First Week of Training

Hello!

This is my first week using the full version of Soft Mozart, and I want to share some of my thoughts and observations with you. I have had the demo version in my studio for a little more than a year, and finally decided I needed to try this software for real.

A little background...

I run a full-time piano studio, with 31 students (45-minute lessons), and have been teaching for a little more than 20 years. One thing that keeps me energized about this career is seeking out new tools to incorporate into my teaching, especially if they will directly benefit my students... I am not sure what took me so long to finally order the full version of SM, but I am happy that I did.


Getting started...

Software was ordered Tuesday and arrived Saturday (yay!). Meeting with Hellene on Skype was encouraging. She has given me some specific skills and a link to several training videos to start with, so I am jumping in and teaching Amelia (my daughter, 8 y.o.), current elementary and intermediate students, and hopefully my son (5 y.o.) using SM. He is practicing singing the Alphabet song with the solfege cards. We have been singing Do Re Mi, etc. since he was a baby, so he is picking it up quickly.

All of the technical skills Hellene recommends to start with are things I already teach -- but usually after a year or more of lessons (the scales and Hanon). So it's just a matter of breaking everything down into small, manageable bites for the young student, and don't let on that they are playing something "too advanced" for their age/level/etc. It's amazing what they are capable of, isn't it?

My daughter's first few days with SM...

My first observation is that SM is motivating to Amelia, who tends to be a perfectionist, and is prone to having a fit if something isn't "easy" for her... so I held my breath when we first tried the Guess Key school... and after she had a little tiny fit when she missed a couple pieces of fruit, I remembered about the spider needing to eat, too. I told her that it was okay to let some of the fruit land on the ground, so the spider can feed her family as well. Amelia has a fantastic imagination and sense of humor, so this went over well. By the 3rd night of playing Guess Key, she was getting 626 points in about 6 minutes, getting to the 5th tree. (It helps that she knows her key names, but this is great reinforcement, and is boosting her confidence). When she gets tired, I press the F1 key right away, so she will not get frustrated, and also so her eyes won't get too fatigued from looking at the screen.

Secondly, it was interesting to see that I could get Amelia to do more repetitions when she was playing pieces on SM... I am leaving the staff orientation set to 1, to reinforce the note names on the staff. She will graduate from this eventually, but I want her to decide when she no longer needs the extra help. She is currently learning "Pop! Goes the Weasel" and "Three Blind Mice" -- both her choice. I just opened the Nursery Songs 1 book and let her pick.

She also wanted to play "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" from the Nutcracker.... so I let her! She played the RH in something like 8 minutes, with several mistakes, but she played to the end and it was quite an accomplishment!

Introductory Skills...

One of the skills that is not directly related to the software is the modified Hanon exercise. I showed the right-hand pattern to Amelia exactly the same way Hellene teaches it in the video, and she got it right away. The second day I showed her the left-hand part, and she got it, too. She spontaneously played hands together (ascending). We are still working on LH descending -- she gets mixed up and puts the "stretch" between 5 and 4
about halfway down -- but she will get it soon. Another confidence booster!

Current students...

I introduced the Hanon exercise to two of my first-year students. They seemed to enjoy having something to play that doesn't require reading notes on the page. It's something that will get their fingers moving and will sound good, as well. One parent emailed me to find out exactly how it was supposed to sound ("She's playing 8 notes, so why is she counting to 7??") and after I explained it, all was well! Can't wait to hear this student at next week's lesson. According to the parent, she was very excited about this part of her assignment.

Oops, look at the time!

I feel that my post is getting too long-winded, so I'll write separate posts for my experiences teaching DD8, DS5, and my current students. Looking forward to meeting other teachers and parents!

~Adrienne

Mandabplus3 wrote: I enjoyed reading your post!

Thanks!

My daughter ( just turned 9) was given her first scale to practice just last week. ( three years in!) She reacted the same way. She was enthusiastic to play something from memory without having to read music! Strange. She has a piano teacher for " normal" lessons and does soft Mozart for fun! Usually soft Mozart wins out She has much harder pieces and practices much more with the program than with her beginner books!
You will find your students will love soft Mozart. It won't be long before you are using it with them all. It is a lovely gentle and motivating way to learn.

It's funny, isn't it? Some students work harder on the pieces that are technically more difficult, and let the easy pieces kind of.... sit there, haha! I find that if I let Amelia choose her pieces, she is much more motivated. Makes sense to me!

The other day, I had a nearly 16-year-old (!!!) tell me: "If I had this program at home... I would probably never leave the piano!" Didn't really expect that from a high school student. Wow!

Please keep us posted!

Will do!