Little Musician vs Soft Mozart

A few questions have appeared on these forums regarding which program to purchase. Since Little Musician has come out, and I've had a few days to look it over, I thought I'd offer an intellegent review of both products.

Little Musician: I love it. As with all things Brillkids - it is idiot proofed. You just go to the computer and click. No preparation. No thinking. No planning. They have done all the work for you. That is why I use it and Little Reader. It teaches music appreciation, solfege, perfect pitch, rhythm, sight reading, and keyboard basics - how the notes on the keyboard relate to different pitches and solfege symbols. You can customize lessons and add your own content very easily, as in easy peasy. So should you get it instead of Soft Mozart...depends. I'd say get both. They compliment each other wonderfully. But they are not the same. If your budget won't allow for both, "How do I know which one to get?" you ask.

Here are my thoughts: What are you trying to accomplish and how old is your child? If your child is under two or perhaps just 2 I'd say get Little Musician. It will make coming to Soft Mozart a breeze when the child has the dexterity to manipulate the keys on the keyboard. When your child is ready and can name the notes and touch them consistently, move to Soft Mozart. Hellene has so many options for making her program inexpensive that it is fairly easy to purchase one one year and a year later do the next. If you really just care about getting a solid music foundation, Little Musician is the program to go with.

Do you want your child to play piano? Is that the end goal? Then this is a no brainer: Soft Mozart. Soft Mozart will do most of what Little Musician does. It takes a bit more planning than Little Musician, it is more parent intensive, but your child will learn to play the piano. Your child will learn perfect pitch if you play the games, solfege, sight reading, rhythm, and obviously the keyboard/piano. The only thing you are going to miss is the music appreciation. That is not hard to add as there are power points all over the internet for supplementing that will provide a full music background. In some ways Soft Mozart is better than having a teacher. There are things a teacher just cannot do that Soft Mozart can. For those who in live in places without good piano teachers this is truly a blessing. Plus, with Soft Mozart you have access to the creator of the program and your child will never out grow it.

However, I am going to stick with my original statement that you should get both. I am thinking of all the time I spent on the solfege files in LR. Taking Soft Mozart stuff and putting into Little Musician a breeze. I can see creating tons of Soft Mozart files that will make learning piano faster. I know it is expensive, but as I said, Hellene has made it easy to get a giant discount on Soft Mozart. When you consider the cost of even very cheap piano lessons at $15 for 1/2 hour tt doesn't take long before you've spent what you'd spend on both programs. We have purchased both and are glad we have.

BTW- I get nothing for either of these reviews. We have purchased both programs and paid in full (actually we had to pay a bit more for Soft Mozart - my toddler lost the key.)

An excellent and thoughtful review. I completely agree. We have learnt an immense amount from both programs. I have yet to lay down the money for Little musician but will do next week. It is a bit pricey, but my kids loved the month or so we trailed it out for.
I will add one thing. On the soft Mozart website the music is available to down load and listen too on your MP3. This would be a great option for music appreciation.
You are quite right the only thing Little musician doesn't teach is how to play an instrument. That's what I decided music was all about and for under 3 that is quite a challenge for us mums!

If I were strapped for cash, I would have to stick with Soft Mozart for the piano and the longevity of the product. I don't anticipate we'll be using Little Musician in 5 years. I do anticipate we will be using Soft Mozart in 5 years.

But you could start a 6 month old on Little Musician. Can you imagine what Hellene could do with a child who'd had all 4 semesters of Little Musician by age 2 and a half? Early education is mind blowing.

FYI - I will finish the solfege stuff in Little Musician. It is way easier than Little Reader. And Lee has already done the power points which is essentially what I was planning to do in LR. I already added Hot Cross Buns - 2 minutes and multiple modes of playback. Super cool.

Do you know if there is a way to add the SM solfege symbols into LM? It would be a nice addition and less confusing for those who are used to Soft Mozart.

Yes we sure can I checked, but don't know exactly how. Was told to make a file and import it. It would be one icon for each note group and it was suggested we colour them the correct colour.
I figured we would just add them to a mixed group of icons so they just pop up randomly. But others may prefer it to be the only icon used.
LM will be redundant after 2 years or less. Soft Mozart will be redundant once the whole family can read and play complicated sheet music...probably more than 2 years

I'll have to ask over on the BK forums. I'm not sure how the icons will be correctly associated with the individual notes. I haven't uploaded anything yet either and I'm not sure I put hot cross buns in the right category. This is harder to make files for than LR, but only because of the details involved.