Hi, guys! I am back with a new book! You Can be a Musician: A Defense of Music

Early Learning Teaching Your Child Music
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Hi,
Hope, you remember me! Long time - no see :slight_smile:

I will try to answer all of your messages that was collected in my inbox.

I have good news: finally I had translated my book ‘You Can be a Musician: A Defense of Music’.

First I wrote in in my native language and placed it on the Internet. I received a lot of letters from Russian speaking musicians and parents all over the world. It took me awile to translate the book and find a good illustrator (I lOVE books with pictures! LOL)

So, in the book I tryed to answer some questions: why, for example, chinese kids carry tune better then others? What makes learning enjoyable and successful? Where the music notes came from? What is ‘good technique’ and how to achieve that?

So, here is the link to the book. Enjoy!

http://softmozart.on.ufanet.ru/smbookeng/music00.htm

I would monitor this topic and will try to answer all of your questions!

Sincerely yours,
Hellene Hiner

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Hi Hellene!

I am glad to see you back on this forum! Congratulations on your new book! :smiley:

I have been really interested in Soft Mozart since I read about it in this forum and looked it up online. Having taken almost 8 (painful) years of traditional piano lessons myself, I am very interested in having my daughter learn an instrument without the pain and the tears. I read through a lot of your old posts and I think a lot of your theories make sense - which is why I have decided to try out your program with my daughter. I was just waiting for her to get old enough. :slight_smile:

She is now 27 months old - very coordinated for her age but does not have a great attention span. What age do you suggest starting children on Soft Mozart? Also, I would like to ask your opinion on the Suzuki method - a lot of the criticisms I heard on Suzuki boiled down to two which are problems of the student with improvisation and reading fluency. My initial plan for my daughter was to start her on Soft Mozart for piano and Suzuki for violin and then eventually let her make her own decision which instrument she prefers to study. Will it be counter-productive to use the two different teaching methods at the same time?

Looking forward to your response. Thanks!

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She is now 27 months old - very coordinated for her age but does not have a great attention span. What age do you suggest starting children on Soft Mozart?

I start teaching students from 24 months. It is possible with Soft Mozart and extremely important for the brain development of children of this age.
All of our games are based on advanced algorithms and very interactive (they register every move of your child) and the whole system is built the way that develops attention span of small children from ‘scratch’.
I was in this forum long ago and don’t remember if I wrote that you have to play 1 game a month and start with 1 minute of playing (game time). Every week the game time could be increased by half-one minutes and all the results had to be written down.
Due to the fact that child ‘compete’ with herself is making learning process enjoyable.

Also, I would like to ask your opinion on the Suzuki method - a lot of the criticisms I heard on Suzuki boiled down to two which are problems of the student with improvisation and reading fluency.
[b]
You see, when it comes to any approach in learning anything you have to know the basic rules of didactics to judge for yourself: from concrete to abstract, from simple to complicated. Average 27 month old child mostly

  1. Has some speech memory (she developed it simultaneously from parents)[/b]
    [b]2. Has some hands/fingers coordination
  2. Has ability to hear sounds
  3. Has ability to see objects, focus on medium to small objects and shift focus from one object to another.
    Suzuki method is using some, but not all listed above child’s ability:
  4. It uses speech memory by starting with Solfeggio (Do Re Mi) instead of ABC
  5. It actively develop fine motor skills of both hands in coordination
  6. It develops hearing through intensive listening , singing and memorization through listening and singing.
    The only cone of this method is a lack of eyes engagement i n the process of learning, The later version of Suzuki with color coded staff don’t fly. So, I would give this method 6-7 points out of 10.[/b]

    My initial plan for my daughter was to start her on Soft Mozart for piano and Suzuki for violin and then eventually let her make her own decision which instrument she prefers to study.
    [b]
    I don’t see any conflict between Suzuki and Soft Mozart. In fact, they pretty much could complement each other. Soft Mozart would add visual and interactive components to the learning experience. [/b]

    Will it be counter-productive to use the two different teaching methods at the same time?
    No.
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Thanks for your reply!

