Gentle Piano - What can be taught with Gentle Piano
Goal
This module teaches how to read, play and memorize music with the piano
keyboard.
Every time you play a note by pressing and holding the correct piano key,
you will get a point - a flower at the left bottom corner. Pressing a wrong
piano key marks the next note as “failed” - you will not get a point. Try to
make no mistakes and achieve the maximum score that corresponds with
the total number of notes.
The next step is to work on your timing. Look at the score in the bottom
right corner of the screen. You are trying to score as close to 0 as possible.
A higher score here shows any delay in your timing. A perfect score of 0
means that you have played the notes exactly according to the correct
timing of the piece.
Gradually, you should change note representation from the simplest to an
actual music score, using computer keys from 1 to 6. For children younger
than age 5 or 6, it is better to use the 1st to 4th positions only.
In position 1,2,3,4 and 5, the focus support line gives you a certain tempo
and you can't play faster than that, though you can play as slow as you wish.
Keys should be pressed just as the notes reach this line. In the right bottom
corner you see a timer showing how many seconds you are slower than the
“ideal” tempo. After you are familiar with the song you can try to reduce
these “late” seconds to a minimum. This will train the correct rhythm for
playing the song.
In the 6th position you will see the actual music score without the focus
support line, and you can play the song as fast as you wish. Here the time in
the bottom right corner represents the actual time that it takes you to
complete the piece rather than relating to your delay or tempo. The notes
to play have a reddish halo about them.
Monitoring your progress
We recommend that you record all music activities and scores in a special
journal for tracing the student's progress. You should include in it the
date, song name, staff position, whether playing with Right (R) hand, Left
hand (L) or both (P), your score and the timing delay score seconds.
Memorizing a song
In order to memorize a song, you can hide the notes you are going to play
by pressing H (hide). This can be used for notes for the left hand, right hand
or both hands. If you press the wrong key, the correct note appears to give
you a hint.
To see all notes, press V (visualize).
How to use Gentle PianoTM
1) Open Gentle PianoTM module.
2) Press computer key F (find a song) to choose and open a song.
3) Press S (song sound) to listen to the song you are going to play.
4) Begin with the simplest presentation by pressing 1 on computer keyboard.
5) Play with the right hand (press R), left hand (press L) and both hands
(press P).
6) After you are familiar with the song, use presentations 2, 3, 4, 5 and
(advanced) 6 to learn how to read and play the actual music score. For
learning to sight-read we recommend using positions 2, 4, 5 and 6 (with no
pictures/letters) to re-enforce visual recognition of the notes on the spaces
or lines.
7) Memorize the song by pressing H to hide the notes you are going to play.
You can use this option while playing left, right or both hands in any staff
representation position.
8) Select a difficult part of a song for special practice (press Ctr-Enter, play
the section and then Ctr-Backspace).
9) Learn a long song by selecting small parts and mastering them
individually.
10) Play a song with both hands memorized (PH) until you achieve the
perfect score.
11) Play a song with no computer.
12) Play a song with a metronome to improve your timing.
13) Find your song in our teaching videos to help you ‘polish’ it.
14) Put a video of you playing the song on You Tube and place a link to it in
your Progress Diary to receive individual guidance from Soft Mozart®
professionals about your performance.