Progress of Mel02 -- 4.5 year old (4th week)

This is the 4th week of Melody playing

before Melody was able to sing Do to Do, we used 1,2, 3.... 7, 1 for Do to Do and recognized all the Do in the keyboard and played 1-5 and 5-1 before our knowing about SM.

1st week, practiced with the demo one "ode To Joy", and play 1-7,1 and reverse. At the end of the week, was able to do both hand separately 1-1 forward and backward.

2nd week, practiced demo "ode to joy", and Hanon#1, forward. At the end of the week, she enjoyed playing Hanon from keyboard one side to the end right hand. Play with left hand too, but less.

3rd week, practice demo "ode to joy", we got SM about Feb.28, the last few days in the week and then tried "Hot Cross Bun", "French Song". At the end of the week, able to play "ode to joy", "Hot Cross Bun", "French Song" PH, the score was good but not stable. (will put score later). Using most time P6.

4th week, continue "ode to joy", "hot cross Bun", "French Song", trying "Jingle Bell" right hand.

Helene told us before that "ode to joy" is more advanced, it seems right, after doing well on "ode to joy", "hot cross bun", "French Song" took less time.

Things noticed:

1. Melody is doing better in score (key and time) when sing or when notes are hidden (PH). Suspect that not fully reading the sheet.

2. When do Hannon#1, it is not all note played have the same duration. Shall we try to make the duration even on all note in this stage? Or when shall we start paying attention to the duration. (when do the finger play, shall we pay attention to rhyme too?)

3. Thumb touched the keyboard by left side of the finger. Pinky finger are more on the right side of the finger. I guess pinky finger is wrong, how to correct it, shall we correct it right now, will bad habit form?

Please let us know what areas we might be missing...

Btw, we happened to hit on stuffy animal approach and it is fun -- so want to share with others. Now we are having more and more stuff animals sitting on the keyboard to listen Melody play and are the fans of her. It works super well in the beginning two weeks --- the animals can be very enthusiastic or stiff or take easy or disagree -- and Melody listens to them without objection. And whenever Melody did well and the fans are applauding, Melody are giving then the food -- honey for the bears and bee, ice fro snow man, mosquito for frogs...

Here is the SM:

1st week, did not write score until read about it in forum

2nd week (2/17-2/23) : Ode To Joy
worst score: R1 (28/50) R2 (24/88) L1 (15/42) P3(39/85)
best score: R3 (29/29) P(47/40) L1 (18/6)

3rd week (2/24-3/3):
Ode To Joy: P6 41/58 -> 47/26
Hot Cross Bun: P6 ( 37/26) PH (37/22)
French Song: PH (48/31)

4th week (3/3-3/6):
Hot Cross Bun: P5 (36/9)
French Song: R2 (28/3) P6 (48/21)
Jingle Bell: P6 (73/92) --> R5 (44/


In presentation 1, 3, is that only the yellow line reminds about the note duration, not like in presentation 5, 6, we can see directly from notes.

hellene wrote:

Tell her that RH now is a 'teacher' and LH is a 'student'. Pinky is a 'baby' and thumb is a 'nanny'. Fingers of both hands should be at the same pictures/letters.

Do you mean we should try two hands together for these current finger playing --- Hanon#1 and 1-1 and any future finger playing?

Please, don't hurry to use P6. When fine motor skills are getting developed smoothly with support of the vision, they won't be stressed out as much. It is very important for the beginners to see lines and spaces in their straight and bold connection with piano keys.

Because we used sheet before, so P6 is kind of familiar in style to us especially when we can see the whole picture. Do you mean vertical staff will be easier for the beginner to see connection? I have been wondering what is going in the mind for what you say of the foundation of all senses and the map of keys in the head by using of SM. I observed that Melody looked at the sheet and then also check the keyboard sometimes. And she recognized that 4 (Fa) and 6 (La) together is different from 4 and 5 (Sol) together by herself. So she might be reading a bit. I am not sure when we read the sheet, in the musician head, will it be translate to 1 (Do) to high 1 (Do) and ... and then map to keys or will it be directly from notes on sheet to piano keys or will it be translate to singing note and keys at the same time, then the singing note to ear to guide, keys to finger to act?

You have listed the senses as the leg of a steady table with vase and cat on the table. But how do the senses work together at the same moment, I am not clear (I am not there ).

Do you hide the notes to memorize the pieces?

Yes. More exactly, we would sing the song (right hand) as a game here and there during day, like when eating snack or playing in the park or before get up -- seems the voice part is much quicker than hand. Then somehow when we did PH, she also most time remembers the left hand. Is this right in order? Is there an order?

Exactly! Without visual support she relies mostly on her muscle memory and ear. It is better to learn these pieces on P1 and P3 and sing the notes.
After Introductory Level, please, divide your lessons into sight-reading (playing Nursery Primer, Favorite Classics Primer) by R, L and P 2,4,5 and 6. The goal is to play entire Album and make no more then 3 mistakes (for example)
The pieces from Fav Classics 1, Nursery 1 and Boogie 1 (for recital) are better to kearn on 1 or 3 (with support of vision)
Later, after coordination development, we will gradually move to more advanced level. It is never too late!

One thing I don't understand --- when we say sight-read, do we mean by singing it with 1 (Do) to 1(Do) or say it with 1-1 or ABC. When we say play entire Album and make no more than 3 mistake, then do we mean by playing on keyboard, "Album" means all the 500+ songs in library or means under each category, like "Nursery Album" is one Album? How to check mistake -- by listening or by playing in SM?

I wrote about this in the book 'You CAN be a musician'. Did you have a chance to download?

Yes. downloaded and read most parts.

Thanks to know that our post is useful.

I am not too sure if Melody reads the note, it is just a more familiar way P5, P6 and more of a whole picture, but we will do more with P1 and P3 as Helene suggested.

As for note duration, when I explained using candies, say one should get two candies, one should get one candies, she seems to catch it.