Thank you very much for sharing the results with us!
Keep your practicing routine. There is couple of suggestions I have for you, though:
1. It is OK to explore more piano pieces by playing excerpts (do you know, how to cut sections BTW?) from them or playing only one hand at a time. Cooper may get bored with mastering only 1 piano piece and snick pick at different music may keep him motivated.
2. It’s OK, when the numbers are not improving: young beginners’ progress sometimes is not shown in figures.
Happy learning!
Thank you for your suggestions last email. Cooper is loving piano lessons, he asks to do it multiple times a day. He has loved playing the new piece. Here is what we've been up to this week.
Week: 18th - 24th May 2014
1. Music Appreciation: We are listening to Engelbert Humperdinck - Hansel and Gretel - The Overture. I have been playing Slumber Song on Gentle Piano to go along with this.
2. Theory: We continued with Re to Re, with the music CD and cards this week.
3. Finger Exercises:
- We continued practicing our five finger exercises with both left, right and two hands together.
- I also introduced the the first five notes in the chromatic scale with the black cat and white cat fingers - right hand.
4. Guess Key School: Cooper played for three minutes with right hand, also singing along.
5. Gentle Piano:
- Cooper continued to practice Hot Cross Buns with both left and right hands separately and we started playing with both hands this week.
- After receiving your reply we also started on French Song, with right hand. I'll introduce left hand this week.
Results:
Hot Cross Buns
Monday Right 12/15 26 - 13/15 13 Left 17/22 36 - 19/22 35 Two hands 31/37 103
Tuesday Right 12/15 11 - 13/15 14 Left 22/22 32 - 16/22 33 Two hands
Wednesday Right 14/15 10 - 15/15 6 Left 16/22 35 - 17/22 28 Two hands 30/37 69
Thursday Right 14/15 8 - Left 18/22 38 - 20/22 24 Two hands 31/37 83
French Song
Wednesday Right 18/20 54
Thursday Right 20/28 34
Daniele, excellent results!
I have 2 suggestions:
1. You have touch sensitive keyboard. It is too early for Cooper to control strength of pushing the keys. Please, turn the touch sensitive option off, when he is practicing. We will use it later.
2. We need to tune the sound of the program. It has to come from piano. Please, go to ALL PROGRAMS - TOOLS - TUNING - Sound play back. Switch to anothe option. Let me know, if it works!
Wow, thank you for letting me know about the sensitive touch and the sound output. It has made a world of difference. We are seeing great improvement each week and he loves learning new things. Here's what we got up to this week.
Week: 1st - 7th June 2014
1. Music Appreciation: We are listening to Engelbert Humperdinck - Hansel and Gretel - The Overture. I have been playing Slumber Song on Gentle Piano.
2. Theory: We continued with Re to Re, with the music CD and cards this week. I will start on Mi to Mi next week.
3. Finger Exercises:
- We continued practicing our five finger exercises with both left, right and two hands together.
- We learnt more of the chromatic scale with the black cat, white cat and mouse fingers. We are doing one octave ascending and descending with the right hand.
4. Guess Key School: Cooper played for three minutes with right hand, also singing along. Do we ever get them to do it with their left hands?
5. Gentle Piano:
- Cooper continued to practice Hot Cross Buns with both left, right and both hands this week.
- We continued learning French Song, with the right hand and started doing the left a couple of times.
Results:
Hot Cross Buns
Monday Right 14/15 8 - 15/15 7 Left 20/22 26 - 20/22 20 Two hands 34/37 68 - 33/37 42
Tuesday Right 13/15 9 - 13/15 13 Left 21/22 27 - 21/22 16 Two hands 28/37 62
Wednesday Right 15/15 4 - 13/15 3 Left 22/22 16 - 20/22 36 Two hands 36/37 33 - 31/37 68
Thursday Right 15/15 8 - 14/15 10 Left 22/22 15 - 20/22 16 Two hands 33/37 54 - 33/37 42
French song
Monday Right 24/28 43 - 23/28 38
Tuesday Right 23/28 41
Wednesday Right 23/28 34 - 23/28 50 Left 20/20 22 - 20/20 21
Thursday Right 23/28 38 - 20/28 37 Left 19/20 18 - 20/20 16
I'll make another video for next week so you can see his progress. Could you tell me, how do I know when to introduce a new song? And when would he move onto the next level of difficultly for gentle piano? I know he's not anywhere near ready but what are you looking for? He has picked up French song really quickly with separate hands. I was surprised how easy it was for him.
