Music Journey with my 3-year-old daughter

Marritai,
I overlooked this post somehow... Thank you for pointing it for me.

marrtai wrote: Thanks everyone for the post. I have been super busy in the last 2 weeks and no time to post until now.

We do SM during the day when she climbs up the chair and turns on the keyboard. She does not sit still to do lesson so I often have to break it up into more a session a day.

Soft Mozart worked between sessions, too! It applies to child's basic skills and builds up gradually. I would recommend for you to have more 'lay back' attitude, because sooner or later, but the program will bring you where you suppose to be. It never fail any of my student once

We are on week 5 now and there has been some progress. She is learning HCB and JB and I tried to get her to play do re mi fa so so fa mi re do finger exercises. It is few and far between though.

JB is a long song for young beginner. 7 Mi's at the beginning are also confusing Did you learn how to cut sections of the pieces? Let's say you cut first 4 bars (I use 6th mode to see the #-s of the bars at the beginning of each line). Master the segment. After that c ut another 4 bars. Master them also. After that 'glue' first and second segments together (play bars 1-

We only did one guess key game in the last 2 weeks and it was 34 in 1 minute.

It is pretty good score! Ask your daughter to sing the names of music notes that she plays.

HCB: Her RH score is 15/15 5 this week. She will just turn on the keyboard and play RH by herself when the program is not even on and she plays it correctly. I tried to teach her to use the correct fingering for right hand. Now she gets more fingers in playing so that is a good start. When I ask her to sing solfeggi she does it correctly.

Time is pretty good! Now wonder she has enough 'room' in her mind for using correct fingers and to sing Solfeggio.

She has some catch up to do for the left hand. L:22/22 30 and 19/22 38. LH 20/22 39; 13/22 43; 13/22 74 today. Since right hand has progressed much quicker so I try to get her to practise left hand more. At the same time I don't want to bore her with the drill. I tried to guide her to play with both hands so she can get an idea what is coming. Should I wait till L scores below 22 before introducing LH and then P? It is a fine balance to get her to improve with the drills without boring her. [/quote]

Yes, you are right! Time shows that she didn't build coordination of her left hand yet. Most likely, she needs a little more of visual support. I would buy some stickers (Walgreens? Office Max?) in form of tiny circles or stars. I would place them on Do and So of the Left Hand. Sometimes I let my kids start learning LH using two index fingers. They have to learn how to find 2 keys at the same time! It is a task! After that they can manage using one hand.

JB: We did not do too much lately. She will play with her right hand readily R 42/25 36 this week but she does not have the patience to play with her left hand. I won't rush it and I will just let her concentrate more on HCB for now.

It seems to me that to play many songs using her right hand won't be such a bad idea. She would explore more pieces and enjoy it!

As I mentioned before, she is fascinated with the Disney tin soldier background music (Shostakovich piano concerto op. 102 - allegro). I taught her the first phrase and now she will turn on the keyboard from time to time and play it and do it correctly. She even teaches her daddy to play and that was cute. She is really happy that she can play it herself. So for now this is something that helps to motivate her which is good.

You have a talented kid, who wants to learn SUCCESSFULLY! Focus on her favorite staff. It will leverage the rest!

I was reading Hellene's book and it is a very interesting book. I just learned about the fixed do vs. movable do. I was trained in the movable do system and never knew the fixed do system existed. Quick questions: How do you call the flat and sharp in solfeggi. For example, is E flat a "mi" or something else? How about F sharp? Is it a "fa" or something else?

In Russian school we do not pronounce sharps and flats, when we sight-singing Solfeggio. We have inner hearing of them. Please, take a look at the videos of Rachel transposing French Song and Musette. This is what fixed Do develops: you remember the relation between 7 notes and apply it to different modes: www.softmozart.com/forum/33-progress-dia...imit=6&start=12#4908

I totally agree with Hellene that the kids have to chase us for education. Especially with my daughter, I have to make things appear to be her idea or else she does not readily cooperate. It is not always easy to think of something though.

