My 6 children and I have been using the Little Musician software for a few months now. We absolutely love it. It is so fun and we have all learned so much. The review is pretty thorough because we had so much to say about it.
Great review! :biggrin:
What a wonderful review. I agree with all of it 
It would be great if that diaper baby could be substituted with a cool clapping cat or something for the older kids.
Interestingly although all my kids enjoy the clap along they all say it is the least useful part of the program. I think they have some good “natural” rhythm and they just don’t see the point to it. Perhaps if it was challenging them they would understand it.
I am amazed that your girls who play guitar so well with chords don’t nail all those guessing games! I had assumed they learnt guitar by ear, since they play so well together and they don’t read music. In saying that I don’t get them all right either! lol
I didn’t get them all right the first week or so but I do now. I credit my 4 semesters of aural skills as a music major. It’s tricky stuff. I hope that makes you all feel good.
I love your review, Krista! I wish my oldest (5) would get into LM as much as your older kids do. It looks like it’s a fun family activity and I loved watching them.
Solfege isn’t necessarily ear training because you can do ear training without it. Technically it’s the name for the “Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti” scale. Especially where letter names are used, the usual context for using solfege is in ear training classes. But you could do ear training with letter names and not use solfege. Likewise you can use solfege without specifically doing ear training. There is also rhythm solfege, such as calling a quarter note “ta” and eighth notes “ti-ti”, and then counting out a rhythm with it, like “ta, ta, ti-ti, ta”.
Your replies made me smile. I love the guessing part of LM, but it is tough. I keep wanting to practice more with the kids on the keyboard after a lesson, but we haven’t done that yet. Rounding them all up at the same time is hard enough. The kids always want to speed up the clapping to get it done. I did make a list of the chords that I have been pulling out when we have to guess chords. Knowing the choices makes it easier. My old brain doesn’t remember them as well as the kids. It is interesting that my son usually gets more right than anyone. Knowing that Tamsyn didn’t get them all right in the beginning offers me hope.
Krista your kids are adorable. Good review. My daughter and I love Little Musician too. She just turned 6 a few days ago. I can’t get my 10 yr old son interested in it. I flunked out of both flute and guitar lessons as a child. I have a funny story. Recently there was a huge plastic pipe zylophone at a children’s science museum. It was marked with the solfege notes. I couldn’t resist it. I was able to play “It’s Raining” by myself with very few mistakes by memory. Of course my daughter noticed my small mistakes. But I was very happy with myself and felt quite accomplished. As a child, I never felt successful during my music lessons, hated every minute, then forgot everything as soon as I quit. I can’t dance, couldn’t keep a beat, and can’t sing. Yet Little Musician is fun and effortless even for me.
So I am realizing based on these comments and other posts I have read that we moms like Little Musician as much or more than the kids do. Isn’t it great to be learning so easily? I was thinking about our sessions and with 7 of us around a little laptop that can only be turned up a bit, it is hard for us to always hear what chord was played. We usually all shout out our answers and then try to hush each other before the next chord is played. It is all very chaotic and fun.
Too bad your son isn’t interested. We walk around the house singing Do-Mi-So, Fa-La-Do. There is hope for you, Lori!! Congrats on playing the song almost perfectly. :biggrin: