Titus, 3yo and Juli, adult Progress Diary

Thank you so much Hellene and Andrea for your replies and advice. I know I have not been on here in awhile. We have a lot going on at home, putting in new floors and travelling, but even though I have not posted much on the forum, we have been working with Soft Mozart diligently. I am now more than halfway through Hellene's book, and we have been practicing singing Solfegio every day.

My husband and I have been practicing with the five finger exercise and the Hannon's stretch exercises. Here are some videos below
J:

Me:




We have also been playing through each of the games in the Soft Mozart program.

The best so far: For the Note duration game, J played for 12 minutes, got to level 8, had 274 in the treasure chest, with 63 on the right side of the screen. For the Guess Key module, J played until 2:02 and got 204 points. For Gentle Piano, J tried Hot Cross Buns with both hands, got 33 of 37 on the left side and 82 on the right.

For the note duration game, I played for 10:45, got to level 9 with 335 points in the treasure box, and a 35 on the right of the screen. For hot cross buns on Gentle Piano with both hands, I got 36 out of 37, and a 25 on the right side of the screen. For the treble Clef game, I played for 10:05 and got 579 points. For the Guess Key module, I played until 1:07 and got 206 points.

Btw, I just got and read the digital manual and it is amazing! So helpful, thank you!

As far as TJ's progress, here is some videos of him enjoying our wall of musical notes:



In addition, here is a video of him on the Keyboard:


Since this video, on the keyboard, as suggested, we have removed the Little Music colors, because I can see how it can get confusing.

As far as the modules, we have been going through them, playing mostly the note duration and guess key schools, and holding TJ's hand for part of it, and letting him play himself for part, so I don't know how informative the scores are, but here they are:
In Guess key, the best one we played until 1:04 and got 18 points in the treasure chest.
In Note duration, we played until 3:53, got to level 2, had 43 points in the treasure chest, and 112 on the right side of the screen (like I said, I would sometimes hold his hand and show him when to let go, and sometimes, would let him do it himself).

The most encouraging thing for me so far is to see him try to figure out which note is playing, or in the note duration game, he actually does understand that you hold it for a time, then let go, and if they are the same one after another, he actually starts getting the length of holding correct. When it super slows down, I help him, since he doesn't quite have the patience to keep his finger held down too long, but he loves both games and he loves watching Mamma and Pappa play their games. He loves to sit on our laps and just watch us play.

Just wanted to share my excitement for today! I have been working as much as I can with Soft Mozart and when it came, I literally did not remember much since I had not worked with a piano since I was 7 years old back in Russia. Well, I just love how I am catching on to things. I don't know if they are "coming back" to me, or if this is just such an effective teaching method, that I feel like I am learning so quick.

The most exciting thing for me happened yesterday. Thus far, I have just been trying to remember the notes by their symbols. I have been articulating, and singing them when I could. I have practiced them every which way, forward, backward, starting at different notes, skipping steps (not so good at this yet). But, nonetheless, just relating the symbol to the note name, not the sound yet. However, I noticed yesterday, I was playing the treble clef, base clef, note alphabet, and fruit line games and all of a sudden, for the first time, I felt like I "heard" the notes. Not exactly which was which, but in relation to one another. So, like in the treble clef game, the Do came out (the one that is in the middle of it), and then the higher Mi, and my mind instantly recognized that this was higher before I had even said the note out loud. This has not happened to me before, and in fact, at first I almost felt like I was cheating the game, cause I would listen for the notes instead of looking at the symbol (I mean, I would perceive the symbol, but I could hear the relation to other notes before I could remember the name of that symbol by sight). Anyways, excited, because as I was reading Hellene's book, I did realize that the way I was taught when young was just "cram[ming] and memorization... to a mechanical reading of music text". I could read from sheet music, but could not play by ear at all (given, I was only 7). I was never taught to listen to the notes, or to articulate them.

On another note, I did have some questions as I have been reading the book. On page 59-60 of the pdf of the book, it mentions the word "tonality" and how most people just learn one tonality "D major." It also mentions how "the singing of real music comprises of all the notes n Solfeggio in all 24 tonalites." I am very confused what a tonality is and what it means for there to be more than one, and what are the 24 tonalities?

Also, in learning all the cycles of Solfeggio (backward, forward, starting at different notes, skipping one, then two steps), I am not sure whether I should be trying to sing them or just say them? My fear when singing them without the use of the keyboard (just walking around or playing with TJ) is that I will be singing them wrong, and then that will get stuck in my brain, the wrong note for it (according to the adage "Practice doesn't make perfect. practice makes permanent). Should I just practice saying them, unless I am at a piano and can actually hear them to make sure I am singing the right notes, or should I be trying to sing them every time?

Also, looking at the 1 year lesson plan, it says "Learning how to place the cards in descending order - Do Ti La Sol Fa Mi Re Do. Flip one of the cards over and learn how to count to the missing card." what does it mean to count to the missing card? Am I counting, "1,2,3,4" etc from the start (in this case Do and going down) to the flipped over card? Is the idea, then, to figure out how far each card is from Do?

Sorry for the long post. I don't often get computer time for posting, so when I do, it tends to be long.

My latest scores:
Note duration after 10 min, Level 11, 428 coins, 23 on right side.
Gentle Piano: Hot Cross Buns, both hands, presentation 1, 37 of 37, 9 on the right side
Treble Clef: 8 min module time, 526 coins
Base Clef: 10 min module time, 770 coins
Guess Key: 2 min module time, 461 coins.
Fruit Lines: 10min module time, level 40, 695 coins
Note Alphabet: 10 min module time, 729 coins.

BTW, I take screenshots of all this and it actually takes awhile to type. Is it more helpful to have it in the above presentation (typed out) or just post the screenshot?

Hellene,
Thank you so much for the clarifying responses and for your book, and for this amazing amazing software/system.

Sonya,
No need to be sorry. I love that we even have SM icons for Little Musician. It has actually been amazing how quick TJ caught on once there was a symbol with the color. He is definitely starting to recognize the symbols, and I think it still looks nice with the colors within little Musician. I think it has provided us with a good transition, and when you post the new icon set, I am sure we wil love it too. Thank you so much for all your hard work. I am just getting to the part in the book about colors and I can definetly see what Hellene means about not being able to tie colors to notes, cause I have been watching LM with TJ for almost 6 months now, and I had no idea which note was which, but I have had SM for like a week and a half, and feel like I could actually name the notes when I see them (at least the ones in the middle from Do to Do).

The only thing I wish with the games was that there was a pause button, cause sometimes, I work so hard for a good score, and I just need to get up to get something and come back:-)