Titus, 9yo, USA

Titus is 9 years old and he has been doing Soft Mozart off and on since he was 2 years old. Our family has been through many changes, most recently with my husband and I graduating seminary and moving to the Midwest. Now that we are more settled, I am excited to step back into a more regular rhythm of teaching, including piano and posting in our progress diary.

We will start here in January for the remainder of this school year with Titus following along with me in the Sight-reading intensive course, which we receive via email. If that doesn't work for us, we will try Level 1 or 2, depending on where we think he is at with his piano.

Here are links to his previous diaries:
www.softmozart.com/forum/recital-14-grad...o-united-states.html
www.softmozart.com/forum/recital-10/19387-titus-5yo-usa.html
www.softmozart.com/forum/33-progress-dia...s-diary.html?start=0
www.softmozart.com/forum/67-internationa...2-y-o-usa.html#15288

This past week, we moved our piano and set it up in the middle of the room, with an old computer to hold our Soft Mozart station, so it is available any time of day and in a central location, as recommended. And the kids have loved it! I have found them there so many times. Here is Titus enjoying his time on the piano:

Week 1 of Sight-Reading Intensive.

It was fun to get started this week. All the kids love the new piano station and play often. Also, they are all enthusiastic about getting to learn. We also have had a family staying with us and they too have loved trying out the program and are really impressed with it.

This is Titus playing the Farmer in the Dell on 2nd mode. He had not seen it prior.


Also attached is a picture of Titus playing Note Alphabet. He wanted to go longer than the 10min.

Questions for week 2:
a: The instructions say to
"1. Album Nursery Primer Level 0
Play all the piano pieces on the 4th mode (horizontal with colors)
2. Album Favorite Classic Primer
Practice all piano pieces on 2nd mode."

By "practice all piano pieces," does it mean play all of them every day this week, or 1-2 pieces from each album per day?

b: Likewise, for the etudes, is Titus to play each of the 3 etudes twice each day, (Total of 6 pieces played through) and write down both scores, or pick 1 etude and play that twice (2 pieces), or play each of the three etudes once each (3 pieces total)?

c: For the Fruit lines, the time is not specified. Should he play for about 5-10 min as last week's module?

d: For Gentle Piano, when I write down the score, what is the recommended method for nothing the mode it was played in?

Week 2 sight reading course

Titus is really impressing me with how quickly he is getting some things and picking them up. This week, he even finished the Note Alphabet module with Solfeggio. See photo.

However, he is also getting somewhat frustrated with the Etudes. I think he is doing excellently, but he thinks they are really hard. I am trying to encourage him. I did realize after one day of doing all the pieces assigned, that doing a few each day ( 2 from each album assigned) is far better.

Week 3 Sight-Reading Intensive

The pieces are clearly increasing in intensity, but Titus seems to be keeping up quite well. He is also enjoying himself more and more with the actual songs, and seems to be listening more for the tune, not just playing them through, which is great as well.

He has some favorites. So, when I go to record my video each week, I let him choose one of his favorites from the week for each album. Because I assign 2 pieces per album each day, he only sees each piece about one time a week. (the day he sees it, he plays it twice and lets it sing in between, as assigned). So, it is fun for him and for me to see which one of the ones he did this week he will choose for the video. And he really is impressing me:-)

The etudes are still difficult for him, but we read the assignment together and I try to encourage him that they are meant to be difficult, as they are not musical, so it will be hard to anticipate what is coming and that part makes it more difficult.

Also, unlike the Note Alphabet, for some reason, he doesn't realy like the Fruit Lines module. He still does really well, in my opinion, but he seems a lot more frustrated with himself, like when he doesn't move the basket fast enough, even though he knew what the note was, or when he accidentally gets the wrong note.

Question:
At some point, I do want to choose 2-3 pieces for the May recital. Any suggestions on which album to choose from? (within the album, I was going to let him pick the one that seems most exciting to him to play).

Week 4

Titus is also really enjoying the sight-reading course more as he sees his own progress. It's fun when he is playing to see him try to sing along, though when he does I do try to encourage signing solfege, though I am not sure I should because as he is doing it, he seems to just enjoy himself and I love that. With Guess Key School, I see him looking down less and less and using feel of his hands more and he is progressing, but seems daunted by trying to finish the whole module, so he hasn't fully tried that yet.