Maia (5 years old) and Camelia

This week was full of ups and downs for us (mostly downs), but in spite of that, we couldn't put our piano lessons on hold.
So, even if what I post today doesn't show much progress, I am so, so proud of my little angel, who made huge effort to ignore fever, almost constant sneezing, coughing and nose running.
When it comes to the piano, her mature determination makes me realize who much she loves this instrument, how much she strives for assimilating more and more information.

1. She keeps practicing, on regular basis, all the pieces she knows so far, plus the finger exercises: the “Five finger exercise”, “Hanon # 1” and the “Chromatic Scale”.
She managed to learn the left hand exercise, too, but she can’t “bring” them together, yet. This is a task for next week, when hopefully she gets better.
This is her video and, even if there are a few mistakes in it, I’m very proud of her:



2. As far as the interactive theory games, we added the “Note Duration School” game to our daily practice. Maia absolutely adores this game, as you can see in the video bellow:



Her latest score was 123 points in 4:52 minutes.



We also insisted on the “Note Alphabet School” game (379 points in 5:16 minutes):



3. She is slowly getting used to play with the teaching video, and this makes me extremely happy.

Here it is “French Song” (with and without metronome):





4. She practiced “Ode of Joy” a lot.
This is she playing it with the teaching video:



And here she is playing it with no stickers or help:



5. Yesterday, Maia met “Little Dog Gone” for the first time. This is she working on P3, P4 and P5:



Pretend play works like a charm with her. Therefore, I pretended not being able to sight-read and so, became her student. We had such a good time we definitely want to repeat this experience!



6. I totally fell in love with “Both Ways”!
My interpretation is far from being perfect, but I’m doing my best to improve it as much as possible.

Dear Hellene, thank you so, so much for the advice!!! I can see now your point and promise to follow your instructions in the future.

We have solved just now the situation with the computer sound and have placed an adjustable chair at the piano .

Oh, you are so kind - playing the piano has always been my dearest and deepest desire. I have never ever dared to think that I could be a piano teacher - it is so flattering, especially coming from you!!!

Thank you once again, and have a wonderful day!

Approximately 1 month and a half have passed since we are using the Soft Mozart program.

I can definitely say that choosing it was one of the best decisions we have ever made for our little one, and one of the best things that have ever happened to myself (I longed for touching the piano keys for 38 years, and now this dream of mine became reality!).

I wrote this intro because this morning, Maia asked me to come to the piano and see what she is able of… She wanted to show me that she really knows the piano keys by now!
I must mention that I have never rushed her into learning them; it all came softly, with this wonderful program:



Another huge performance of her stands in the following video. I think this is the softest, “cleanest” and most accurate interpretation of her:





Once again, thank you so much Hellene for this tremendous happiness you bring into our lives!

This week was full of magic for us: we listened to and read about Beethoven, Maia learnt how to cut long pieces into fragments, and began sight-reading (with P2), she made some progress with the Treble Staff Puzzle game, and last, but not least, she became more aware of what the word “largo” means in music (since we listened to Antonin Dvorak’s piece with the same name and she ever managed to learn how to play it with so much emotion).

1. Music appreciation – Ludwig van Beethoven

The first book we read is called “Beethoven si furtuna de sunete” (“Beethoven and the Sound Storm”), written by Cristina Andone.





Through this book, Maia got familiar with the basic information about this composer: he is the most courageous, energetic, “storm-like” composer, whose favourite musical instrument is the piano, best friend, a lion and favourite colour, red.
Here are the little Beethoven-doll and his friend, lion Ludwig, I made from polymer clay:



We continued our reading with “The Heroic Symphony”, written by Anna Harwell Celenza, a book that includes CD recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3 (“Eroica”) and a selection of “Overture to Goethe’s tragedy, Egmont”.





It encompasses the struggle Beethoven went through from the moment he began having serious ear problems. It is a book I highly recommend – although based on reality (so, it is not fiction), the story is written so beautifully, and captures the reader’s attention in no time.
Here is a fragment taken from the book:

Ludwig worked on the symphony for five long months, blending his own life story and his hopes as a composer into the heroic tale of Bonaparte. […]
“I will call it the Bonaparte Symphony”, said Ludwig. “It is a reflection of his courage and heroic character, his struggle against fate. The first movement is a battle scene. Shield against shield and helmet to helmet, Bonaparte fights the injustice that plagues us all”.
Ferdinand looked at the score. He could almost hear the music in his mind. Ludwig had transformed the timpani into cannon blasts, the horns into battle calls. The woodwinds sang a song of lament while the strings galloped forward across windswept fields. […]
Indeed Ludwig’s own fears and struggles, his battle against deafness and his fight against fate, had gone into the making of the music.

2. Hellene, thank you so much for advising us to sight-read with P2! God, this was a revelation for both of us – it is now in our daily routine cu read, at least 2 songs using P2.
This is a collage I made with Maia sight-reading “Turkish March”, “Melody”, “Etude Theme”, “Merry Widow”, “Largo”:



3. This is how she can cut the pieces into fragments:



4. Triads:


5. Her latest treble staff game score was 263 points in 5:48 minutes.



6. We also made this game we found among the pintables on the forum. Thank you so much for it!



7. Largo (Antonín Dvořák):
We first listened to Dvořák’s symphony:



Please, don’t miss this fabulous interpretation of the song “Going Home”, based on “Largo”. We both cried like little babies at hearing it:



When Maia really understood what the word “largo” means in music, we began learning how to play it.
Here she is playing with the teaching video (with and without metronome):



Oh and how much she likes it!
Here she is playing it with stickers:



And here, without stickers:



Happy learning, everyone, have a wonderful weekend!