Do you have any plans of becoming product partners with Brillkids or offering forum members some sort of discount? :biggrin: As you can probably see from the numerous threads on teaching music, I think a lot of parents on this forum would be very interested in an innovative and effective way of teaching toddlers and children to read music and play the piano. :biggrin: :biggrin:

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Hi,
I am from India,bangalore.How I can teach my baby music lesson by soft mozart.He is 27 months old.

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Yes, we have some plans on it in closest future. Will keep you posted!

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We have a lesson plan and many videos that would assist you. Something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EixzXTn2sI&feature=player_embedded

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How well does this program work on a laptop? Also what connection does it need to interface with the piano (I’m hoping simple Midi output). I have a Yamaha DGX-630 and was wondering how it would work with Soft Mozart.

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It doesn’t make any difference - lap or desktop.
Yes, the interface is required. You may find good deal on Internet, if you need it. I am not a technical support person and can answer mostly teaching questions. :slight_smile:
You may download DEMO version of Gentle piano and Guess Key game and check (http://www.doremifasoft.com/dopr.html). If any technical questions, write to us: help@doremifasoft.com
Or call 832-746-3154 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 832-746-3154 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

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Chris asked me a question several times and several times I failed to answer it bold and clear enough. We use to say that the life is a school and here is the example. We are both creators of computerized ‘methods’ to teach music, but our communication is lengthy and wordy, because, based on both experiences, we trying to get to the bottom lines of 2 so similar from the first glance) inventions.

When Soft Mozart was already created and I have to present it to many different people, the hardest thing to do was to provide a summary.
So, when I found somewhere a phrase: to complicate is simple – to simplify is difficult, it stroke me like a lightening, We also use to say in Russian «Все гениальное просто», which means genius is simple.

Everybody had some ‘eureka’ moments in their lives. What is the most amazing – is a striking thought: ‘Gosh, how come didn’t I get it before??? It is so simple!’

I will give you a remote example about ‘eurekas’ moments in teaching that you probably didn’t know before and couldn’t find by ‘googling’ (‘till this text would be captured by searching machines). Do you know, that English Alphabet is being easier and faster learned by kids from English speaking compare to Russian? And the difference is so simple that it is not even funny! A song! Yes, ‘Alphabet song’ – all it takes to be much ahead of other languages’ carriers.

You would say; big of deal! One year earlier – one later… But you see, if to think global, human’s life is limited to certain amount of years. It takes big chunk for ‘getting the knowledge from previous generations and adopt it’ out, happy retirement out and this ‘sweet baby time’ out. How many years do we have to contribute something to the world, to create something really cool, unique and valuable?

It doesn’t mean that we all have to fiercely enforce our knowledge to a baby as soon as he peeped out to see us first time in his life and staff all of his time with lessons, but little simple but genius thing like ‘Alphabet Songs’ or ABC with pictures has to be more common.

BTW, if you have some simple yet ‘genius’ tips about music being helpful in learning different things, please, share about it!

And now I will return to the dispute between creators of Soft Mozart and Piano Wizard…

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So, let’s return to the basic question that was asked by Chris Salter:

‘What I don’t understand is how you think no other method (than Soft Mozart – HH), or even variation, could work.’

I didn’t create a ‘method’ – I built a foundation for methods to be created by others.

Yesterday I was referring to example in medicine field that you have to know everything about illnesses to be able to be a doctor. I found a better metaphor: I came up with two essential parts that can’t be beat or overwrite: I discovered ‘body temperature and how to measure it’ and ‘blood pressure’ in music learning.

What is it? You call it ‘to hit right note at the right time’ – we created the same, but added a littleextra to it - the exact measurements to collect and analyze the data.

So, from the first, elementary ‘mode’ of the Grand Staff to original sheet music (weather beginner plays it with one hand, 2 hands, with notes’ names or without, with colors or without, with focus’ support or without, with notes displayed or hidden) all the data – accuracy and timing – is measured.
When this ‘machine’ was created and I started to teach with it, the whole entire new world suddenly was opened up to me! It’s like I built a first microscope.

