That’s a pretty big jump. I doubt there’s any research to back that up. I guess the following would be an example of a testemonial:
I was horribly scarred by using a product that took musical notation, rotated it 90 degrees to correspond with the piano keyboard and used multiple colors that corresponded with the keys.
Luckily I switched to one that did the exact same thing but only used green and brown, and it worked like a charm!
If I would suspect my ideas causing ANY damage to your child, I won’t take a penny
Wow you just do not get it do you? One of the best businessperson I ever met who made millions of dollars selling the best built houses in Winnipeg never put down his competitor. (As much as you don’t believe you have competition the fact is you do) The best way to present your product is to compliment the competitor and then say perhaps I can show you my product and if your product is THAT much better let your potential clients figure it out for themselves. No one likes being told anything. They want to make a decision for themselves.
Business is everything when it comes to education. As a parent I select products that are created by wholesome, respectful and professional companies. If the ridiculous comparison to the periodic table is being used I will say this. If Hitler had the magic program to teach my son math, music, science, reading, and promise his success in life I would not purchase it based in principal. Now I’m not comparing you to Hitler so please don’t take it that way, but what I’m saying is when I find out that a company or person is so one sided and they believe they have the only answer and refuse to act in a professional matter in any aspect of there marketing, I cannot support that because I’m setting an example for my child.
Now it seems that trying to make you see that you are committing marketing and PR suicide on this board is pointless. So I will step back and bite my tongue, but do know word of mouth can build a company and it can also take it down.
Best wishes to you HH.
I am in the process of purchasing the Piano Wizard for a small private school. I agree with waterdreamer…
Let me start off by saying that anytime something NEW and not seen before can be a challenge in it self. People do NOT like different or change, they like the NORM…
Look at how many people put down parents who are teaching their children to read, math, encyclopedic knowledge and such. I am sure MANY of you here have dealt with the NEGATIVE remarks at one time or another…
I have spent THOUSANDS of dollars on music lessons over the past 13 years and you know what there are those who spend 500.00 on a video game such as ps3 So purchasing Piano Wizard is not a WASTE in my opinion…
Does the piano wizard work ?? I do not have the answer as I have yet to use it… However I know many parents who use this website and the methods here WORK… Does it work for everyone ( i do not know) but I know it worked for us 
I am going to follow through and get this for our school even with all the NEGATIVE comments coming out of it on this site. Worse thing that can happen is that the children play an educational game… NOT so bad is it
Susan Khan
Of cause!
Otherwise Jesus Christ won’t b crucified!
He just didn’t know, how to present his ideas. How sad …
Dear Susan,
you may check if anything work by going on you tube and search for PW. If you’ll find MANY students performing and reading music with it (no commercial footage!), it works.
All the rest is a bustle
Jesus Christ??? You think your like Jesus Christ? Wow! There is no comment that can be made to that. I feel sorry for you…
HH, I am not quite sure what you mean by YOU Tube ???
I would NOT base my decision of purchasing Piano Wizard from you tube???
I actually based my decision on how I think or KNOW my OWN children learn
The children at our school will not be forced to USE the program but it will be offered to them …
By the way we choose products carefully and open minded…
One of the reasons why our MATH works and we place in the top 1% in the WORLD… Not bad for a small school of a little over 100 and in the United states … We do NOT always choose products and curriculum that is considered the NORM or that has RAVE reviews… But somehow the children LEARN…
We use many methods on this board and combined the BEST of the BEST in my opinion.
RM,
Sorry for the delay in responding, we are very busy for Christmas and I missed this. First, we are going to try and extend this offer through Christmas, depending on keyboard availability. Second, yes, it will work with your Korg. I have an 88 key Yamaha downstairs I use with mine, the game will work with keyboards from 1 to 7 octaves, and you can set the visual keyboards or actual keyboards to any of those sizes. For example, the smaller the keyboard the larger the game objects (less keys, more space per key), so you might actually only set the actual keyboard to 4 octaves if that is covering the range of the song or track you are trying to play (easily visible from the Tracks menu, which shows an 88 key range, and how the 4 octave or whatever size you selected overlaps with the range). You can then adjust the active keyboard range up or down depending if you are playing bass, melody or other parts. Hard to explain but easy to see in the demos. Short answer is YES, your Korg will work.
