Dear Chris,
It is not our first argument. I praise your great enthusiasm about your invention.
First emotion I felt about this child is appreciation for Piano Wizard. My first thought was: if only one child like this had such benefit of the program, maybe, I am wrong being so harsh on you with my criticism.
But after that I hold my emotions and thought about something …
If you go to You Tube and put in search engine ANY method’s name (even the weirdest), there would always be at least one student, who became really good at it! You see, music is a language of our souls. Some kids (yes! Even retarded!) could make very impressive results with coordination and music ear.
Unlike Soft Mozart Piano Wizard hit the market big time. In fact, advertisement through Fisher Price (for example) was pretty heavy. Where the quantity of successful students around the globe? Why I can’t see it on You Tube?
Yes!
In fact, the link to the book that I posted couple of days ago here is a part of parents/teachers education.
But I would prefer to discuss it in the places dedicated to Soft Mozart. 
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, 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, 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.
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Chris, can you, please, post here actual videos from your students’ performances (pieces played/read from the beginning to the end) with or without computer? No commercial, please!
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How many piano teachers/schools are currently using your product? Did you provide any surveys about the results? Could we see it?
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Had your friend’s/teacher’s curriculum been endorsed by any music institution? is he having any articles about the system published in any professional magazine or book for educators (not commercial, but scientific)?
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Any concrete data of comparison between your method and traditional (ear development, sight-reading, music memory…)? if yes, how many educators had participated in the survey? What countries are they from? What their professional degree?
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Do you have any winners of piano competitions, who started learning with your software and ended up on big stage?
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How many educators/schools/colleges/universities from different countries are currently using your method? please, list
I would appreciate your information before I would be able to express my professional opinion on the materials about your academy. Hope, you’ll help all of us to get a better picture about Piano Wizard method.
PS
In return I would be happy to share the same information about Soft Mozart with you and people of this forum!
Sincerely,
Hellene Hiner
[i]Hellene,
First of all, thanks for the interest. Remember we took very different paths, I started learning music as an adult, and my frustration and confusion led me to develop another approach. My piano teacher, Don Beattie is a true piano wizard, and amazing teacher. I will see if he will join the forum and share some of his ideas and perspective as well, as he is the one who developed the curriculum, worked with both children and college students, etc. I developed the game, but his work gave it depth and meaning well beyond the game, and gave it a way to transition beyond the computer.
Secondly, there has always been this competitive edge to our conversations, but at heart I think music’s best aspect is cooperation and collaboration. I am not trying to prove SoftMozart wrong or inferior, in fact we share a lot of similar approaches and ideas. I find it interesting how you got to something that worked for you and your students, but my focus was not on a tool for my studio, but a game for anybody, layperson, parent or teacher to use and enjoy. That being said, your questions do not always fit our path, but I will try and give you some perspective what we did and how we did it.[/i]
- Chris, can you, please, post here actual videos from your students’ performances (pieces played/read from the beginning to the end) with or without computer? No commercial, please!
We have hours and hours of footage that was used for both the infomercial and the full on Academy lessons, but what I have access to easily is the edited videos, some of which can be found simply going to YouTube and searching for Piano Wizard or Piano Wizard Academy. At SIU where the program was developed, Don Beattie worked with a group of about 20 child students for several months, and with college level students in his regular group piano class for a couple of years, however our film crew was only there for the days of the recitals and then the filming of the actual training videos. What we found interesting and disheartening of the infomercial video was that even though those children were filmed minutes after sitting down, i.e., their first experiences or in the first few days, people assumed they were accomplished kids “acting” for the video. They are not, they are real kids being thrilled at their progress.
- How many piano teachers/schools are currently using your product? Did you provide any surveys about the results? Could we see it?
