Jose Maria, age 8, USA

JulieRamirez wrote: Jose Maria is eight years old. I taught him piano from age 3 ½ to 5 ½ . At that point I felt like I could not teach him anymore because I did not know how to do it. I did not know how to teach him timing, and he did not want to move his hands from the middle C position or play chords. He was getting frustrated, so I stopped. He listened to the Little Musician program as a baby and has perfect pitch from that and from us singing solfege to him.

He started learning songs with Soft Mozart on August 13, 2020. He is not using the finger guides. We are very happy with the program because now he is not scared to move his hands around the piano to different positions. The program has given him confidence playing any keys on the piano. He is happily playing chords. In fact, he and his brother like to try playing the right or left hand on 9.0 songs on Soft Mozart for fun.

He started playing Fruit Lines when we first got the programs. and in eight days he had won the game. I will put his scores here. I only have a photo for the last day. But he was just doing it by ear. He is very good at identifying notes by listening, and that is how he won the game. I know that he did not know all those notes by where they were on the lines because he had never been taught them. Do you ever recommend that the children play this game without sound so that they cannot just use the sound to identify the note? Or would that be bad because it is breaking up the note? I know that in one of the helpful e-mails you talked a lot about keeping the note whole, all of it parts together.

Fruit Line
4:23 Level 9 75 points
5:00 Level 21 224 points
5:00 Level 24 321
10:00 Level 36 606
10:00 Level 42 760
20:00 Level 64 1350
20:00 Level 73 1570
29:38 Level 90 2104

Next he played Guess Key and finished it in 7 days. He had never really learned sharps or flats, but this game taught them to him quickly. The last day it took him a long time to win, but he would not give up and stop. I only have a photo for the last day.
Guess Key
2:30 127 points
3:30 396 points
3:30 513 points
3:57 488 points
4:00 694 points
4:23 812 points
19:05 1487 points

Here are the songs he has learned. He has most of them memorized. He is still working on the last few.
Ode To Joy P1 48/48 3 48/48 2
London Bridge P148/52 6 52/52 2
Hot Cross Buns P137/37 1 37/37 2
Baa Baa Black Sheep P1 43/44 6 43/44/4
William Tell Overture P1 110/113 9 110/113 8
Minuet in G P1 64/65 6 62/65 7
French Song P1 44/48 4 48/48 2
A New Years Tree P1 57/57 6 57/57 4
Bridal Chorus P137/38 3 37/38 5
Jingle Bells P177/77 9 77/77 5
When the Saints Go Marching In P1 249/258 18 250/258 14
Happy Birthday for Beginners P1 36/37 9 34/37 13
Surprise Symphony P1 66/67 4 66/67 7
This Old Man P1 87/92 9 81/92 13
Old McDonald P1 95/98 9 95/98 6
Polovetzian Dance P1 104/119 39 99/119 28
Angels We Have Heard On High P1 104/113 17 108/113 12
Bodyguard and Tonic Middle C Quarters 42/42 2 42/42 1
Jesu, Joy of Mans Desiring L 20/22 9 20/22 7 R 58/69 31 58/69 21

I have a question about Bodyguard and Tonic. Both boys have learned it in the Middle C Quarters since that is what the Queen Tonic e-mail said to do. Are they supposed to start learning some of the other ones or will the e-mails tell us when to start those?

Also, could you please give me a suggestion for what songs they should learn next? I realize now from you replays to Francisco’s post, that we should only use the ones that say “sight reading” for sight reading and that is what we are doing now. But there is a whole folder called “Everyone Can Play Soft Mozart” that has a lot of songs and there are many other folders. Do we just keep picking slightly harder songs as they go along?

Maybe there is a video or something I can read. I know there are the lesson plans, but they can learn many more songs than the lesson plans suggest. We will also start working on playing songs with the teaching videos like you suggested. Also, if you see anything in the videos that we need to work on, please let me know. Thank you so much for all this help.
I am sorry, but I put the photos in attachments again, because I cannot figure out how to put them in the main text.

Your son did a very good job on developing sight-reading with aids, Now it is time to build quality of his performance using the TEACHING VIDEOS and hiding notes button. On another hand let him explore more pieces and develop self confidence. With this program there is no 'wrong' direction for as long as the child is willingly learn everything.