Thanks!
Chris
Martina,
Sorry for the delay, NO, your Casio CA-110 will NOT work, it is NOT MIDI compatible. (I had to look for the manual online to be sure). It is one of the few Casios that is not MIDI compatible, if you look for another Casio that is, it will have the words MIDI somewhere on the keyboard, it is an important feature that has a cost associated, so they will surely mention it, and you can look on the back to see if it has MIDI outlets as well.
This keyboard also required batteries or an AC adapter, which M-Audio midi controllers do not, they are USB powered. Also, sometimes these keyboards have tons of sounds and rhythms on board, and they can be a distraction or disruption to gameplay if the kids try to invoke them during the game. That being said, they can and will work if MIDI compatible.
Thanks
Chris
you said…
the Grand Staff was invented exactly 1,000 years ago by Gvido from Arezzo
I just happened to modify it and to make it interactive
I am Hellene Hiner
google…
Sure,
but in www.youtube.com there other people’s results. It could help you to make a smart desision
That is an non sequitur argument
REREAD the board. You are miss quoting. I DID NOT SAY THAT. And I don’t like the fact you are try to put words in MY mouth.
This has gone to far.
Google your name?? Why do you have to be so full of yourself and rude to everyone on this board that has a different option then you? People on here are just trying to help you, I don’t think you realize how bad you are coming off. I strongly suggest you hired a marketing team to do your PR because every message you leave, the worst the taste your leaving in everyones mouth. There are several blogging mommies on this board, when it comes down to it and we use one software over another, people are going to ask us WHY we made our decision to use product a or product b, do you want them to be referring them to this thread? Do you think this is good for your business?
In the end the customer is ALWAYS right
I did what you suggested and I found this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2u7iiv1Xq4
My response, touching, amazing, and very inspired You see sometimes just by seeing someone play Mozart does not sell for me however seeing the REAL life results is more valuable.
Tieri,
Sorry for the delay getting back to you. As for your first question, is the offer already closed, the answer is no, not yet. We are going to try and extend it through the Christmas season depending on keyboard availability. The link should still be active, here it is again.
http://forum.brillkids.com/announcements/piano-wizard-academy-offer-exclusive-to-brillkids-members!/ Let me know if there is a problem with the link, but I think it is still fine. We did add a couple of bonuses since we posted that, we will have Don and Delana Beattie both joining this forum and leading the monthly teleconference calls, so you will have two brilliant piano teachers as personal guides to maximize your children’s progress with the game. Delayna in particular has years of early child teaching experience both with and without the game, so enjoy that bonus everybody!
These other issues look familiar, I think I replied about a year ago to this customer’s comments, but I will respond here as well.
1. It doesn’t have the option to first play the song so you know what the song sounds like.
In the first hundred songs, the left and right hand parts are “doubled” in accompaniment tracks so they are playing (fainter) even if you miss the notes in the lead completely, so you can hear the song. In Premier mode you can also choose another track and let the first two tracks play as accompaniment and hear it that way. What we find however, is that the kids actually are getting 80% and up the first time they play, so they are hearing both their successful lead play and the doubled accompaniment as well. It has not really been an issue, though with traditional lessons, hearing how the song is “supposed” to sound is very common, remember this is a visual hand-eye approach and the kids actually play the very first time they see the song without having to hear or decipher music notation. In other words, they don’t have to wait and listen to learn, they learn my doing and doing right from the beginning. If they do want to preview, they can do it like suggested above, or if they want a visual preview (recommended to see where the range and notes are in a new track) they simply can hit “ESC” (escape) as they start the song, and scroll through the song to see the colors and range of the notes coming in that song ahead of time, and if they so choose, adjust or add fingering information at any point in the song. These are under the advanced options, and explained in the Academy Quickstart DVD as well as the help files included.
