Tips from Soft Mozart forum teachers

I thought it's the best place to have this thread, but if you have other suggestions, please share.

Let's post here teaching tips from teachers who are posting!
There are many teachers and the advice coming from each is very useful either for parents or for another teacher using Soft Mozart.

Rules of posting here, to be fair and clear:
- say the age group or the age of the student the tip is referring at
- quote
- post the link to the original message
- if needed, add the subject it refers at (see below, an example)

I'm coming with the idea, so I'll start:


Hellene, advice to a mom of a 6 year old and a 3 year old, regarding piano technique and sight-reading:

hellene wrote: Linzy, here is the trick:
we suppose to work in 2 directions:

1. Piano technique. The goal is to play piano pieces smoothly, with steady rhythm and with character. For that it is better to choose presentations 1 and 3, because they have notes names. It is important, because with extra visual support the muscles and fine motor skills are getting developed properly, with no stress.
These pieces should be memorized, practiced with metronome and polished.

2. Sight-reading. For that we use Nursery Primer, Favorite Classics primer on 2 and 4, 5 or 6. Don't hurry to get to 6th asap. Let the child to completely understand the visual connection between lines, spaces and keys. Play such pieces in bulk. Break the task into semi-tasks:
a. set the goal (let's make no more then 5 mistakes in all the pieces of entire Album)
b. start playing R or L, after that P
c. Do not worry about playing artistically. Let's start with simple - make as little mistakes as possible in a minimum time

Galka (as I don't speak Russian I haven't figured out yet if she's a teacher or not - can someone tell me? - , but she's teaching her child so we may include her too),
to a mom of a 2.4 years old little girl regarding the girl's desire to learn to play violin but her refuse to do the finger exercises or practice piano (to develop skills):

Galka wrote: Можно объяснить Ярославушке, что:
- все скрипачи обязательно учатся играть на пианино;
- чтобы играть на скрипке, нужно сначала выучить ноты и звукоряды;
- у скрипачей должен быть очень хороший слух, поэтому нужно очень хорошо узнавать по слуху ноты и аккорды;
- скрипку очень сложно держать правильно, поэтому необходима гимнастика. Можно учить ее удерживать под подбородком какой-нибудь предмет, прижимая его к плечу, дать палочку и учить ее держать как смычок.
- изучить строение скрипки, четыре струны - четыре ноты;
Ее желание играть на скрипке лучше использовать как рычаг для обучения на фортепиано, для работы над слухом и для изучения нотной грамоты

Galka wrote: You can explain Yaroslavushka that:
- All violinists necessarily learn to play the piano;
- To play the violin, you must first learn the notes and the scales;
- For the violin you should have a very good ear, so you need to know very well and hear notes and chords;
- It's very difficult to hold the violin properly, so you need gymnastics. You can teach her to hold an object under hes chin, pressing it to her shoulder, and a stick to teach her how to hold the bow.
- To study the structure of the violin, four strings - four notes;
Her desire to play the violin is better to use as a tool to study the piano, to work on the pitch and to study musical notation

Hellene to a 2 (almost 3) year old who's playing with Soft Mozart in Gentle Piano, regarding how much he presses the keys:

hellene wrote: Nicholas, you are wonderful!
Just please do not wake Mr Oops up! When you lift your fingers off the keys, he shows up and saying: You woke me up, dude!
Keep your finger down 'till you see a butterfly

Hellene, regarding Chromatic Scale (Black Cat, White Cat):

hellene wrote: [...] this exercise is very important for right and left hemispheres connection, because the fingering of right and left hands are different between mi-fa and ti-do. This is why beginners slow down, when getting to these spots

Manda, about the Songs Library , answering to a question:

Mandabplus3 wrote: Welcome Karen!
The songs library was added because I noticed my children were playing the songs they recognised the tune to MUCH better than any tunes they were unfamiliar with. I also played the familiar tunes much better. I made a comment on the forum about it and Hellene added all the songs to a library for us to access! ( pretty nice of her hey! )

So the idea is to download all the music for the songs you are learning and the one you will learn next. Play them as background music so the tune seeps into your subconscious and conscious mind.

It takes an idea from Suzuki piano where the children are given a music cd to listens to weeks before they start the piece. They also invite the children to come to class early and listen to other students play. Then when they actually start to play they already know the rhythm, tempo and note sounds.
All they have to do is add the piano

Note: Manda is a mom of 3 children, with an ever growing experience in teaching them at home, and surrounded by piano teachers or at least this is my impression, she knows so much!