something or add information somewhere, it doesn't show up on the screen.
You need to reload the page to see your information added. You can do this by clicking on "Reload" or "Refresh". In addition, on most browsers you can press Ctrl+R (PC Windows) or Command+R (Mac). Also, you may have to scroll down because your information or submission is added to the bottom of the page.

What browser should I use?
We won't recommend a single browser. All current browsers work fine with Music Magic. However, be aware that some sections within our site require Java, JavaScript, Frames or a combination of the above.

My Music Magic Questions:

What is My Music Magic all about?
My Music Magic (My MM) allows you to create personalized pages. If you play an instrument, you can make a practice organizer in a similar way that you would on paper. This ability to create your own web page with your personalized practice session all laid out keeps it clean and neat.

How do I create my first page?
Click here if you want to create a practice page or click here if you want to create a teacher's inventory page.

Are my page(s) really private?
Technically, they are. However, since we did not password-protect the directory in which your pages are stored in, anyone can guess your page name. That is one reason why you should put numbers or alternate in case (yes! page.html, Page.html and PaGe.HTmL are different)

What if I want to erase my page?
You can erase your page yourself. Please email us to do that for you. Your page will be deleted in about two or three days.

Reference Questions:

When I click on "photo" or "audio", why am I taken to a different web site?
Instead of making sure that all audio clips and photos were uploaded without violating copyrighted material, we linked to them instead. All material in the Music Magic site is either original (i.e. we made it) or taken with permission or is available to the public domain.

I'm confused. Isn't Music Magic a piano site? Why is there information about other instruments?
Since music encompasses much more than the piano, we decided to give each area of music a 'fair' display.

I get an error when I try to add information to the MM Dictionary.
The most likely cause of this is you are trying to add a word that is already in our database. Make sure the word does not exist. A second cause may be that the ThinkQuest (Advanced Networks) server is having problems or is down.

Does the advice about practicing, finding a teacher, etc apply to other musicians as well?
By all means! Of course you'll have to tailor the information in a way so that it is meaningful to you.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?
A woodchuck would chuck no amount of wood because a woodchuck could not chuck wood.

But if a woodchuck could chuck wood, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck?
If a woodchuck could chuck wood, why would a woodchuck chuck wood?

If a woodchuck could chuck wood and a woodchuck would chuck wood, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck?
Even if a woodchuck could chuck wood and a woodchuck would chuck wood, where would a woodchuck chuck wood?

A woodchuck would chuck wood...
Ack...Enough!

Online Lessons Questions:

The lessons move too fast for me!
The best advice to give you is to go over each lesson twice, three times or even a fourth or fifth time. Also, go through each lesson in order. Allow at least two or three months to complete all the lessons.

When I click on a key on the so-called digital piano keyboard, I don't hear any sounds or I get an error.
You'll need a frame-enabled and javascript-compatible browser to take advantage of this. Make sure that you have both of these turned on if your browser supports them.

Interactive Gallery Questions:

How did you create pages with such interactivity?
Nearly all areas of the Interactive Gallery utilizes CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts. More specifically, all our scripts were made in PERL (Practical Extraction and Report Language). If you'd like the source code to these scripts, email Paul.

When I add my page, comment, or utilize the interactive areas, my submission never comes on the list of pages.
You will probably have to "reload" or "refresh" these pages. Then scroll down to the bottom. Your submission will always be listed at the bottom.

Concert Hall Questions:

The Concert Hall doesn't work.
If you are not using Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator or other java-compatible browsers, you cannot use the Concert Hall. In addition a Java-enabled browser, you'll probably need the Java Development Kit v1.1.