Jed’s Story
The continuing story of Jed.
Jed is a severely retarded (his mother’s words) 10 year old boy whose mother has shared his Piano Wizard Academy experience with us over the last 2 years. Her son’s language abilities and IQ at 8 years old were about that of a 2 year old when he began working with the game, according to his mother. She comments later how much his comprehension and language abilities improved, and wonders whether Piano Wizard Academy helped make that so. To see that kind of improvement and development well after the normal window of language acquisition has passed is probably a great testimonial to the power of learning to play the piano and how it stimulates the development of the brain. We are only at the beginning of understanding how Piano Wizard Academy could universalize the benefits of music and music therapy for special needs populations, as you will see below.
(NOTE: Terms like “Mental Retardation”, “MR”, or or “mentally retarded” are sometimes considered old-fashioned, even hurtful because of abuse and distortion of the terms, but they are the scientific terms that the mother uses without shame. She is not a native speaker of English, so this nuance may not have occurred to her, but like her, we mean nothing derogatory at all using these terms, and hope no offense is taken. We have sometimes substituted more common terms like “special needs” or “mentally challenged” to avoid sounding too harsh or offending anyone inadvertently.)
May first posted this review and video of her son that she had previously posted on Amazon.com, but we did not see it for almost a year.
[i]Excellent teaching tool for my retarded child, September 11, 2008
My 7 year old is severely retarded, with an IQ of about a 2 year old. Three weeks ago, my mother suggested I teach him to play the piano because she watched on TV some special needs kid who can’t do much else but was gifted at the piano. So I looked for piano software and found Piano Wizard, hoping that it will work for him.
I highly recommend this software to anybody wanting to learn the piano, especially kids. The Wizard has just a bunch of songs, from easy to hard, that you can choose to learn. My son likes the song Twinkle and can somewhat sing it, so I started him with that. The normal tempo for the song is 86. I cranked it all the way down to 10 so that the notes were coming at a snail’s pace, and then I pushed his finger down to strike each note and told him to hit the right color note like the one on the screen. He is able to distinguish colors. After a few minutes, he got it! He was playing only with the right hand, but he got it! That was so exciting for me.
A few days later I added the left hand successfully, then I slowly cranked up the tempo. I didn’t think he would ever make it playing at normal speed, but anything he can do is good, he can do so little! His reflexes are not great, and I can soon see that he isn’t just one of those mentally challenged persons who is gifted at the piano. But, after two weeks of working with Twinkle, he can now play it at the normal tempo and 100 percent correct! He is merely playing one note at a time, but the Wizards offers an accompaniment option that plays really cool background matching music that makes it a lot more fun. So, my son is sounding pretty good now. ------
Then I started him on a second song called Big Ben about 4 days ago, and in it, he has to strike two keys with two fingers simultaneously, twelve times, to simulate the clock chime. Well, he learned the notes, but he just couldn’t get the two fingers to work together. It got to the point that when he gets to the part, I would push his two fingers down together to show him, then he can do the other eleven times by himself. But then, when the song starts again, I have to show him again. Yet, after three days of this, he suddenly got it yesterday!
I have my son practice an hour a day. He seems thrilled at the sense of accomplishment. He could not have learned it the normal way, given his language problems, so the Piano Wizard definitely enabled him to do something he couldn’t otherwise. It is EXTREMELY INTUITIVE in its teaching method. You have the color coded keyboard, the fingering number options, and the note name option to help you learn to read music. It turns piano practicing into a video game, teaching you strike the right key at the right time. (Striking the wrong key or at the wrong time makes no sound.)
-----I highly recommend this software to anybody wanting to learn the piano, especially kids.
Sincerely
May[/i]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SITYnDyD0eY
Our first communication from Jed’s mom (May) was after we switched out a keyboard that was not working anymore. He was 8 at the time.
[i]Dear Mr. Keith of Piano Wizard,
My son, Jed, age 8, is severely retarded with difficulties in language comprehension. It would have been impossible for him to learn to play the piano the normal way.
The Piano Wizard, being so intuitive a method, makes it possible for Jed to know when to push which key without having to understand spoken instructions. He’s been practicing for 8 months now and has learned to play the first 30 songs. He has even learned to read a little bit of music.
Thank you for creating such a wonderful product!
Sincerely,
May[/i]
After receiving this moving letter, and later when I stumbled on the first review above, I reached out to her, and we began a correspondence via email. For the sake of full disclosure, May did provide a couple of suggestions, and had some misunderstandings about how to use Piano Wizard Academy. But I reached out to her and addressed her concerns, and we began a dialog. She told me that review was old, and she had already figured some of that out and would update it. She shared more about his journey and progress in our emails, which she said I can share excerpts with you. (my bold on her comments) Here are some excerpts.
