<sect1 id='welcome'>
<title>Welcome to GNU Solfege</title>
<para>Solfege is a <ulink
url='http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html'>free</ulink> eartraining
program. The program is
part of the <ulink url='http://www.gnu.org'>GNU Project</ulink>. Check <xref linkend='online-resources'/> for info on mailinglists and where to get the
latest version of Solfege.</para>

<para>Select a exercise from the menu to start practising, or click
<ulink url="index.html">here</ulink> to read the user manual.</para>

<para>One of the ideas of this program is that you can extend the program
without having to dig into the source code. If you want to practise some
special chords or want to practise dictation with some music not included, you
can write lesson files and put them into a
<filename>lessonfiles/</filename> subdirectory in your
<filename>$HOME</filename> directory. If you create good lesson files, you
really should consider contributing them by sending them to the mailinglist so
I can add them to the next version of this program.</para>

</sect1>
