soft way to mozart... experience tips?

Early Learning Teaching Your Child Music
1

hey, i’m just wondering if anyone who has used soft way to mozart has any tips to starting out. my dd is 2 and loves playing the games (for what she can grasp). i’m not sure if i should start by just scaffolding and then break into the lesson plan (found on the forum) or if there is another way someone has found successful.
anyone have direction?

thanks,
octavia

2

anyone?

3

Have you looked at piano wizzard? It’s approach is very similar to SM at a fraction of the cost. I got it for my 2.5 year old twins, but am finding they are more interested in picking stickers off the keys and unpluging cords. I am putting it away for a few more months, and will probably bring it out again next October or November when the weather turns rainy. I am discussing my experience in this thread.

ETA
Piano Wizard link to video about

4

Look for both programs on youtube and compare students
Good luck!

5

http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-music/hi-guys!-i-am-back-with-a-new-book!-you-can-be-a-musician-a-defense-of-music/15/

6

dear HH
i was fascinated with soft way to Mozart from the moment i read about it and saw the utube clips you posted . i recommended it ot a very dear friend living in the states who homeschool her little ones . she ordered it immediately but the last time i heard from her she was very disappointed. i have been trying since than to contact you but never got a reply . she couldn’t get to run it on window seven and the support on the website she ordered from were not very helpful,i really feel bad that my friend spend a lot and is not able to really enjoy the program . it also took me months trying to decide what keyboard to buy in order to use your program and again i asked but didn’t get the help i needed .
is there a way to help my friend .
i am still waiting for my keyboard to arrive and cannot wait to start learning with your software .
blessings
viv

7

THE BEST WAY IS TO CALL
832 746 31 54
valeri
he is tha guy who will help you

8

Hi Hellene,

I am really glad to see that you have a contact person available and a system in place for handling tech issues. After reading your book and spending the better part of the last 2 weeks doing “research” - reading through several piano teaching forums and music teaching forums online that were discussing and reviewing the various methods (traditional, suzuki, soft mozart, piano wizard, etc.) - I am leaning heavily towards Soft Mozart as the best introductory program for teaching piano to my toddler. The only two issues that were bothering me were

  1. the availability of tech support and the quality of after-sales customer service and 2) the relatively smaller library of available songs for download.

Although I am barely musically literate (as per your definition of music literacy) and I don’t have any background whatsoever on music pedagogy, a lot of things that you explained in your book made sense to me. I was reminded of the time when I first encountered Doman’s philosophy and was reading his books, I was also NOT a reading teacher and had zero experience in teaching children to read. But Doman’s (and Dr. Titzer’s) theories just made sense to me. They also had their share of detractors (mainly those who were teaching reading using the “traditional = accepted” method) and they also did not have scientifically conducted long term studies to back up their theories. I found that those were also the two main things people kept harping about in the forums when criticizing SM. On the other hand, I did find some very honest and useful reviews from long-time piano teachers who have been teaching by traditional piano methods who then subsequently switched to using SM - and those were the reviews that influenced my decision the most. Anyway, I think I have the answers to most of the questions I have after reading through the other forums. There are just a few more that I hope you can answer:

  1. When working with a 27-month-old, what is the recommended teaching schedule? Of course, I understand that every child is different and to always follow the child so that learning is fun, but I just want to know if you have a suggested schedule to use as a guide. I will be teaching her myself initially so I would like to know what the time commitment is like.

  2. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am planning to eventually have her take piano lessons, preferably from an SM-trained teacher, but if I can’t find one, will she have difficulty going into a traditional piano method? How long can she learn piano using SM before she needs personal instruction by a piano teacher?

  3. When teaching young kids, how long do they usually take before they are able to transition to reading normal sheet music? How about adults who are learning piano for the first time?

Thanks for reading this long post! :smiley:

9
I am really glad to see that you have a contact person available and a system in place for handling tech issues.
Yes, we handle technical issues by emails or phone calls.
After reading your book and spending the better part of the last 2 weeks doing "research" - reading through several piano teaching forums and music teaching forums online that were discussing and reviewing the various methods (traditional, suzuki, soft mozart, piano wizard, etc.) - I am leaning heavily towards Soft Mozart as the best introductory program for teaching piano to my toddler.
I am glad that you had been conducting such a research! Education is our power!
The only two issues that were bothering me were 1) the availability of tech support and the quality of after-sales customer service and
Well, we are a small company. It means, we don’t have 24/7 support, BUT we treat our customers like family and friends. I am personally always reachable for teaching advice and Valeri is very helpful in technical support. We maintain the relationship with our clients for years,
2) the relatively smaller library of available songs for download.
Well, the purpose of the Soft Mozart system is not a ‘fish’, but a ‘net to get it’. We teach students to read music. Of cause, the library is going to be extending, but we’ll always keep the ultimate goal in mind.
Although I am barely musically literate (as per your definition of music literacy) and I don't have any background whatsoever on music pedagogy, a lot of things that you explained in your book made sense to me. I was reminded of the time when I first encountered Doman's philosophy and was reading his books, I was also NOT a reading teacher and had zero experience in teaching children to read. But Doman's (and Dr. Titzer's) theories just made sense to me. They also had their share of detractors (mainly those who were teaching reading using the "traditional = accepted" method) and they also did not have scientifically conducted long term studies to back up their theories. I found that those were also the two main things people kept harping about in the forums when criticizing SM.
I believe that all the effective methods in different fields look different on surface, but they all… the same using nothing else, but common sense! ;)
On the other hand, I did find some very honest and useful reviews from long-time piano teachers who have been teaching by traditional piano methods who then subsequently switched to using SM - and those were the reviews that influenced my decision the most. Anyway, I think I have the answers to most of the questions I have after reading through the other forums. There are just a few more that I hope you can answer:
  1. When working with a 27-month-old, what is the recommended teaching schedule? Of course, I understand that every child is different and to always follow the child so that learning is fun, but I just want to know if you have a suggested schedule to use as a guide. I will be teaching her myself initially so I would like to know what the time commitment is like.