When you have many visual presentations of music notation from elementary to advanced, when you can give your students support for eye focus or take it away, when you can change tasks for coordination, when you EVEN change weight of piano keys – this machine always give you an accurate data and you see, how human mind is actually works in exact numbers!

So, when you write about your invention: ‘I don’t know how, but it works’, I smile. Because with ‘Soft Mozart’ I know EXACTLY how it works with precision that nobody ever offered before.

Now I know, for example, what ‘time and temperature’ has to be for a student to ‘hear’ the music flow. What numbers suppose to be to move to a next level. These measurements help to understand, what one has more developed – coordination, music ear, music memory or visual aspects.
This is why every color or shape on the screen, every visual transformation in Soft Mozart is the way it is. Simply because it is the best ‘time-temperature’ combination.

This is why many accuse us of making this software in DOS (which is not true - it is written in visual C++). We just hid the ‘windows’ and other aggravating features off the screen (but you can return them, if you go to tuning). This is why we eliminated the use of the mouse. This is why in just computer games we use computer keyboard as a predecessor of piano.

You told me a story about your father and building trucks.

I have my story from Russian tales about ‘Left handed’ (it is a character famous for his crafts).

Once left-handed came to a queen and presented a tiny sculpture of little town with people and horses and many different things.
Queen liked the present very much, but she noticed a scratch on the needle of the tower and pointed it to a ‘Left handed’ asking to ‘polish’ the nick.
‘Left-handed’ smiled and gave the queen a magnifier. She looked at the nick and was stunned to see… another tiny sculpture of little town with people and horses and many different things, but made even better than the first one placed right on the tip of the needle…

On the video 5 year old girl is learning how to pick Tonika, Subdominant and Dominant using ‘Soft Mozart’ (when I presented this feature in university of arts, students got very excited about it. Appearently, it is ‘very hard’ to develop):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq3xrN4xpMo

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Hello HH,
I have spent the last 2 days reading your new book and I can’t say I understand it all (75% probably?) as I’m definitely MUSIC ILLITERATE but my aim is to help my baby become MUSIC LITERATE amongst other things. However, I basically agree with your principle of children learning the alphabet of music, SOLFEGGIO early on and the ability to read music as one go – almost like the ability to decode at a glance as its obviously easier as a child to learn this.
Even before you got to explain this later in the book, I instantly likened it to children learning phonics as well as sight words and the logic of these words(Latin) as all these methods are necessary for most kids to develop perfect reading skills for the future.
So, my questions are

  1. So if the approach is to learn from the beginning, which I totally agree with; At what point does SOFT MOZART teach some of what the tradition music education teaches i.e. music terminology, music history and other music theory concepts…as there is a need for these as well. Or you recommend, we teach them after they learn trhu soft mozart?
  2. Also, please can you describe to me what the growth pattern of a child that started using SOFT MOZART is , particularly one that started from over 2 years old and is now older 7 or 8 years or older? Do you have students that have used the program for that long? How proficient and accomplished are they? and how have they developed and fared when they go into the school systems?
  3. Do you have a lesson plan/curriculum we as parents can ensure that the child follows i.e. 1 year plan etc?
    Thank you, and look forward to your reply.
    yimmy
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HI, Yimmi!

I have spent the last 2 days reading your new book and I can’t say I understand it all (75% probably?) as I’m definitely MUSIC ILLITERATE but my aim is to help my baby become MUSIC LITERATE amongst other things.

Thank you for reading the book. Could you, please, specify, what was out of your comprehension? I want to be simple and clear to be understood if not 100%, but at least 99 ;))

However, I basically agree with your principle of children learning the alphabet of music, SOLFEGGIO early on and the ability to read music as one go – almost like the ability to decode at a glance as its obviously easier as a child to learn this.

I am so glad that you are with me on this! For some people, SOLFEGGIO is either ‘movable do’ or empty note.

Even before you got to explain this later in the book, I instantly likened it to children learning phonics as well as sight words and the logic of these words(Latin) as all these methods are necessary for most kids to develop perfect reading skills for the future.