2. You cannot go over a selection in the song you are learning to practice just that selection.
Actually this is not true, we have a very cool couple of features, one called song looping, that just plays the same song over and over, and another that is more in line with what they are saying, is called PHRASE looping. To invoke this simply hit the Freeze menu (ESC) during gameplay, and find the phrase you want to review (there is always a more challenging section to any song or piece that could bear closer work) and simply click on the Phrase looping checkbox on the screen and two colored bands will appear next to the scroll bar. The blue is where you BEGIN the phrase (I usually give as much space before as I can) and the red band is where you END the phrase loop. Then just click Resume and you will see that phrase loop over and over. I use this if someone is playing at one tempo and can’t handle a phrase, say a trill or difficult turn, and I do a phrase loop, and lower the tempo to at least half where I was, and simply up the tempo a beat or two at a time as they master the phrase until they are at the same tempo as the rest of the piece. I also can add in or adjust fingerings here, and that often helps them get it automatic under their fingers. This is an outstanding option, and people very quickly master what normally was frustrating them, and within 5 minutes we are back on track for the full song, with the challenging phrase “mastered” as if they learned a new word and now could use it perfectly.
Not true. I do remember these comments, because I wondered if they had read a single help file or watched a single demo before posting this. (Tieri, I know you just found this and didn’t write these, I thank your for letting me repost my replies in this context). There are 2 ways to stop a song. One is ESC key, upper left corner key on most computer keyboards, and this either goes back to worlds selection in Easy Mode for kids to choose a new world or game object, and then resumes, or allows you to go back to pick an new song altogether or add another hand or change it. If you invoke this in Premier (sometimes called Advanced) mode, with the Freeze menu checked in Options (the default setting) then the screen freezes with several options above, to exit, to view options, to resume, and here is where the things like arrangements, worlds, game objects, fingerings, note names, phrase looping, etc can be set, and then you can resume the game (NOTE: Scoring is disabled for that song session so scores will always be accurate, but it is a great way to refine and practice different views, speeds and options on the fly). Besides the ESC option, both Easy Mode and Premier Mode use the “P” key to PAUSE. This does not invoke the Freeze Menu or take you back, it simply pauses the game, allowing time out to eat, explain a point, prepare for the next note, whatever the reason to pause. You can adjust the tempo in PAUSE mode with the right and left arrow keys on the computer keyboard, just as you can during gameplay.
4. It only tells you if you have hit the right key, but if you didn’t - either you missed that key, or hit the wrong key - you have no way to go back and try again as it has moved on to the next note.
Not true. Yes it tells you on the fly which keys you got right and which you missed, and keeps track of it all for the end percentage score, (which by the way is wonderful, you have instant positive feedback every time you get it right!) but you CAN simply hit ESC key, and scroll back and make another stab at it, or even set up a phrase looping (see above) and redo that section over and over until you master it.
4. The ‘notes’ keep moving across the screen, they don’t sit still giving you a chance to try to get it right.
True, with an explanation. We do not “hover” over the notes until you hit them, if we did, you are already out of rhythm anyway, so the right notes at the right time are no longer the right notes! Imagine an orchestra arranged so the players could come in with the right notes whenever they wanted! I guess we call that jazz but it is an art unto itself!. That being said, they CAN slow it down, literally to 1 beat per minute, so even the most complex music can be played slower, and they can choose which track or part to practice, which view, loop the song or phrase, map out the fingerings, etc., etc. But we also found that by NOT stopping, people jump right back on the horse and keep going, and end up with only a tiny fraction of notes missed in the end. Even Horowitz and Rubenstien missed notes in key performances, but they did not “stop and hover” until they got it right! In most piano practice, the student making a mistake stops and either has to restart or go back to an earlier phrase, but if you are playing piano for the choir, you better keep going! As far as sitting still and giving you a chance to do it right, you can simply hit “P” and pause at any moment, map out your hands, and hit “P” again to resume. It will not wait automatically if you miss, but again we don’t think that is even a great feature to have if we wanted, it stops the music and keeps you focused backwards instead of ahead to the next notes.
