Introducing Piano to Children with Soft Mozart: A Comprehensive Guide by Lyubov Yanpolsky
My name is Lyubov Yanpolsky. I am a third-generation piano teacher.
When my older daughter turned three, I started thinking about how to introduce a small child to piano playing. Music has always been present in our home.
After a thorough examination of existing methods and extensive research online, I chose the 'Soft Mozart' program. It turned out to be the right choice.
As teachers, we may not realize just how challenging it is for a child to master the fundamental processes of piano playing, which seem natural and familiar to us.
The 'Soft Mozart' program is a significant discovery for children, their parents, and teachers alike.
It allows both young children and adults, who always wished to learn piano but didn't have the chance as kids, to practically engage with piano playing from the first lessons.
The program is unique in its approach, presenting all the basic elements of piano playing in a clear and comprehensible manner:
- Musical alphabet,
- Rhythm,
- Introduction to and mastering of the keyboard,
- Reading notes in treble and bass clefs,
- Coordination between the hands.
In the central game 'Gentle Piano,' all these skills come together as a cohesive whole.
Like all early development methods, sessions with the 'Soft Mozart' program lay a subconscious foundation for professional concepts and skills. The educational materials are presented in a colorful and accessible format, enabling children to grasp them intuitively.
The 'Soft Mozart' program does not replace a piano teacher. Instead, it serves as an indispensable aid for both teachers and students, useful in classroom settings and for home practice.
The music education system in Israel is far from ideal. In the music schools, called 'Conservatorion,' parents can choose lesson durations based on their financial capacity. Typically, these lessons can be an hour per week divided into two 30-minute sessions, or 45 or 30 minutes per week. Most students have one session a week for 30 or 45 minutes.
Music is a language. Learning a new language starts with the basics—learning the alphabet, understanding the significance of each letter, building syllables, forming words, constructing sentences, and creating stories. Many students get stuck in the early stages and never reach the more interesting and captivating depths of the musical language. A critical condition for learning a language is spending ample time in the linguistic environment—in our case, this means listening to music and practicing at home regularly.
How many children rush to the piano to joyfully practice reading music, scales, and exercises on their own?
Modern children face numerous distractions like computers, gaming consoles, and mobile phones, where pressing a single button or a simple combination leads to immediate gratification through earned points or progression to a new level.
Home practice may seem too abstract to a child, with no tangible or immediate results. This is where the program comes in. On one hand, the child is doing what they love—playing a computer game—while on the other, they are building note-reading and piano-playing skills.
The program tracks the number of correct notes played, shows the child where they went wrong—whether in rhythm or note location—and guides them on how to correct it. It also tracks the time taken to play a segment or the entire piece. The smoother the performance, the less time it takes. The program allows students to learn new pieces with each hand separately and practice challenging sections or transitions.
When a child or parent records the points from several consecutive plays, this visualizes the progress of independent practice, motivating the child to play again and again to improve their score.
My two daughters and all my young students enjoy learning new pieces. They refine their performances to a concert level, driven by the desire to 'beat' the computer, teacher, or parent.
How often do we spend significant time during lessons correcting improperly learned notes at home? How often do children struggle with sharps or flats that refuse to stick in their ears, hands, or minds? With home practice using the program, this can be avoided.
Both parents and students see and celebrate small successes, which, with consistent practice, turn into significant achievements.
Using the 'Soft Mozart' program at the early stage helps ease the correct setup for piano playing, benefiting both the teacher and the student. As the child's mind is relieved from the burden of reading notes and finding them on the keyboard, they can focus on and memorize the correct physical and auditory sensations of the sounds they produce.
Transitioning from colorful notes with pictures to standard black-and-white notes is relatively smooth, because the student is already familiar with the complete note map in both treble and bass clefs, in various directions and configurations.
The sheet music library in the 'Soft Mozart' program contains a diverse range of pieces, etudes, sonatinas, and exercises. Recently, a unique feature was added, allowing any piece to be converted into the program's language at the request of the teacher or student.
The 'Soft Mozart' program is an excellent launching pad for talented children, allowing them to swiftly master the basics and gain the freedom to express themselves more fully through music.
Lubov Yanpolsky website