Anyway, I will keep trying and keep it going.

Cheers!

I didn't find the direct question about how to motivate your child in this post. But you asked it later and here is what I think.

I am not a big fan of 'sophisticated' approaches. I use 'butterflies' or 'flags' that I make from construction paper. Each color doesn't mean anything. I use colors for fun. I show my little students 2 things at the very beginning: bag with little toys (party favorites) and pile of 'butterflies'. I say: this is our 'music money' - these are trophies that you can buy.

After that I am becoming very generous employer: I pay for everything. I ask to play RH 2 times. If second time my student makes better score with notes AND with time, I say: Wow! You are double winner! And I give 2 'butterflies'. After that I ask, for example, to play LH. If my student say no, thank you! I say: well, let's do this: you play LH 1 time, make as much as you can and I give you 5 butterflies regardless. But if you won't play at all, I will take back 1 of yours. Make it a bargain!

I also 'pay' twice for singing the notes Solfeggio, for increase the score in games, for being pretty, for sitting nicely etc.

At the end of the lesson we count butterflies and get a trophy.

Usually I need this game at the beginning of lessons. But even toddlers once involved and 'getting it' have tendency to forget about butterflies. But I give them trophies or candies at the end of the lessons anyway.

Once my student overgrow it, they say: oh, no! no trophies for me! I enjoyed the LESSON. This is how I know that they mature

Hellene, thank you for the tip with prizes and butterflies! I think too it's a great idea. You've mentioned it more than once but now I understand it better.

Marrtai, thank you too, it's very good that you share with us what you do, either when you try something you were thinking about or something someone else advised. As you can see, others learn from your experience too

Andrea

marrtai wrote: Thanks Hellene for the advice. I took some time off to reflect how I should tackle this with my daughter. Last week I finally tried to get things going again. I had a bucket of "piano money" and then a bag of goodies for her to earn. She was quite excited about this new set up.

Of cause! Would you accept an offer to work for free?

We ended up playing HCB and JB for a long time for the first session. She actually was keen on playing with her left hand and her score was L: 18/22 28; 20/22 20 (HCB)

It is very good progress: if you have time (20) less then amount of correct notes or equal - it is a break through from looking for the right key/note to actually hearing of what is being played.

after some drilling - best score ever even she stopped playing for almost a month! We did ok with JB.

JB is a long piece. Did you learn how to cut it in smaller segments?

My priority is to get her ready to start playing with two hands with HCB. She was happy to get her prize at the end and kept talking about earning the next one.

Yes, to play using 2 hands is very important and for music and for brain development. Place tiny extra stickers (rounds or stars) on keys Do, So and Fa (LH) to give her additional visual support. It will help her to find these keys faster and will make the task playing with 2 hands easier.

With my schedule, we could not have lesson again until this week. We did HCB only yesterday and make it a fun game and she loved it. We did a lot of drilling exercises for the left hand. LH: 18/22 29; 21/22 31.

Yes, watching your numbers for the Left Hand it seems to me like she need extra visual support to find 2 keys at the same time. Do not hesitate to mark keys of the Left hand!

Right hand was ok as before. RH 14/15 11 with correct fingering and singing solfeggi at the same time.

Great! Singing is very important for her voice and EAR development! 5 stars!

We did not get enough stickers for the prize yesterday but will continue again today.

Don't be frugal

So with this new system in place, things are back on track again. I just find that each lesson is becoming quite long but she does not seem to mind. Will keep trying and see what will happen.

I am glad that you took my advice! Alone with the program the 'music money' make the process of learning more exciting and they help to develop your daughter's attention span and ability to focus.

Don't worry: she won't be this way all the time. My older students after 'getting into the process and enjoying the success in learning for the sake of success in learning' at the end of the lessons even don't ask for any price. But all of this will happen naturally.