I thought I'd write a few points as to how I am keeping my daughter interested in piano as I know there are quite a few parents here who don't play/are learning the instrument at the same time.

I completed my AMEB Grade 8 piano and was halfway through completing my AMus, but quit as I was preoccupied with finishing my uni degree at the time. I also learnt the Kodaly method as a kid too when I was involved in a children's choir - loved learning solfege as you could transpose in any key you liked, learn to sing in harmony and gain excellent ear training. I liked, but do not love playing the piano - I wish I did though. I think back to the times as to what I would have liked my parents/teacher to do with me to increase my interest in practice and am now implementing it with my daughter.

1. When we were learning Ode to Joy, we read a story about Beethoven so we can learn more about the person who wrote the piece. (My First Classical Music Book by Genevieve Helsby & Jason Chapman)

2. I looked on YouTube for a professional pianist playing Ode to Joy - it was a man who was playing a few variations; just so my daughter would know how she could sound one day

3. We sing in Solfege during the day, including songs we aren't learning on piano. Plus I teach her hand signs with it, pretending each hand sign is part of a house eg. doh - knock on door.

4. I do solfa jumping - taping flash cards onto plastic plates and my daughter jumps on the cards (from do to to, ascending then descending); then interval training by taking away eg. re, fah, la, ti - so she would only jump on do, me, so, do - and she also learns tonic triad at the same time!!! Then I take away me, soh and let her jump on remaining plates.

That's it for now..will continue when I can remember some more.
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We started with Ode to Joy with only the right hand, but I could tell after a few days that the music was a bit too long for her, so I thought I'd switch to Hot Cross Buns instead. (Yes I was using the downloadable Starter Pack at the time so I was able to choose between the 6 songs).

Sometimes she says she doesn't want to play piano, but I also tell her if I don't spend time with her piano playing, I'll teach her 10 month old brother instead. And of course she doesn't want to give away her mummy and daughter time to her brother!!!! Ha ha.

Hopefully in the next week I can upload a couple of reasonable videos of the activities I am doing with her. I'll add some comments in another topic of what I've been doing to increase her interest in the piano.
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Hi, I have started my just turned 3 year old on the Soft Mozart journey and the results have been very promising. I just received the 12 month subscription, but have spent the last week whilst waiting for the software to arrive using the trial version.

My daughter enjoys playing the piano, and at times is not completely focused on the lesson, but for some reason is always drawn to finish her lesson. I think it is the computer game/reward/instant feedback aspect (and also the stickers I give her at the end of each lesson ) that makes her practice every day.

For the first few days she was scared of the spider in the Guess the Key game, so I had to explain to her that it was a friendly spider, and to prove it to her, I had to point out the smile on the spider. Now each time we start off the game, we wave and say hello to the gnome and the spider everytime we see them on the screen.

She loves playing Hot Cross Buns and even when she's not on the piano, she sings it in solfege and plays it on the xylophone.

We keep the lessons short - only 5-10 minutes a day + play a solfa jumping game, where I've enlarged the flash cards and stuck them onto plastic plates and the kids jump on the cards. Then I take some of the cards so that we do some interval training and guess the next note games.

Thank you Hellene for this product. It is the best product I have found to teach piano and musicianship skills!!

Questions:
Do we need to purchase the Kingdom of Tune Book and the Flash Cards separately or are they meant to be part of the kit?

What is the crypt box for? Are we meant to use this every time we play the program?
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