5. It doesn’t give you any feedback as to where you can improve or areas you need to work on."
Not exactly true. The truth is you know instantly where you miss, what they are referring to is a more detailed error report at the end, with a kind of post mortem map of your missteps. That is actually something we have thought about for a future update, but it is not currently in the game nor will be for about a year or more, if then. It is one feature we have thought about, but the truth is the instant feedback allows people to adjust so fast that they often go back and immediately go to the section they stumbled on, phrase loop it and master it before you could even evaluate a full report. Still, it is a feature we will consider for the future.
Wonderful video!
Twinergy,
Sorry for the delay replying. We don’t currently have plans to add solfege note names, though we do encourage the use of solfege in learning music. That being said, it is easier “said” than "done. There are two main schools of thought to contend with. One is the “fixed” do, where “do” is always “C”, the other is where “do” is always the first note of the major (or minor) scale, so in the key of F# “do” would be the F# and G# would be “re”, etc. This is used to give people a sense of “tonality” and key, and the way those relative notes (the 4 and 5 fore example, or the 7) are used for cadences, modulation, etc. That being said, there is also EVEN MORE ambiguity with solfege, in that sharps and flats are not clearly and systematically mapped out, in other words, it shares the limitations of music notation, in that the lines and spaces only map to the white keys. If we did support it, we would probably try and support both methods, because the proponents of the different schools can be QUITE passionate. Solfege is a study we would encourage to be used in parallel with the game, it is mostly used with singing, which we believe is very important part of music training, and we encourage throughout our coursework. Please understand this, we take a “no sacred cows” approach to learning music. If the sacred cow is useful, we use it, if not, we use something else, in spite of the cow’s fans protests. We really think a lot of these conversations are more academic and pointy headed then useful, but we try and allow for a multitude of approaches, as what works for some will not for others, or at least as well. All of these work better with a great teacher.
To give you an idea of the current ways of describing note names
A, A# (Bb), B, C (where did B# go? Its C!) C# (Db), D, etc.(Chromatic scale, including all white and all black keys)
Or a "fixed do for Chromatic scale (5 variations at least, go the the table in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfège#Fixed_do_solf.C3.A8ge)
Do (C), di (C#) (or ra if read as Db, its equivalent, being that “C#” and “Db” are the SAME PIANO NOTE) re (D), ri (D#, or ma if read as Eb), mi (E) (Does your head hurt yet? If not go to the table in the link above and try and teach that to your children)
Or the 12 notes of the chromatic scale are simply numbered 1-12 (13 including the octave).
1 (C), 2 (C# or Db), 3 (D), 4 (D# or Eb), 5 (E), 6 (F), 7 (F# or Gb) 8 (G), 9 (G# or Ab), 10 (A) 11 (A# or Bb), 12 (B) and 13 (C again, but at the octave)
(This method seems the most straight forward, but it interferes with fingering numbers if used for the piano, which was one of the reasons we used colors to map to it. We liked the logic of one to one mapping, i.e., a single color or number per piano key, but the use of fingering numbers for piano is so much more important and would be another source of ambiguity instead of clarity)
Or simply count the relative notes of the major scale you are in, which only uses 7 notes, (8 with the repeat of 1 at the octave)
1, 2 , 3 , 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (1) (Major scale only 1 being the “tonic” or starting note of that key)
Or
Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti (or si in Latin countries) do (octave) (Major scale only, do being the “tonic” or starting note of that key)
OK, confused yet? We thought so too, and while all of these have their reasonings, they are NO PLACE TO START, anymore than starting with grammar to teach a child to speak would render any good. Later they are useful ways to think about a living language, but they are not the creators or origin of that living language, any more than these ways of describing music are the originators of music. They SHAPE musical perceptions, and can limit them, but they are not “primary”, they are secondary, like speech is primary and written representations of speech and grammar are secondary. Do they have a place in music education? Yes, they have served us in some ways for centuries, but we need to understand the scope of their usefulness and not take a “religious” or fanatical approach to any one of them. (Did you know that in the Gregorian chant era certain intervals (half steps, tritones, seventh notes) were considered evil because they were “dissonant”. And that Bach was one of the FIRST to use his thumb “the devil’s digit” for the keyboard playing, saying something like, “God gave it to me, I will use it for his greater glory.”)