Again, our target was not to diffuse this through piano teachers, we made this so PARENTS and NON-MUSICIANS could do this on their own, and music teachers could use it as a tool AS WELL. We have sold dozens of units to piano teachers, but thousands to parents, it is the testimonials of parents that is our true measure of our success. Don Beattie was using it in his college level courses until he retired from SIU this year. Again, I will see if he will share his experiences here as well. I have attached a summary letter from a teacher of special ed on her success with kids with autism. The only other surveys we did were in the prototype phase before we developed the Academy (in fact, the surveys pointed to the need for the videos). We have presented the program at the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, the MTNA, the TMEA and more, and I always get the crossed arms and the cynicism that this can really teach, until they see it with their own eyes. We have it in a few hundred home school homes as well, where it has been embraced as a godsend in this economy. I don’t care particularly what experts say, especially those with an ax to grind, I care that children learn.That said, we have dozens of reviews and testimonials you can peruse at our website at will.
- Had your friend’s/teacher’s curriculum been endorsed by any music institution? is he having any articles about the system published in any professional magazine or book for educators (not commercial, but scientific)?
[i]We have tried to focus on solving the consumer’s problems first, not the music teachers. We so not have any white papers, but when you demonstrably can teach virtually anyone on the planet to read music and play Beethoven or Billy Joel in 10 minutes or less, these papers are somewhat silly. Did the MacIntosh show how much better its interface was than DOS with white papers, or a 60 second ad? We prefer to be direct, though we have sent the program to several professors interested in the research this is not where our efforts have been, to gather their reports, but rather to get lay people real results that they can see and feel. Does Keyboard Magazine count in your mind as a professional magazine? I attached a review of the Piano Wizard Premier as well, again they point out that it needs a full curriculum and other support to fully teach, so we created the Academy version. You seem to feel (without looking online) that we have something to prove, but we have proven it over and over, here are literally DOZENS and DOZENS of reviews, we stopped sending out products because the conclusion is there, IT WORKS. The toy version “I Can Play Piano” received the endorsement of the MTNA, and frankly it was not nearly as educational as the Academy, it had no curriculum, no videos, no sheet music, and the songs and keyboard they used were both off in key musical ways. So what does an endorsement from the MTNA mean in that case? What does the endorsement of a mother mean? A child? Depends who you are trying to please. Piano teachers are not the vanguard, they are the next wave of support, and while we welcome their interest, we are much more interested in ordinary people getting extraordinary results without the pain of traditional approaches.
http://www.pianowizard.com/piano_wizard/archive.php[/i]
- Any concrete data of comparison between your method and traditional (ear development, sight-reading, music memory…)? if yes, how many educators had participated in the survey? What countries are they from? What their professional degree?
20 songs in one week (Our guarantee is that you will learn at least 5 songs in 5 days) is not a little better than traditional methods, it is orders of magnitude better, i.e., exponentially faster, funner and deeper. Putting someone through a double blind in this case is like giving someone two sticks and doing a double blind against matches. It is patently obvious within seconds which is better. People who mastered the art of rubbing two sticks together may be annoyed but every one else is pretty much overjoyed there is another way. That is how much different the two experiences are, and I don’t care how fast you teach someone to rub sticks together and make fire, doing it with matches will beat them every time. That is the case here. In the very first video we made we asked the kids who had piano lessons to read Twinkle Twinkle from some sheet music as a contrast, but it was too cruel. They tensed up, they got lost, they got depressed, and then hung their little heads in shame, sure THEY were inadequate, when it is the traditional approach of sheet music first that failed THEM. I stopped the filming, and then let all 20 kids play the raw prototype at the time. Several got 100% the first time, no one got less than 60% and they ALL had fun. You can compare night to day with lumens, or you can open your eyes and see. It is that dramatic.
- Do you have any winners of piano competitions, who started learning with your software and ended up on big stage?
Sigh. Again, our goal is to empower the masses to learn music, not win competitions, i.e., basic music literacy not music mastery. We don’t have a studio and follow the students through their career, we sell them the tools and then hear about their progress later and anecdotally. I actually think music competition is a perversion of the art form, bringing stress to something that should be full of expression and joy. We actually have a way to turn off the scoring if kids get too obsessed with it. I have said it before, I will say it again, this is training wheels for the piano, we include about 2 years worth of curriculum with the program, and that is usually the most painful 2 years. You don’t ask Huffy how many of their bike riders went to the Tour de France, you ask how many learned to ride because they started on training wheels, and enjoyed riding a bike their whole life long. We have different goals, and so different ways to measure those goals. I am sure you will come back (competitively) with your list of these very things, but it was never our goal to win competitions or get piano teachers on board. That happened by natural attraction, not targeted pursuit and courtship. Our goal was to teach people to play and read music without the pain, and to enjoy it. We do that most excellently.