[i]
Dear Mr. Salter,
I am most happy to hear from you. Piano Wizard is a fantastic product, one of the best I’ve ever bought and definitely the best thing I’ve ever gotten for my son.
First, I must apologize for some of my inaccurate comments on Amazon. They were made when I first bought the program a year and a half ago. I have since discovered the options in the premier version that you mentioned and have been using them to great benefit; unfortunately, by then I had forgotten what I wrote on Amazon and therefore never went back to update my comments. I was planning to do so soon, however, as my son has gone light years past that Twinkle song I showed him playing. He can now play multiple, various notes on both hands in Level 6 and 7, an accomplishment I never imagined that he could ever reach. . .
Although my degree is in math, I have had a small amount of computer programming, enough for me to appreciate the efficiency and careful planning of the Piano Wizard. It is rather complete as an entire course of piano teaching. The Special Education group accounts for 10% or more of the school age children, and the parents there are desperate to take anything that can help because their options are so limited. Seeing a normal child play the piano is great; seeing a retard child play is like witnessing a miracle! Friends and family who have seen my son play have exclaimed to me, “You are doing so good with him!â€
I count myself lucky that your product is out exactly when I need it. Ten years ago it would have been impossible for my son to do any such thing as to play a piano. I hope the best for your company. If nothing else, the Piano Wizard has definitely empowered our lives – for my son to learn music, and for me to watch him learn and improve and get more out of life. That is ultimately the most satisfying part of being a parent. . . .
I finished watching all ten of the DVDs. I enjoyed watching them. It is obvious that they are top rate piano teachers. The enthusiasm Don has towards music and the Piano Wizard is delightful and infectious. I have picked up many good points about piano playing and teaching as well. Don and Delayna teach with an easy style that makes me feel right at home. Their attitude convinces me that music and the piano are a worthy subject to pursue, and that it is all great fun.
The teachers obviously have infinite patience with children. (I must confess, my style of piano teaching consists mostly of “SHUT UP AND PRACTICE!â€) I am learning to take it a bit easier. I also notice that I should pay more attention to matters such as rhythm and legato, as well as developing a love for music.
Right now, for example, my son is practicing 12 songs at a time for 2 hours a day. (Being severely retarded, there isn’t much else he can do.) First, he plays these 3 times each: Old Blue, Old Man Tucker, Simple gifts, Happy Anniversary, On Cap Cod, Joy to the World, Colorado. Then he reviews the following songs by playing each one time: Away in a Manger, This Train, Over the River, Sarah Mae, When the Saints Go Marching In. It might be true that a normal child’s language is established by the age of 7, but in Jed’s case, that’s when he started learning to talk. He spoke his first word at 6. That was also when he was potty trained. At first, he could pronounce words up to 2 syllables. For example, he could say, “butter,†and “fly,†but not “butterfly.†He got better and better. Now, he can speak sentences, though not necessarily complete ones, such as “Can we go to Dairy Queen?†or “Want to play Xbox!†. . . .
A few months ago, Jed impressed me. I was talking to my husband, and I said, “Jed is playing a song called Composition in C Minor, which is in level 6.†Jed immediately yelled out from across the room, “No, Mama! It’s Composition in C Major!†And he was right. I was amazed that he heard what I said, understood it and recognized my mistake, and corrected it properly. What’s amazing is, that’s the first time he gave any indication of understanding other people’s conversation. So that was a grand moment of my life.
May[/i]
May followed up by submitting this Amazon.com review and video. Look at the progress and accomplishment, this is about after a year I believe …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VicL36hQgOM
[i]My son has been practicing the piano 90 minutes a day. He is 8 years old, mentally retarded, and for the longest time I’ve had trouble finding something he could do. He could hardly even understand enough to appreciate toddler TV programs. The Piano Wizard is my son’s first project of his life. It is an intuitive piano teaching system. You see the color dot on the screen; you press the corresponded colored key on the musical keyboard. The music’s speed can be controlled so much that you can have it coming literally at a snail’s speed such that even people with the worst reflexes have the time to find the right key to push.
Who’d ever imagine that he could do this? And it takes me little time because once I get him going, he’ll just practice until he gets good at it; I only have to supervise on occasion. Once you choose a speed, it will play again at the same speed until you change it, so it is really convenient.