By singing the phonics alone with playing them kids also develop perfect pitch and ability to (at least) to carry tune.

1. So if the approach is to learn from the beginning, which I totally agree with; At what point does SOFT MOZART teach some of what the tradition music education teaches i.e. music terminology, music history and other music theory concepts...as there is a need for these as well. Or you recommend, we teach them after they learn trhu soft mozart?

Soft Mozart is not tailored to teach any terminology or music history. It just lays a foundation for beginners to explore a lot of music pieces and read them through. Once, for example, my students pass the stage of finding the right note and a right key and start to hear the music flow, they all of or sudden notice Treble or Bass Clef or alteration signs and ask mw ‘ What is it?’ If they behave well, I answer! :wink:

2. Also, please can you describe to me what the growth pattern of a child that started using SOFT MOZART is , particularly one that started from over 2 years old and is now older 7 or 8 years or older?

I would say that it is all different based on individuality and practice organization. I guarantee that one would love to read music and to perform for others, would have better self esteem and more creative mind. But will one develop desire to compose, or to participate in piano competitions, or both, or just play for oneself – it is all unique routs.

Do you have students that have used the program for that long?

I personally don’t have students, who I taught from 2 ‘till now, but plenty of them that started from 3-4.

How proficient and accomplished are they?

Well, the best result for now is not my DIRECT student, but a student of my trainee from Ukraine, who started with Soft Mozart and now still improving sight-reading with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dae_sfOme6c

But I don’t want you to set the goal to see your child on stage. It could be something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkJKTTFOjYM

or that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oDRLXjUaxc

and how have they developed and fared when they go into the school systems?

You see, Soft Mozart does not in conflict with traditional way to teach music, it just ads to it. I received a lot of feedback that my students are fared in school with outstanding results: they are really good in choir and at sight-reading.

The only problem that I had notice is that at first they have to get adjust to ABC notes’ names, because I personally teach Solfeggio. But in the program all the games and songs using both system that you can switch by pressing a key on computer keyboard, All what I recommend is to pass the same theory games with letter names. (Yes, we have plenty of ‘theory’ games, but they are not ‘theoretical’ – they build skills to know theory in making)

3. Do you have a lesson plan/curriculum we as parents can ensure that the child follows i.e. 1 year plan etc?

Yes, I have 1 year lesson plan that I usually provide upon request.

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thank you for your honestly!!! yimmy…

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I am starting to do my research on the Soft Mozart and Piano wizard sytems, so I can grasp what Hellen and Chris are on about (because it’s mostly over my non-musical head).

I thought this youtube clip gives some good insight so that I could grasp the soft Mozart idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bUeNO6U7tI&feature=related

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You are welcome!
On my you tube channel there are 85 videos: lessons, exercises, tv coverage, students. Feel free to explore

http://www.youtube.com/user/lenkaolenka?feature=mhum

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Yes, for some reason this video is getting more and more popular.
I like the another one better, because there is native speaking narrator :tongue:
Once I accidentally errased it and now it has only cople of ‘views’ - used to be several thousands… Oh, well
Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sMGHC3A2aM

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Now I am planning to give you some lessons that would help you to develop your piano technique!

I think, regardless of what instrument do you play or don’t play and what method you use, these ex-s would always add to your music experience!

I teach my students to play them from 2+ up. Here is my 3 year old Gracie playing most of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AWPULoTYDk

The First Steps of the Piano “Walk”

Playing involves the work of all of your fingers in a set sequence. The perception and consciousness should have full control over all that is needed for the muscles to play. To accomplish this, the muscles must be exercised. Provided that the exercise is simple and easily memorized, and that work on it doesn’t distract from the main goals, it is the most effective way to teach the hands and fingers to work.

The key phrase for a starting pianist is “walking along the keys.” Putting our fingers on the keys for the first time, we become year-old toddlers again, taking our first steps. The difference is, this time, we’ve got a minimum of five legs instead of two!

There is only one way to learn to walk, and that is – to walk! In this regard, exercises and songs are like prescribed strolls. An active exploration of the keyboard achieves a score of useful goals.