- How many educators/schools/colleges/universities from different countries are currently using your method? please, list
Again, our objective is success for end users, not teachers or institutions. We have schools that have it, but that has not been our focus, our market is PARENTS and NON-MUSIC educators. We leave off where music educators usually start, i.e., music theory. Seeing is believing, especially in person.
I would appreciate your information before I would be able to express my professional opinion on the materials about your academy. Hope, you’ll help all of us to get a better picture about Piano Wizard method.
Hellene, until you see the game and teach a child with it, it will never make sense to you, there is too much baggage in our conversation. You can compare experts, but a three year old playing Beethoven in minutes (and loving it) trumps them all in my mind. We guarantee 5 songs in 5 days, and it is an easy bet, as the kids can do that in a single day, again, loving it. We use similar principals, vertical to horizontal, I am sure your program also is far better than traditional notation, but to be honest, our game works far better than I ever dreamed it would. The kids learn by doing, kinesthetically, visually, aurally, and then learn to recognize how music notation represents music they already know how to play. There are many ways to the top of the mountain, we found one, and are glad there are other pathfinders out there as well. People need to follow what makes sense to them, and begin where they are. Your professional opinion without actually using or playing the game, without teaching someone using it, will be an armchair analysis at best. I truly believe we have a lot more in common than not, but I know words will not ever convince you, not mine, not reviews, not mother’s testimonials, not even videos. You will need to experience it to really get it, and I would love your feedback on how to improve it for the next versions, but I hope finally then you will see we are on the same team, just taking different approaches.
PS
In return I would be happy to share the same information about Soft Mozart with you and people of this forum!
Sincerely,
Hellene Hiner
The report on Piano Wizard Academy and kids with autism did not seem to upload, here it is again.
Thanks
Chris
HH and Chris,
Sorry to butt in on this ongoing conversation. May I offer my humble opinion? Maybe each of you guys can offer an uninterested third party a sample copy of your programs to use and compare (some members of this forum come to mind - DomanMom, DadDude although he may currently be too busy with his new son to do it, waterdreamer, etc) and write a comparative review of them. The review would not be a scientific comparison (not even close), but at least it would offer us parents a real life example of someone who has used both methods and it will give us some idea of the pros and cons of each method. What do you say?
First of all, thank you Chris and Hellene for keeping this conversation civil. I trust it will remain to be so, without any unnecessary confrontational language. I would also suggest keeping your comments as far as possible to your own product, and not the other party’s.
I have actually tried both products, courtesy of Hellene and Chris, so I can comment a little on both of them.
I first tried Soft Mozart about a year or more ago (soon after Hellene joined the forum), and was exploring with her to have Soft Mozart be a Product Partner. Ultimately, it did not materialize because Hellene’s online cart system does not allow coupon codes to be entered.
More recently, we have been working with Chris both as a Product Partner-to-be, as well as for him to contribute to the forum to share his vast expertise.
As for the products, I have tried both and I can see advantages in each. However, the clear choice between the two would be Piano Wizard. Here are some reasons:
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It’s much easier to install and to get set up. This is especially if you get PW with the midi keyboard, in which case you’d have to get nothing extra - you’re ready to get started when you get the package. With SM, I had to get not only a midi keyboard but also a midi interface, and getting the drivers to work. It was not easy, and this is coming from someone who used midi equipment a lot before.
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The PW software interface is much more polished than SM’s. I’m guessing that SM’s system was created during the days of DOS (pre-windows) because in many places, it shows.
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There is a lot more guidance from PW on how to use the system, in the form of video tutorials etc.
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As far as I can recall, the song library in PW is much larger.
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PW has a structured curriculum. I do not remember this to be the case with SM but I may be mistaken (if so, apologies!)
