As ear training goes, most days of the week we played the LMs “Start Here” folder as a lesson first and then the kids took turns picking nursery rhymes which we sang together. That’s it.
Oh, and we bought a keyboard a couple of months into using LMs so Lily would play as well as sing since she had memorized so many songs in solfege. She struggled with visually differentiating notes on the keyboard at first, so I assigned each note a different color. After much, much time spent researching, I decided on the Roy G. Biv color scheme, which is also used by Trebellina, Your Child Can Discover, and Curwen. She LOVED having colored notes on the piano and spends so much time playing just for fun many times a day. At some point, we will take them off, she can identify the keys when asked or when filling in a coloring page. However, she is so young, it still helps her at this point so I am no rush to take them off and Owen benefits from them as well. Also, I put a line through middle C and then a dot on the rest of the notes in the Treble Clef. Initially, when I had planned to do more ear training using the keyboard, I was going to train on the Treble Clef first so I marked them. It turned out I didn’t need to do that in the end.
I was just looking for some of the “coloring pages” online we used to teach the colors and stumbled upon this now, these flashcards are kind of cool. Overall, it just took a week or two to teach them the assigned colors.
http://www.musicmindgames.com/files/doremi1.jpg
http://www.musicmindgames.com/DoReMi
I printed this picture in color as a key and in greyscale. I taught the kids to color the notes/hand signs their assigned color. http://patapscochorus.hcpss.wikispaces.net/Chorus+Handouts
http://patapscochorus.hcpss.wikispaces.net/file/view/Picture_3.png/173693523/531x484/Picture_3.png
I also printed a blank treble clef staff to practice making notes in the correct colors. We did some on paper and then I slipped it in a plastic sleeve to reuse multiple times with dry erase markers. We also printed off images similar to this in color and in grey scale.
http://www.thescienceofpersonaldress.com/images/intro8-music.newnotes.jpg
We also practiced coloring piano keys.
http://www.get-piano-lessons.com/images/12note.colors.jpg
http://www.wpclipart.com/music/instruments/piano/piano_keys.png
http://www.wpclipart.com/music/instruments/piano/piano_keys.png.html
You can also assign colors to the fingers to encourage using all of the fingers in the beginning. It helped encourage her to use her “so pinky” or her “do thumb” versus hunting and pecking with her index finger. She does both now, but more so uses all her fingers and does not get caught up in the assigned finger/color scheme. In the beginning, it was very helpful tho. I drew on her fingers too to make it fun, similar to this program.
http://lapreschoolpiano.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/img_2390-small.jpg
http://lapreschoolpiano.wordpress.com/necessary-materials/
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v475/seaturtles/hands.jpg
http://lrn2play.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html
I colored office supply stickers with markers and put them on the keyboard. I used a glossy scotch tape to make a long strip that covered the length of the keyboard. Then I took a knife/razor and separated the keys, it was far easier than trying to apply tape to each individual key. I had to take these on and off on a few occasions and used goo-gone and they easily wiped clean. I removed the circles to put on Soft Way to Mozart/Gentle Piano pictures. When I noticed is that she didn’t play nearly as much and was not close to as responsive to the pictures as she was to the colors during free play. So I put the colored circles back on and then took a different approach by incorporating the colors and pictures together, leaving the colors on the keys and using a Soft Mozart key guide behind the keys. Later, I cut and taped the SM pictures right to the keyboard above the keys which has worked well. I had also tried to put the SM pictures and the Rainbow colors both on the keys at one point, one above the other, and it was a visual nightmare that I do not recommend. We began using SM around a week within discovering her PP.
Just a note about the We Hear and Play system which I semi-referenced in the link above (which is a school in CA that teaches PP in person, the gentleman that runs this is super knowledgable and uses lots of active games to spice up the WHaP curriculum). I looked into purchasing the full WHaP kit (balls, textbook, and sheet music books) at one point because I agreed with some of their methods but in the end only bought the textbook (which I still have not finished! Lily showed her knowledge before I started it so I didn’t bother reading it for a while). However, the WHaP balls are overpriced and I could not justify the cost when ideally you need multiple sets. I also did not like their color scheme. It looks unnatural to me and after very careful research I went with Roy G. Biv, it’s also the closest thing to an “industry standard” as possible although there are so many variations on this. LMs uses/used the Roy G. Biv color scheme as well, at least it used to in version 1. Version 2 does not all you to change the key color settings at the moment. The other thing about WHaP is that their primary method of instruction is pretty dull. I began reading their book about a week or two before I learned Lily had PP. They warn against confusing a child by introducing notes too early but there was no issue for us, I think their methods are a bit outdated and it was disheartening that there are not any success stories posted on the WHaP message forum.
This video footage shown was about the 2nd or 3rd time we played the “ball game” but it can be used for training, not just testing like I did.
I purchased the colored balls at Walmart, 100 for $10. http://www.walmart.com/ip/100-Balls-in-a-Mesh-Net-Bag/11084125?findingMethod=rr HOWEVER, since then I have looked for some for a friend and the colors were pastel and did not include all 7. Look inside the bag and ensure all of the colors are represented before purchasing. Amazon carries this brand too, but you wouldn’t be able to see all of the colors before purchasing. http://www.amazon.com/Moose-Mountain-100-balls-mesh/dp/B0013A4T1W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331777223&sr=8-1
I have also seen bags with all 7 colors at Toys R Us by a different brand, I THINK this was the brand, again, I would check which colors are included before purchasing. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2267575
Lastly, I am attaching a picture of how I incorporated SM pictures with LMs, I know many people here will likely end up using both programs.
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/6332/dsc01070bb.jpg
http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/8175/solfegefloorchart.jpg
It’s a beautiful way to start the day and they absolutely ADORE Little Musician!
of solfege symbols. I wonder if I will get away with that here or if hubby will have a spack? Thanks again always an inspiration