Practical Work 2, comparing curriculumMusic Tree curriculumMy girls, at about 5/6 years old, went through this very popular curriculum in our area with a traditional piano teacher and it was like slogging through a swamp. It was tiresome and got my kids, who love piano, dreading each day of practice.In unit one, about the first 4 weeks, it starts with training by just playing the black keys, which does not help tie it to the staff. This has little do with actually reading notes as the staff and thus, a note’s position on the staff is completely removed from the curriculum until many months in. You are then to jump octaves as you do this. It is trying to teach to attend to notes moving up and down, while on the keyboard the keys move left and right, but it is rather arbitrary. Additionally, it has you paying more attention to whether the lines attached to the notes on the page are pointing up or down to cipher whether to play with your left or right hands.It does not develop dexterity in the hands, as you are playing solely with the index finger of your left and right hands. These exercises cannot be done independently by the student and need the teacher-interpreter to sit there and watch every movement and help them. It is also frustrating for a child, because even right off, it is a lot to pay attention to, while not developing their motor or proprioception very much.  With each week, what you add is more confusion to the child and frustration for them as they need to pay attention to even more, starting with the open note as having a longer duration, but without any training for what duration means, other than saying that each half note lasts two quarter notes, an abstract concept. Again, this translates to the teacher-interpreter needing to sit right there and help them count.By the end of these weeks, they are still only playing with the two pointer fingers of their left and right hands, have not yet played on the white keys at all, and have not tied anything to the grand staff. Every lesson, the teacher or me, as the parent, have to sit right there and make sure they play their duration correctly, which they have to understand.In unit two, the next 4 or so weeks, they are now introduced to even more abstract symbols, piano and forte, playing softly and loudly. This, while children are still playing with only their two index fingers, and only the on the black keys. Finally, in unit 3, the next 4 weeks, are they introduced to more fingers, and more abstract symbols, the legato.By the time of the first winter concert, they have at most played with 3 fingers, they have not been introduced to the white keys or the staff.  And yet, they are expected to attend to several abstract symbols, the legatos, piano/forte, and whether the notes are open or closed for duration. If they do know a song, it is more from memory, and repetition of what the teacher has done, than the ability to read. All of this is difficult for the eyes of the children and does not work on motor skills, proprioception, or the grand staff.Only in unit 9, the last of the year (month 9) are they even introduced to the treble and bass staff, and we only see the traditional teaching of the staff lines and spaces, with much to strain and stress on  the eyes and interpretation ability of the child before they can even place their hands on the piano: which note starts, where does it start, are you playing piano or forte, which finger will play first? All this deciphering was frustrating for the child and had to have me there to ask every question before they could play and then the melody was still a finger at a time on each hand, one at a time, with only 1-3 fingers involved total and the hands played separately from each other. The whole curriculum during this first year quite taxes the eyes and memories of the children for abstract concepts, without developing much by way of freedom of movement on the piano or keys, or reading while playing, as opposed to more relying on the teacher-interpreter to guide the way step by step. Soft MozartLet’s compare that with the first year of Prep C in Soft Mozart, which is the same level a 5/6 year-old would be starting. In Soft Mozart, everything is taught as a system: motor skills, proprioception, ability to sight-read, memory, auditory input, all together.Right from the first few weeks, the notes are on the full staff, the notes are colored to indicate their placement on lines and spaces, the staff is inverted so that hands and notes move left-right together, the lines and spaces are equally spaced to provide equal avenues for them, and the notes float up to the yellow line, giving kids one place to look. All this places a lesser burden on a child’s eyes and interpretive ability, which frees the fingers to develop more freely (motor ability/dexterity) and releases their minds to focus more on the feeling of their fingers as they glide on the piano (proprioception) while watching the notes.  The names of the notes in the first presentation are easily tied to longer names of recognizable objects, making it easy to sing them in solfege, which also helps attention and memory. The duration is natural, like a blooming flower with a butterfly at the end, reminding them to fly their finger away. Thus, as they play, they are engaging their hands, their eyes, their ears, their finger position of multiple fingers on the keyboard at once, their attention, their memory all together simultaneously.  The removal of the right kinds of obstacles, while keeping the position, duration, and sound of the note all tied together trains the kids much faster and helps them see the system together.Additionally, the kids are taught so much more. The kids’ dexterity, motor skills, and proprioception are also being trained. The kids are introduced to the ability to play with both hands together from the first few songs. The left and right hands are being taught to play separate parts and yet be able to put them together. They are also being trained to truly appreciate music, as they listen and play teasers.  With our music appreciation and favorite classics album, we are introducing them to excerpts from beloved pieces. They are taught music theory with the help of the characters from the kingdom of tune.Not only that, but practice is done independently. The software corrects the children softly, and the teacher does not need to guide hands or attention. In fact, with my kids age 5+, once a week, I introduce the new lesson and then, they can self-guide through it the rest of the week, writing down their own scores. The teacher is freed to be the cheer-leader instead of the enforcer. The guidance itself is all built right into the software and this makes it feel like such a win for the children, as they soar with that independence. They hear themselves playing actual songs and it builds in them a desire to play more. I cannot count the number of times at the end of the “assigned” tasks, the kids have sat there and continued to play around on Gentle Piano, from listening to a variety of songs, to trying a few different pieces on their own.Further, as kids progress, the progression is in systematic, measurable steps. From the 1st to the 6th presentation, with removing 25% of the information each time, from removing the pictures (while still providing the lines/spaces information) to placing the staff the right way up, to finally seeing black-white notes on a more traditional staff creates a challenge without frustration. The ability to measure exactly how they are doing also gives a more confident ability to know when to move on, and when to keep practicing in a certain presentation. In the music tree, moving on is arbitrary and often, they just moved on, whether they understood the concept of not. The ability to measure is not just useful for parents, but for kids. As they see their scores improve, they grow more confident in their own abilities.By the time of the first winter concert, the butterfly concert, they are competing for how many pieces they can play and a good number of my beginning students of 5-6 years old have been able to play on average 5-10 pieces (usually at least: Surprise Symphony, hot cross buns, French song, a few nursery songs, and another few teasers), actual songs, while looking at the notes on the full staff (treble and base clef) and understanding them, playing with both hands with multiple fingers of both hands engaged together, playing different parts with each hand. This gives them such confidence to know they have that breadth and then for the spring concert, we perfect one or two pieces for quality.And this does not even touch on the other modules offered, which further train the children’s ability to discern the notes, their duration, their position on the staff, to tie the note’s position to the audible sound of the note and more, all while feeling like they are playing a game, competing against themselves each time to get better.Not only that, but with the beauty of this curriculum, I am free to start training kids even much younger than that and have started some as early as a year old. Soft Mozart just makes music education that accessible, for every child in every family. I do sincerely hope more and more families will embrace it, as we have.

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