There are more, but the rest would be finer points.
All this is off the top of my head because I haven’t used either in a while, mainly because Felicity is enrolled with Yamaha piano. Having said that, Felicity did (out of the blue!) ask to play PW just the other day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember where I put the midi keyboard (we recently moved house).
Regarding the point about the use of colors, I see absolutely no problem with that personally. Both systems use stickers as a crutch. SM uses signs and symbols (colors too, actually, though in a lesser way), whereas PW uses colors. Both are a crutch. Training wheels, as Chris put it, which is a wonderful comparison. I’m all for crutches and training wheels if they make mastery easier. I certainly believe they do.
I will answer this a bit later! Promis! 
I will answer this later
Chris,
I would never do it if I won’t have deepest concern for music education and parents who read us on that forum. I asked you to provide me with simple facts: you were given me commercial pitching again.
I asked my question about music educators for an important reason: there have to be a gradual growth from intuitive to professional technique. If (as you claim) your students are learning so many pieces in minutes, you should have at least couple of great performers already (we came on market at the same time).
You don’t have any data on reading music success rate with Piano Wizard, all your promises to people are based on opinion of one-two professional musicians (I am also a professor btw!), who in some point personally related to you in the past. Sorry, we are talking about well-being of our kids here! If we give them wrong treatment, when they are ill, the consequences could be harsh, but instant, Wrong approaching in teaching could cripple their lives!
Anyway, here what I have to share with you and people on this forum about Soft Mozart.
What did make you think that we work just with educators? Our program designed for self-learners and home-scholars of any age, BUT they introduce to all aspects of professional music education from the very start. Here some videos:
This guy self- learning original version of ‘Musette’ by Bach (2nd grade of music school in Russia).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gageOYLCH2A
This girl never played piano before either. She learned Waltz-joke by Shostakovich in 3 weeks (in Russian music schools it is for 6-7 grade recital piece):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTBH6HFtkCU
Here is 3 year old girl self-learning ‘Menuet’ by Bach (Petzold) in 3 weeks (also the piece for 2-3 grade of Russian music schools)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL1hjrNCKAc
Can you show me the videos like that? When I see students performing/learning some original pieces (not adoptions) as it referred to music classes? (to be continued…)
[size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt]2. How many piano teachers/schools are currently using your product? Did you provide any surveys about the results? Could we see it?
Soft Mozart is being used in 13 different countries. We had been provided a survey among volunteer music educators. I am happy to publish it first time on the internet:
Amount of participants: 38
Countries: 13
USA 12 31.57%
UK 1 2.63%
Russia 7 18.42%
Ukraine 7 18.42%
Norway 1 2.63%
Slovakia 1 2.63%
Israel 2 5.26%
Germany 2 5.26%
Mexico 1 2.63%
Thailand 1 2.63%
Canada 1 2.63%
Costa Rica 1 2.63%
Spain 1 2.63%
Answers
Question 1 Are you teaching Soft Mozart to teach or to learn by yourself
Amount of answers 38
Teach 37
Teach and learn 1
Question 2 Did you receive ‘Soft Mozart’ training and certification?
Amount of answers 38
Yes 27 71.05%
No 11 28.94%
Question 3. Do you think, training and certification is important in teaching ‘Soft Mozart’
system?
Amount of answers 37
Yes 28 73.68%
No 2 5.26%
Don’t know 7 18.42%
Question 4. How many years have you used the program?
Amount of answers 38
Minimum – Maximum 1 - 5
Average time 2 years
Question 5. If you are a music educator, what degree do you have?
Amount of Answers 38 100%
Bachelor 12 31.57%
Master 15 39.47%
Doctorate 3 7.89%
N/a 8 21.05%
Question 6. You use Soft Mozart with the following level student
Amount of answers 56
Intermediate 20 35.71%
Beginner 34 60.71%
Advanced 2 3.57%
Question 7. How many students do you teach with Soft Mozart?
Amount of answers 34
Minimum 1
Maximum 150
Average 16
Question 8. Do you teach multiple students at the same time?