So, we decided to use COLORS as the training wheels, but in such a way that it could MAP to the CHROMATIC SCALE, one to one, so there could be no confusion or need to explain musical theory for them to hit the right note. THEN we transition them to note names, fingerings, and finally to traditional music notation, but allowing them time to absorb those “codes” in stages, AFTER mastering the music.
So, a long response to a simple question, but solfege was omitted at this stage of the game development for the reasons above, but it can be used in parallel with the game, and we have no official opinion whether to use fixed or movable do, though Don and Delayna tend to use movable do in their class work, as well as Kodaly hand signals, but that is a bit challenging for a parent to master in conjunction with solfege without live feedback and training. Still, perhaps that is a worthy supplement to our videos if parents would like some guidance.
Hope that helps!
Thanks
Chris
One reason Piano Wizard Academy does not support solfege in the game at this time. (we do use the colors in singing as a kind of easy fixed do solfege)
Chart from Wikipedia article on fixed do systems of solfege
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfège#Fixed_do_solf.C3.A8ge
Note name Syllable Pitch class English Romance Traditional [15] 5 sharps / 5 flats ][19] Hullah [20] Shearer [21] Siler [22] Sotorrio
C Do do – duf daw du (pe) 10
C♠Do♠– du de do (tsi) 11
C Do do do do da do 0
C♯ Do♯ di da di de ga 1
C Do – das dai di (re) 2
D Re re – raf raw ru (do) 0
Dâ™ Reâ™ ra ra ra ro ga 1
D Re re re re ra Re 2
D♯ Re♯ ri ri ri re nu 3
D Re – ris rai ri (mi) 4
E Mi mi – mef maw mu (re) 2
Eâ™ Miâ™ me me me mo nu 3
E Mi mi mi mi ma mi 4
E♯ Mi♯ – mis mai me (fa) 5
E Mi – mish – mi (jur) 6
F Fa fa – fof faw fu (nu) 3
F♠Fa♠– fo fe fo (mi) 4
F Fa fa fa fa fa Fa 5
F♯ Fa♯ fi fe fi fe jur 6
F Fa – fes fai fi (sol) 7
G Sol sol – sulf saw su (fa) 5
Gâ™ Solâ™ se sul se so jur 6
G Sol sol sol so sa sol 7
G♯ Sol♯ si sal si se ki 8
G Sol – sals sai si (la) 9
A La la – lof law lu (sol) 7
Aâ™ Laâ™ le lo le lo ki 8
A La la la la la la 9
A♯ La♯ li le li le pe 10
A La – les lai li (tsi) 11
B Si si – sef taw tu (la) 9
Bâ™ Siâ™ te se te to pe 10
B Si ti si ti ta tsi 11
B♯ Si♯ – sis tai te (do) 0
B Si – sish – ti (ga) 1
A dash (“–”) means that the source(s) did not specify a syllable.
You have no idea what solfeggio is and how to teach it… You even didn’t find time to read my article published by Moscow conservatory that I sent to you. How sad…Hope it would end soon: Dark Ages in music education…