Music Programs
Music programs are widely available in the current market. Among them is the educational music program "Soft Mozart" that some consider a "nontraditional" program. We don't find anything "nontraditional" about the Soft Mozart music program. All this program does is enrich the traditional Grand Staff with colors and pictures for beginners and utilize computer interactivity and animation to help students learn basic skills. Our program is just like other music programs, but more effective.
Music programs for beginners
Music programs are used most of the time in music lessons with all types of students, but "Soft Way to Mozart" is the only music program that teaches beginners (2 years old and up) as well as advanced students of any age. Our best music programs have been developed primarly for group lessons. With "Soft Way to Mozart" music program for beginners and adults, every student develops individually at his or her own pace. We can't say that all our students are prodigies, but they all enjoy knowing how to play many pieces and read music.
Music programs teach students differently. With Soft Mozart, no student ever stopped in the middle of performance because he or she forgot what to play next. That is because many of them are "cheaters": when our students are nervous, they know how to replace one Dominant chord with another or create their own cadence. Hearing our students play could make any other musician smile because they would see that with our music program, students are completely aware of what they are playing and can improvise if needed.
With other music programs, this depth of learning never happens for students of average skill, but with the Soft Mozart music program, the large amount of music that students play contributes to their ability to "cheat" when needed. Also, the Soft Mozart music program teaches students how to play chords to melodies by ear (Solfeggio and Chords curriculum). Knowing this skill helps beginners a lot!
Traditional music programs teach with sheet music and with no stickers or piano guides. Students and teachers feel obligated to get to this level as soon as possible. The Soft Way to Mozart music program is proof that there is no rush. Every child is develops at his or her own pace--when the time comes, the skill comes.
Music programs for advanced users
With other music programs, advanced students can make tiny mistakes when they practice reading from sheet music: they can overlook a rest sign or hold a half note as a quarter. They also can never really tell how many mistakes and rhythmical errors they make. However, when they sight read with the "Soft Way to Mozart" music program, they appreciate that it is more strict. No matter how advanced the students, learning to improve their playing gives them a sense of accomplishment .
Music programs for learning
Soft Mozart is a music program that supports developing piano technique and sight-reading. To develop piano technique, we use stickers on the piano keys. At first, many worry that students will rely on them forever, but this simply doesn’t happen. As soon as the students learn the keyboard's layout, they ask to remove them and replace them with piano key guides. After that they ALWAYS remove the guides if a previous student used them because they say the colors are distracting.
Music programs for learning how to play keyboards, digital pianos and acoustic grand pianos have to be interactive and gradual. The students will all look up to the grand piano and will work really hard to get there as soon as they can. With such an approach, moving to the grand piano is a goal and a trophy for them. They work as hard as possible to get there!