Amount of answers 29
Yes 14 48.27%
No 15 51.72%
Question 9. If the answer to Question 9 is Yes, how many?
Amount of answers 15
Minimum 2
Maximum 11
Average 4.26
Question 10. What is their age range?
Amount of answers: 33
Minimum 2 year old
Maximum 82 year old
Question 11. Did Soft Mozart help you to improve your studio?
Amount of answers 35
Yes 29 82%
No 1 2.85%
N/a 5 14.28%
Question 12. You use Soft Mozart
Amount of answers 37
all the time 6 16.21%
most of the time 19 51.35%
sometimes 12 32.43%
not at all 0
Question 13 On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the most favorable) how has Soft Mozart helped you/your children/your students improve music-reading abilities?
Amount of answers 37
Average 8.70
Question 14. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the most favorable) how do you think Soft Mozart helped you/your children/your students to develop musical ear and memory?
Amount of answers 36
Average 8.77
Question 15. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the most favorable) how do you think Soft Mozart helped you/your children/your students to develop a love for making music?
Amount of answers 36
Average 8.86
Question 16. Which method is your preferred method of teaching beginner students?
Amount of answers 44
Traditional 10 22.72%
Soft Mozart 33 75 %
Other 1 (own) 1 2.27 %
Question 17. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being most favorable) do you believe Soft Mozart can help improve public and/or private school music curriculum?
Amount of answers 36
Average 9.41
Question 18. Please rate effectiveness (10 being the most effective) of the following methods of teaching beginner students to read and play music on the piano in terms of time and proficiency.
Traditional
Answers 35
Time average 4.77
Proficiency average 5.74
Soft Mozart
Answers 35
Time average 8.97
Proficiency 9.2
Other
Answers 12
Time average 5.66
Proficiency average 5.91
Question 19. Do you think Soft Mozart motivates students to learn music literacy?
Answers 38
Yes 38
No 0
Question 20. Do you have students who have not successfully learned to play and read music with Soft Mozart?
Answers 36
Yes 4 11.11%
No 32 88.88%
Question 21. How many lessons does an average beginning student of yours usually take before he/she is ready to proficiently play at the first recital? Please indicate the estimate as it pertains to your previous experience with the traditional method as well as with Soft
Mozart.
Amount of answers 24
Traditional method average : 25. 87
Soft Mozart average: 10.45
Question 22. How did you find out about “Soft Mozart�
Amount of answers 38
Internet related answers 28
Personal recommendation 9
Book for educators 1
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- Had your friend’s/teacher’s curriculum been endorsed by any music institution? is he having any articles about the system published in any professional magazine or book for educators (not commercial, but scientific)?
Soft Mozart had been endorsed by Madrid and Moscow conservatories.
Article’ Soft Way to Mozart’ written by Hellene Hiner was published in a book for educators
Currently 1 dissertation was written in Ukraine and one is getting ready in Russia
Soft Mozart is being taught for future educators in several universities of Russia, Ukraine and Spain.
- Do you have any winners of piano competitions, who started learning with your software and ended up on big stage?
Winner of competition in Ukraine (taught by Soft Mozart trainee)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpM0QiX36wQ
Playing with orchestra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dae_sfOme6c&feature=related
Here what kind of video I wish to see from Piano Wizard that actually shows the RESULTS of teaching to read music power:
I received this videos from home school parent (Slovakia) The kid has autism. Here how is he started:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyJ03POtr80
Here he plays a song that from sheet music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTB-A3xJGAY
I really want to see this kind of videos from Piano Wizard!
And now I will answer your, why our program is not fancy packaged and aggresively promoted yet,
We invested most of our efforts in science, research and results, before to come out and make any seriouse promises to our customers. We made sure that our approach is not cousing any harm and actually teach from scratch to university level. I wrote a lot of articles and a book to discribe the invention, As you see we were pretty busy with that and I am very happy to present the result of our hard work to you.
As for technical difficulties and wrapping quality… I would say: you don’t pick food for your kid based on how appealing the wrapping of it, Do you read labels? Why the educational products should be treated differently?
