E aged 3.5 starting out with Soft Mozart

OK, so finally, almost 10 months after our first try with Soft Mozart, we are back and making a progress diary. Because, yes, we do have some progress

It has taken a long time for my fiesty 3-year old to develop the concentration and willingness to sit down and play the piano. She does not like to follow other people's rules But we are starting to make so gradual steps forward. I am very excited as previously it was almost impossible to get her to agree to play at all, no matter what reward I offered.

I have created a piece of card with 10 large squares on it and made a lot of card butterflies and cupcakes (these are very popular). Each time she tries a piano activity (gentle piano, guess key, or hanon) then she will earn a cake. If she tries really hard or gets a great score then she gets 2 cakes. When the board is full (10 cakes) then she can choose a present from the new piano present box. If she has a go at something that she's not keen on then I'm more generous with the rewards. And also I try to ensure she does earn a reward around once or twice a week to maintain enthusiasm.

I must confess that I told her that these presents have been sent by Hellene the piano teacher who is very keen to hear her play the piano So they are only for when she tries hard at the piano. She is most intrigued and looking forward to meeting Hellene on a Skype call someday.

This does seem to be working. I bought lots of very very small presents from the £1 store and most can be divided into smaller bits and then wrapped them in coloured paper to add to the excitement. Things like pencils, sharpeners, rubbers, note pads, bubble mix etc. Also, some fun educational things that i was planning to give her anyway! It is amazing how much more she likes the magnetic mini 100 number chart that she picked out of the present bag today than if I'd just given it to her So also useful to encourage other educational activities.

I am not sure how long this progress will carry on - with my DD you can never be sure but it's lovely to see such a change from before. She does certainly need to be encouraged and reminded of the rewards but if I say, "OK, well lets stop then, you can try to earn more cakes and get your present tomorrow..." then she will say "no, no I want to get it now..."

Anyway, we even have some scores to report

05/10/2012 HCB R1 9/15 t76

08/10/2012 HCB R1 9/15 t49
HCB R1 12/15 t51
Guess Key 27 30
HCB L1 13/22 t86 two hands

13/10/2012 HCB R1 12/15 t49
Guess Key 22 40
HCB L1 13/22 t86 two hands
HCB L1 19/22 t146

14/10/2012 HCB R1 9/15 t56
HCB R1 11/15 t84
HCB L1 13/22 t82
Finger walk with spots (right hand) - 5 fingers

17/10/2012 HCB R1 12/15 t62
HCB R1 9/15 t82
Guess Key 23 t40

20/10/2012 HCB R1 11/15 t28
Guess Key 27 30s
HCB L1 9/22 119 2 hands

21/10/2012 HCB R1 9/15 22
HCB L1 18/22 75
Guess Key 29 30s

And yes, we even have video....



I was impressed that she maintained her focus despite multiple distractions from her younger brother and also Daddy made an appearance at the wrong moment

Thank you!

I do need a better stool / piano set up for all of us. The twisting chair is not ideal!

My problem is that I have an old digital keyboard. This is temporary until I have splashed out on a lovely new piano hopefully with it's own stand. I have not managed to make the old keyboard properly connect with soft mozart software (I can't get it to play the notes through the keyboard). So I'm constantly swapping between two keyboards for E and for me. So it's a challenge to get the furniture exactly right at the moment. We do have a high stool downstairs though so I'll try this. But it might be too high.

I will keep my enthusiasm measured and try not to overwhelm my little one! Today she was not very keen but she did sing about half the notes of HCB so I gave her double cakes! She totally lost enthusiasm after playing once though.

I find I also need to schedule practice time just before something else interesting ( such as a trip to the park) to keep the motivation up. That way we can say, let's just play one song and then go to the park....

Thanks Manda. I totally agree - our main issue is motivation ( this is true with ALL our early learning - I have the same problem with Maths!). I think once she gets in the habit of playing then the piano skills will come much more easily.

Btw - in case I mislead with my post - she is playing the left hand of HCB using two hands - not both parts together. Shes not keen on trying to do it with one hand. I decided to try it early because she showed an interest in that side of the screen. I think the do-mi-so chord from Little Musician has really helped solidify the concept of the do- so chord in HCB. I do think these two programmes work brilliantly together.