If you familiar with Maria Montessori approach, it would be a right way to explain my philosophy of teaching kid at home. We have to surround your child with materials and let him/her browse through it whenever interest occurs. BUT, once a day it should be ‘lesson time’! When I have students that young, I use many games from the system and we play them 1-2 minutes to switch for another one. I will email a year lesson plan to you – it would give you an idea, what is the best way to juggle them. As soon as the child is being introduced to all the games, the algorithms will take care of the rest. Child will compete just with oneself and your role in a process to monitor results and to reward.
2) As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am planning to eventually have her take piano lessons, preferably from an SM-trained teacher, but if I can't find one, will she have difficulty going into a traditional piano method? How long can she learn piano using SM before she needs personal instruction by a piano teacher?
As you probably had read already, Soft Mozart IS a traditional method. It is not in any conflict with any conventional approaches, Therefore, our students are not having any problems with any other teachers. You also may recommend your piano teacher in the area to contact me for training. It doesn’t take long, it is not costly and it is pretty beneficial for teacher’s career. Certificate is getting issued upon some test results. How long? It is very interesting question. Soft Mozart is being used even in university level for sight-reading improvement and ear training.
3) When teaching young kids, how long do they usually take before they are able to transition to reading normal sheet music? How about adults who are learning piano for the first time?
It is very individual! I have some 3-4 year old kids who reads original notation in couple of months and I have adults who struggle with elementary notation for a long time. My personal observation is – it depends of coordination and fine motor skills, but I don’t have any research on that. Here is a video of a girl from Madrid. She is not my student, but student of my trainee, a pianist performer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjuJEIfR2XA
Thanks for reading this long post!
Thank you for writing it! I love to deal with people like you, who care and learn. Feel free to contact me any time!
10

Hi Hellene,

I received 4 sets of piano key stickers with my SM package - pictures only, note names only, pictures with fingerings, and note names with fingerings. Which one should I use first on my keyboard? My daughter has just started week 1 of your curriculum. How do I know when to change the stickers?

Thanks!

11

did you get the story book mentioned in the lesson plan ??
wish they would make it a pdf file to buy online since it is easy to print out with all the pictures balck and white . cannot wait to start my lessons . but i like to accompany my lessons with the story as recommended .
love
viv

12

hi viv,

yes i did get the storybook as well as the flashcards. i have not started the storybook yet. because of ella’s age and attention span, i have only been able to do 3 sections (out of 5) of the first week’s curriculum - music theory (learning the solfegge names and putting the flashcards in order), five fingers exercise, and gentle piano (listening to “hot cross buns” and playing with the right hand).

i did figure out which stickers to use - the instructions were in the manual which i had missed the first time i read it. :blush:

13
14

RM, I guess I should have been more specific, but things have changed quite a bit since the post you are quoting. I purchased PW Premier, just the game but no videos or bonuses, for less than $75 including shipping. Now I get the impression that PW is phasing out that option; at least I don’t see it on their web site anymore. But I can still find it on Google Shopping for a little more than I paid almost a year ago.

15

aangeles, if you have already started with the soft way to mozart program, can you share your first impressions. I am thinking of buying it for myself. So would love to hear some opinions.

16

I hope, this links would be helpful:

How to: Learn Duration of Music Notes with Soft Mozart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCowCy5t71g

How to: Identify the Piano Keys with Soft Mozart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLyN0OuYpIc

How to: Learn Order of the Piano Keys and Music Notes in Conjunction with Soft Mozart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io1eZ03j-TY

How to: Read Music By Distinguishing Lines And Spaces with Soft Mozart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGTFUxB5ZmE

How to: Read Music Notes on Grand Staff with Soft Mozart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNJMnC0tsQ8

The entire channel is here; http://www.youtube.com/user/lenkaolenka?feature=mhum

17

Here is the videos about how to work with the core of the system - with Gentle piano.

You may download free demo of Ode to Joy here: http://www.doremifasoft.com/sotoreplandm.html

Print out the piano keys (attached to this post) inlarged (to be like piano guides).

Connect your piano and computer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMiUk0Um2GA

Tune the program to have the best quality of the sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d--w2BR-taU

You are ready to go.

18

Now let’s see what we can do with just one song:

Learning to play with RIGHT HAND
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1qwmu0EITo

Learning to play LEFT HAND
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5a6AWstupk

Learning correct fingers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyhpb4PGNJI

Learning to play with 2 hands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N6hHDtfnmE

Selecting and cutting a section of the song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2V58q6-I_0

Memorizing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wunbGynLO7I

19

Here all the free materials we placed recently in our Free Music school section.

We are planning to place there more free songs for those who still hazitant

http://www.doremifasoft.com/frmusc.html

20

How to get Free copy of Deluxe version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewlp2aeyddo

Good luck!