And here is some references from National artist of Russia, pianist Yuri Rozum http://www.yurirozum.com/
http://www.softmozart.com/Site/discussion.php?discussion=97
Here is a letter from vice-dean of Madrid conservatory and other professionals:
http://www.softmozart.com/Site/discussion.php?discussion=89
As for written testimonies, I have so many of them in so many languages that I afraid it would be too much.
Hope, my presentation was helpful!
Regards, Hellene Hiner
Hellene,
First of all congratulations for the work you have done, and the recognition you have achieved. Few people understand like I do what sacrifice that entailed for you. As I said before, there are many ways to the top of the mountain, it looks like you found a way too! I admire you, I really do, on many levels. Your passion, your conviction, your work ethic, your research, all great. Yet somehow if I don’t match you orange for orange, you seem to feel we don’t have any fruit at all.
What you have is called third party validation. Reviews are one kind, white papers another, videos, testimonials, surveys, these are all attempts to show people that someone else other than ourselves validates this. You think a white paper in the Ukraine is validation, I think a severely retarded boy’s story is, and you know what? We are both right. We both found a better way. Is yours better than mine? Perhaps, perhaps not, perhaps it depends on the person using it, but we are both much better than traditional approaches. Is your program as good as it would be with real funding resources and more development? Probably not, your vision is probably like mine and already designing the next level and beyond. But what we have is miles ahead of what passed for piano lessons for hundreds of years. Rejoice in that, and that there are new approaches, even if they are not yours. As for harming the kids, I think we go too far there. No children were harmed in the playing of our game, in fact they were inspired and elevated, and you saw that proof yourself yet still made that silly suggestion. There is no “one” way, and we are all struggling to perfect our work every day and make it better. You saw my story of how it evolved, it is still evolving, as I am sure your thinking is. Again, we are much more pilgrims on the same path, and I think will have much more to share someday than to disparage. If you meet my friend Don, you will fall in love with him as a teacher and person. We are not the enemy, I don’t know who is, but it ain’t us!
Again, congrats on your great accomplishments. They do not diminish ours in any way, and vice versa.
Thanks
Chris
Hellene,
Do you realize that in a topic about Piano Wizard, you’ve succeeded in totally hijacking it for the purposes of promoting Soft Mozart. It is not only (in my humble opinion) unprofessional, but plain rude, not to mention totally counter-productive because you just come across very negatively. I’ve PM’d you privately about it, but I guess my words of friendly advice seem to have fallen on deaf ears, so unfortunately you’re leaving me no choice but to make my comments public.
Except it’s not just about ‘wrapping quality’.
[Edited out my very blunt comments - I took Chris’ advice.]
In a nutshell, I would recommend PW over SM to people ANY DAY, hands down. It’s not even close.
Here’s my earlier review in case it was missed through the tons of posts you made:
As for the products, I have tried both and I can see advantages in each. However, the clear choice between the two would be Piano Wizard. Here are some reasons:
It’s much easier to install and to get set up. This is especially if you get PW with the midi keyboard, in which case you’d have to get nothing extra - you’re ready to get started when you get the package. With SM, I had to get not only a midi keyboard but also a midi interface, and getting the drivers to work. It was not easy, and this is coming from someone who used midi equipment a lot before.
The PW software interface is much more polished than SM’s. I’m guessing that SM’s system was created during the days of DOS (pre-windows) because in many places, it shows.
There is a lot more guidance from PW on how to use the system, in the form of video tutorials etc.
As far as I can recall, the song library in PW is much larger.
PW has a structured curriculum. I do not remember this to be the case with SM but I may be mistaken (if so, apologies!)
There are more, but the rest would be finer points.
All this is off the top of my head because I haven’t used either in a while, mainly because Felicity is enrolled with Yamaha piano. Having said that, Felicity did (out of the blue!) ask to play PW just the other day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember where I put the midi keyboard (we recently moved house).
Hellene, if you want to talk about SM, please do it in your own thread. I also don’t think you’ll find Chris challenging SM the way you have been doing to PW, though I believe he would have many more things to say about it if he wanted to.
I hope I do not have to repeat myself.
Thank you.