In the end, this is easier than driving him to piano lessons even if you don’t count the cost. When my relatives and friends watch my son play, they always exclaim, “Wow, you are doing so good with him!”
During the time my son’s been playing the piano, his speech and understanding has also improved greatly. I don’t know if the piano playing helped? But there is some evidence that music improves a child’s intelligence. It’s worth a try.
The Piano Wizard is an ingeniously designed system for somebody who wants to teach himself how to play. If even my son can do it, who can’t? (As long as one possesses basic motor skills and hand eye coordination.)
I highly recommend it to anyone.[/i]
I recently reached out to her again, after almost a year, and she sent me this (my bold)
[i]Hi Chris,
It’s very nice to hear from you. In the last year, I have heeded your advice and put Jed through the sheet music and playing on a real piano that is not plugged into the computer. He took to it without much trouble, to my surprise. We finished all the sheet music you sent us. Jed can look at the sheet music and play the entire piece with no extra help, though I don’t think his understanding of the music notation is complete. It’s more like the sheet music serves as a mnemonic for him to play. I know he knows somewhat about it, but he need more practice in the matter of music reading to be truly able to read it. I haven’t been pushing it very hard. We are just moving along steadily through the Academy. The point is, he can play on a real piano without the piano wizard now, something he couldn’t do last year when you wrote to me.
Right now, we are at the Circus Song. That’s song #99. One more song and he will have finished the Academy, and he just turned 10. My original plan was for him to make it through the Academy by the time he’s 18, and my husband Dave even expressed doubt that that could ever happen. Nowadays, Dave just watches Jed play Jesu Joy of Man Desiring with great admiration and asks me, “You think I can do that if I practice?” I tell him that that piece of music is harder than it looks. He says, “It looks hard enough to me!” And he says he might take up Piano Wizard too because “what doesn’t want to be able to play the piano?” Dave is a plumber, see. I never knew he’s the piano playing type.
I do plan to gradually teach Jed to be able to full read music, and it is looking totally doable. I bought a lifetime’s supply of sheet music with midi files and fingering, from easy to advanced levels, from VirtualSheetMusic.com for a small sum. Jed has already started on this 100 piece drill. So, I’m all set. I am very proud of myself that I found the Piano Wizard for Jed. What an amazing software! I am getting so much out of it.
I am more than happy to do any publicity event you need to promote the Piano Wizard. It’s good for the average piano learner, but it’s a life saver for the special needs community because they can’t do it any other way. The normal way of teaching the piano has too steep of a learning curve for a child with mental retardation. Please do feel free to share my story in any form or call me if you like. My number is --------------. If I don’t pick up, please immediately redial 2 more times. I’m home most of the time.
And I can certainly make videos. I’ve been thinking about updating my videos on Amazon. I can make some videos about how to use the Piano Wizard with special needs kids too. And thanks for the name of the person. It is helpful for me to meet other people in my similar situation so that I can get ideas on more ways I can help Jed.
May
[/i]
WOW. We cried when we read this, with pride and gratitude that our Piano Wizard Academy was able to reach someone and help transform their lives so profoundly and so beautifully, with joy and accomplishment.
By the way, the 100th song is Beethoven’s 5th Symphony arranged for 2 hands. We have about 50 more songs that we have developed for an advanced version of the Academy, that we are sending to her, should keep Jed busy for about a year. I told her not to worry too much about Jed’s reading, it is a matter of conditioning and subconcious absorption, that we don’t need to understand the theory and logic of a QWERTY keyboard to type. If the theory helps, let’s use it, if not, leave it for now. I also suggested she have Jed try and teach his father to play piano, to challenge him to articulate what he knows innately, starting with song one from book one, “Your Dreams”.
Finally, May created this wonderful video showcasing Jed’s astounding accomplishment as he moves from the game to a real piano.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqFk2n8wGfU
Our first and primary method of learning is by doing. Jed’s ability to learn Bach and Mozart at this level shows how intuitive and natural this style of learning can be, and he was not even able to take advantage of most of the cognitive and theory support in the Piano Wizard Academy videos. He clearly delights and takes pride in his abilities and skills, and there is no limit for him.
Our dream is to make your musical dreams come true. How lucky are we to be able to share dream with the world?
This new approach to learning music that just may be the golden ticket to unlocking your child’s inner potential and joy, and it is easier and faster with better results than anything you have ever seen before…and can save you thousands and thousands over the lifetime of the product. But beyond the savings, what was it worth for May to see her child blossom in ways she thought impossible a few years ago?
Please share this with anyone you think might benefit.
Thanks
Chris Salter
CEO and Founder
Chris@MusicWizard.com