Hey Guys,
I’vve been humming and haaaing about getting Kinderbach to teach my son piano.
I bought him a small keyboard at a garage sale this weekend and today he was sitting there repeating things he heard from Tweedlewinks " This is c sharp, this is a full note, this is a half note…" Now weather or not he had the right key is over my head as I dont know anything about the subject. But he is obviously interest so I would love to foster this interest.
So does anyone have these DVDs, if so are they worth it. Or is there anything else I should be looking at. Right now actual music lessons are not an option for us as our schedule is all over the place.
Side note. I would love to know what else from those Tweedlewinks he’s absorbing. He watchs 1-4 lessons a day and seems to never get enough, we’ve been using them for about 3 months now.
My grandson also likes the keyboard. He used to watch Trebellina when little and maybe it help for him singing very nice.
waterdreamer:
WOW! that is AMAZING!!! i’m a professional conductor/composer and the fact that he is repeating the stuff from TW is a testament to how fabulous that program is. i do have a few questions for you:
- when he repeats the notes, does he play them on the piano and THEN sing? or does he sing the correct pitch and THEN play the note?
- is there any other music going on in the house?
this is my suggestion… you can take it or leave it.
if you go onto itunes or an mp3 site, search for pieces with the key in the title. for example, type in F major or minor (the name of the note, any note you remember from TW… i don’t know how far along you are) and then either the word major or minor but NOT TOGETHER. TONS of music will come up. if he is focusing on a specific note, than play music with that note in the key. for example, if he is liking ‘F’, then play Beethoven symphony #6 in F. get it? it will reinforce the pitch, which is exactly what TW is trying to do.
i would foster this like crazy… i would also explore those piano lessons that are on you tube. i found the video on this forum. she was great at showing the non musical parent how to teach the piano and read music.
also, if you are so inclined, i would do 2 things:
- get some flash cards of notes in MULTIPLE CLEFS. there are 7 clefs in music. most people only use 2 but it is good to know at least 4. i would start flashing treble (TW) bass cleff, alto clef and tenor clef. you can find them by doing a web search… i think the site is called music time. if people are interested i’ll put some up on this forum.
- when your son is naming notes like F, G, C, etc. say to him “F is also Fa” and “C is also do”. i wrote this out on another post, do a search for my postings and you will see it. in my opinion this is very important. this is called FIXED DO and every music student all over the world knows this system except for the states, which does movable do, numbers, the list goes on. the thing is, once they get past a certain point they have to learn fixed do anyway, so just learn it now. if your son knows this system they will NEVER be asked to learn movable as they will be put into a perfect pitch class that only uses fixed do. i believe with all my heart that fixed do early fosters great pitch. i’m sure there will be people on this site who strongly disagree, but i have been all over the world and the best musicians ALL used fixed do. it is the only way to go to teach music properly.
i’m also sure that there are some who will disagree about learning several clefs simultaneously. i believe this skill sets apart the “men from the boys” so to speak. when you son is ready to start taking lessons, you must find a teacher who can read at least 4 clefs. it will be a pain b/c a lot of people call themselves music teachers and barely made it through a music class and are into teaching for the $$. stay away from these people… you want the real deal if you are going to invest in lessons.
granted, all of this is just my opinion, but it is what i’m doing with my little one. i also think you must decide what you want for your child: do you want him to fool around with it until he’s about 8 still playing simple songs and forcing him to practice and giving up OR do you want him to give him the gift of being able to sit down and sightread something when he is 20? i’m not talking about being a concert pianist, i’m talking about giving him the fundamentals now that will stay with him so he can learn any type of music that interests him: jazz, pop, classical, whatever. learning fixed do as well as clefs will really hone his ear and make it so when he does start there will be no barrier to his learning and the sky will be the limit.
may children stop playing an instrument b/c trying to coordinate the hands with looking and struggling to read music is just too frustrating and playing very simple songs is not fun. if you do what i suggest, i believe when they finally do sit down to play a piece of music, they won’t have to think about about reading the music, it will come automatically, thus any barrier is going and they just get to concentrate on playing and having fun.
sorry for the rant, hope my 2¢ helps.
the doc :clown:
ps: you need to know that i have attended conservatories my whole life and i have a classical bend to my opinion, FYI.
Thank-you so very much for all your great information! Please “rant” about this anyday because all this imformation is so valuable to people like me that are musically challenged. I’m going to sit down this weekend and do some research on everything you just said and see how I can put it together for my son. I may PM you for advice if thats ok.
To answer your questions
- He is not singing the notes. Basically he sounds like the tweedlewinks video, first he announces “This is C sharp,” and hits the key(like I said I’m not sure if it is correct, but I’m guessing him practicing is the way he is going to figure out if that sounds like what he has learned, so I don’t interfer because I really dont know. But It sounds like I’m going to have to learn LOL. Then he says " this is half a note" and plays, then this is a quarter note, and goes alittle faster.
2)I play Classical Magic Themes to Remember Vol 1 every day for him. And we also listen to the Signing Times Music cds. I hoping to get my hands on Beethovens Wig and Themes to Remember Vol 2 soon too. And basically he messes around with a little keyboard I bought him at a garage sale. He does know about Bach and Vivaldi. We did a play group Fun with music 2’s and 3’s, and Music for Young Children from the time he was 2.5 till about 4.5, but cost and time became an issue, plus he was at the point where he was done the class and was suppose to move on to piano, but I didn’t feel he was ready to work one on one with the teacher.
Thank-you so much for your advice and I will be searching that other post you mentioned!!
great! i would have him sing the note before he plays it. let him announce it, then ask him to sing and see if he is right by playing it. make it a game. do that first, then introduce the flashcards to give yourself time to do the research. just don’t let him stop!
feel free to PM me anytime. i’m also in the process of developing a music program much like the one i’ve been describing. should be ready in a few months. would you be interested in being a guinea pig? if so let me know. in the mean time i’ll be happy to help in any way i can.
from today on, before he plays the note on the piano, MAKE HIM SING IT! you will be happy you did!
good luck and let us know of your progress!
the doc :clown:
Ok sounds good. I’ll do that!!
We’d be more then happy to be you test subjects!!
We shared the free report on “Is Music a Birthright?”(http://www.brillkids.com/ext/partners/ebook-free-download-2.php) that gives some perspective the challenges of learning music, and their roots, some of which was brought out in our discussions. SoftMozart has some similar, more in depth articles on the origins and challenges of traditional music notation as well, the summary of which you can see in this thread
What I also added, in a different section, to try and give some perspective of the range of approaches and choices, is a series of posts about the four common approaches to learning piano (up to now). I believe that our methods, both Hellene of SoftMozart and Piano Wizard Academy, begin to shape a “fifth way”. What is important to appreciate is they were both developed in response to something that was not really working, in the context of the limitations of the other approaches, trying to compensate for those gaps and yet leverage their strengths. Though each method has its advocates and champions, including Hellene and I for our own, and those advocates can be as we have seen quite passionate and compelling, NONE OF THESE APPROACHES IS PERFECT. We do strive to honestly “perfect” our process every day, with more and more knowledge, and this forum has been I think very fruitful in its exploration of the options. Here is my latest contribution to that conversation.
I don’t know how many parents are following all this, but I can tell you if you are, you are now MUCH more knowledgeable about both the challenges of music education, and the pallet of options available, and I hope it helps you all find your own unique solution to your children’s needs, and leads to a less dogmatic, more practical, efficient and fun way to bring music into their lives.