* 1. They develop coordination between the fingers and keys.
* 2. They train the perception to fixate on this coordination and the keys at the same time.
* 3. They allow the vision to become more familiar with the space of the keyboard. After several trips forward and back, it no longer seems as scary and mysterious.
* 4. They help to slowly memorize how the black keys are grouped in twos and threes, and how the white keys are organized in octaves and in order.
* 5. They help to apply the music alphabet to the keys.

The effectiveness of exercises doubles if stickers are used (it’s like applying a road map with the names of the keys), and if each pressed key is also voiced out in Solfeggio.

Many argue that exercises are too tedious and mechanical. Again, this is the view of more mature musicians. But at the very beginning, it’s the other way around. The task of the exercise, its predictability and repeatability, is a great starting point for the new skill of “walking.”

Plain, repetitious movement can quickly be memorized, and the attention is free to focus on the coordination of the fingers and hands. Rather than worrying about figuring out where to go and how to find out the direction, the student can move on autopilot and focus on the fingers and the sounds they make, slowly developing a feeling of balance.

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Every Toddler Can Play Hannon!

A toddler can learn to play the piano just as easily and relaxedly as he can ride on a tricycle. And what’s more, he should!

To teach my preschoolers to walk with their fingers along the keys, I picked out several of the simplest exercises. We need to cover the entire keyboard gradually and with every finger (Do Major in perpetual movement), with a little help with a stretching exercise (Hannon 1), and with the help of alteration between black and white keys (Chromatic Scale) and three keys simultaneously (Triads).

I taught children of various ages to play these exercises. The quickness with which they grasped these movements surprised me, and gradually the age group of the students I taught lowered… to two years old! It turns out that at the age of two, most kids can master the coordination of their fingers and are absolutely able to “walk along the keys” with both hands.

My selection of the aforementioned exercises isn’t coincidental. At first I only worked with the scales that were very easy to imitate and memorize, but gave a maximum freedom of coordination. Then, I checked how the children took to them and how effectively they developed their coordination. It turns out that I wasn’t mistaken. These exercises, described in more detail later, really do help kids to get familiar with the keyboard’s space, and my students ‘run along these paths’ several times a day with delight.

Once, a mother of one of my three-year-old students told me a story about her toddler. Having learned these exercises, he was so amused by them that at the moment that he noticed a set of keys, he’d move towards them as if drawn by a magnetic force. More than anything, he enjoyed ‘wandering’ along them with his little fingers. One day, finding at a music store, he moved towards the biggest grand piano in the building with purpose. He immediately started to play the chromatic scale, shifting along the seat after his hands. Onlookers fell into an indescribable rapture, but he continued to play attentively, not paying the slightest attention to the adults. He was happy: he was doing it!

The ability to do something with one’s own hands is the greatest pleasure for little kids. They’ve got the most powerful internal stimulus to learn: the delight of achievement. Playing exercises is exactly what they like best.

Here is a short write-up of the exercises that work as a support in developing technical coordination in my classes.

When I was invited on Talk show, I was given 6 year old girl ro teach her how to play in 15 minutes. First, I ‘opened’ her coordination with exercises. This is exactly what she was playing at the ‘recital’ before song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ckaCgk7To

Here is a video about how I teach an adult:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwtupuN-D24

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Stretches, or Hannon 1

I start with ‘stretches,’ the first Hannon exercise. This is like the ‘ignition key’ for the car, namely the hand. Hannon helps to cover the space of the entire keyboard, using all of the fingers in turn. It gives the perception an important lesson: the ocean of keys isn’t so wide, and it is easy to swim in it. It shows how to move around in the space in circular movements, and how stretching the fingers helps to skip across a key in order to continue moving.

Beginners first play Hannon with stiff fingers, which is natural. The main assignment of this exercise is to ‘awaken’ the mechanics of the hand and to force every finger to work independently. It implements a simple guidance in its activities: “stretch, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.” Later, when the fingers have been properly worked out, kids easily place their hands down with rounded palms and play with the tips of their fingers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP4DTUHd2ac