I am reposting and editing some posts from other sections to summarize our position on color coding, and our logic. This is not to put down other systems, only explain our thinking, process and results.
There is a lot of talk about whether colors work in teaching or if people will be hopelessly tied to color coding and never learn to read sheet music (contradictory assertions by the way, which is it, it doesn’t work or it works too well?)
I am not going to argue about this, just post one of many videos, one that for me closes the case that anyone can both learn with the colors and then learn to transition to music notation. He is not an exception, he is the norm, even though he faced extraordinary challenges. We learn best by doing, and the game is designed to transition children from the colors to the reading. Here is one irrefutable piece of proof.
http://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Premier-Silver-M-Audio-Keyboard/product-reviews/B001ARGZEC/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
I cannot compare this to Soft Mozart, I have not used the system, she seems to have success with it, but I am pretty sure she has not used Piano Wizard Academy either. When you see Piano Wizard Academy in action, there is no more argument about whether it works or not, and the children are insisting on doing it again and again.
There is a method to our color coding madness, as there is in DoReMeFaSoft, it is different, but let me explain ours. First, color coding often restricts itself to the white keys, or diatonic scale in C major. This is obviously a dead end, as most music is not in C or does not stay there if it is. We decided to map the colors to the chromatic scale, or all 12 notes. We used white for “C” because that is a reference note for many styles of teaching. We experimented with following the color wheel at first, but the adjacent colors (red, orange, yellow, light green etc) were too similar to distinguish easily. So we tried contrasting colors, and it was a lot of work to come up with something that both worked (first priority) and was not aesthetically clashing. We finally decided to let the white keys be pastels, and fluorescent type colors, with the black keys being darker, and we distanced dark green and light green so they weren’t adjacent, same with blue and red. We used white and black and brown because we wanted colors that were not subtle that any kid could see and say. That being said, the biggest issue was to be able to map to MIDI. MIDI means Music Instrument Digital Interface, and it is a computer protocol that has been around for over 20 years, and there are hundreds of thousands of songs online in this format (we are upgrading our Wizardtunes to include tens of thousands of legal MIDI files from Hal Leonard Corp). Computers could not handle the confusing code of music notation, so they created something much more mathematical and simple to translate to computers. Then people translate the MIDI into music notation. We used this bridge technology to create a system that turns almost any song written in music notation or MIDI into a game, that would then take them back to the notation. By mapping the colors to the chromatic scale we ensured that anything from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto could be played in the game. That consideration of making this open source so people could load and learn their favorite music became our main consideration for the 12 color system. We transition the kids to fingering numbers before taking the colors away completely, so the color coding is just a step along their path to music literacy, one dropped in the last two steps of the 5 step process.
We also had to deal with two different color schemes CMYK used for print and RGB used for computer screens and other backlit sources, so our stickers are actually printed on a 10 color pantone printer, quite expensive, but it helps the kids see the colors on the screen match the ones on the keyboard. The stickers are washable and removable, so they can be put on virtually any digital or MIDI keyboard.
A little history is perhaps in order. We first developed the game, and its curriculum was just a random collection of folk, classical and pop songs. While it had the four steps, it did not have any supporting materials how to use them to move from the game to sheet music, nor did it have a step-wise set of songs to take someone gradually from zero to 60. In other words there was no smooth path or guidance. It was at this time Fisher-Price licensed the program from us for a toy version, “I Can Play Piano”. This was our first deal with a Fortune 100 company (Mattel) and we learned a lot about this process. First, they did not know music at all (in fact their keyboard was missing a key when it came out) and their arrangements were worse than ours for easy learning. As you know, music is infinitely complex and some kind of sequence needs to be laid out or people can get quickly overwhelmed. Parallel with this we of course saw those gaps, but did not want to do something half way. At that time my former piano teacher, Don Beattie, founder of the International Beethoven Society, MC of the World Piano Pedagogy Conference and 30 year professor of piano pedagogy at SIU embraced the task along with his wife Delayna, also with about 20 years experience with children, to create a solid, play tested piano curriculum to go with the game. This took him about 18 months to complete, and he worked with children every step of the way to optimize that sequence and those arrangements. He was having spectacular results from those kids, children with behavior issues were doing their homework to be able to “practice piano”, a girl with dyslexia’s reading improved to grade level, his college student helpers were changing their majors to music education based on their rich experiences, and more. He then came to Boulder Colorado to do the first every “boot camp” of a week long intensive class at our local school, a kind of summer camp for kids. The children were grouped ages 3-6 in the morning, 7-12 year olds in the afternoon, the classes were about an hour long, 4 days in a row, and then the fifth day, a Friday, they had a little recital. On that fifth day, the kids had learned up to 20 songs in a single week (Books 1 and 2 of the Academy) and were reading at the grand piano with no tears or trauma. You talk about my enthusiasm, but even I was stunned. I realized that Don had a lot more science and art behind his choices of curriculum then I had realized, and that somehow his contribution needed to be captured. We spent the next 18 months filming 50 lessons, each based on one of the first 50 songs, but gearing the video lessons toward PARENTS and NON-music educators, with extensive notes for piano teachers included. This was the creation of a much deeper product, the Piano Wizard Academy, which I don’t believe you really understand, is much deeper than the original game we designed years before. We also modified the game play, and created the sheet music, created an Academy Quickstart DVD so people could get a handle on all the was involved.
As for reviews and testimonials, I only gave you one (above), we have dozens and dozens, but that one testimonial, spontaneous words of gratitude from a mother and a video she posted online, speaks volumes for me. If you read the mother’s words, you realize that somehow this game and method reached even someone who had trouble with basic language and comprehension, couldn’t understand even toddler programs on TV like Teletubbies, but was now playing piano and reading music, with his language abilities improving as well. My point is, this dramatic example proves it will work for almost anyone. We see every day other examples, but his moved us beyond words.
I consider this system to be “training wheels” for the piano, nothing more, nothing less. A great way to get started without the normal trauma associated with learning music, and especially reading, which as you know is usually where you lose most kids, and yet is fundamental to their musical literacy. This program, the Piano Wizard Academy, is NOT the only way, the only path, the be all end all. It is a great tool, and a welcome advance, and designed for people with NO music or education experience to be able to succeed quickly and consistently. One day I would like to meet with you HH, perhaps at a conference, and we can trade notes as fellow colleagues both on the same mission, to bring music to the world, and make it a universal language, for the betterment of mankind. I know what we have, and I am sure there is great merit in what you have, as there is in Suzuki practices etc., but this is another approach, and it is WORKING. Thank God for that, and God bless everyone trying to find a better way for all.
Thanks
Chris Salter
CEO and Founder
Piano Wizard Academy
PS We are working with BrillKids to create a special package for their readers for the holidays, anyone interested in our Piano Wizard Academy system may want to wait a few weeks to take advantage of that offer, which will have discounts and bonuses as well.
