Preparatory A (from 2+). Lesson 41
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Do you understand better now that your toddler's attention is energy and any 'leaks' weakens this source?
Internet is overloaded with the pictures of inattentive students at the pianos. If a child on a picture or a video wonders around and looking anywhere else, but keys and music notes, his attention is under risk of loosing all energy to the point of complete frustration and lose of interest. 
To avoid this from happening you as an instructor should let your toddler
To See the Key
In order to find the key that corresponds to a specific note, a student has to physically transfer visual focus from the music notation space to that of a keyboard. This is not an easy “project” for an untrained eye.
A synthesizer with stickers is the most convenient way of finding the keys, as the picture with the name of the note is right at the fingertips of a player. That is why it is best to use stickers for presentations and initial lessons with beginners.
As I previously mentioned, even in this case students might not be able to see and identify the desired key right away. To make it easier on the eye and to release attention, we can partially cover the keyboard or computer screen.
If a child finds the right key quickly, you can gradually make the task more difficult.
Once the toddler learns to shift his focus from music notation to the key, it's time to start working on a piano piece.
The best way to do it is to take a short passage of a piano piece, between 4 and 8 notes in length, and ask him to play it.
If playing time on the timer interval does not exceed the amount of notes played (for example, 4 notes played in 3 seconds), the attention of your child is ready for further development of the focal concentration.
Synthesizer with tabs (Key Guides) requires more attention: the student must shift visual focus from the music note to the picture and make sure that the picture corresponds to the key.
As a rule, the timer of the Gentle Piano immediately reflects this seemingly minor complication – the rate of delay increases. It tells us that attention has partially shifted towards solving physical problems.
Stickers can be replaced by music tabs (Piano Key Guides) once the student can play piano pieces at low rates of delay, almost without looking at his hands.
Using the keys without stickers and tabs is the most complex problem for a beginner. As a rule, the attention is directed towards solving physical problems:
- to see what to play,
- to find what to press, and
- to decide how much force to apply.
There are different methods that allow the novice to see the note and the key with “traditional” music notation and bare keys: white key search by location of black keys; memorizing the position of each note, and teacher’s tips. As stated earlier, these methods lead to attention overload.
If a student needs more than a second to find a note and a key, his attention is working overtime. Not only it doesn’t accumulate energy, it actually depletes it.
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Keep practicing Do (C Major) exercise octave up.
Repeat Hanon #1 and Chromatic scale
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GENTLE PIANO
1. Canon in D by Pachelbel.
1. Download the LMZ file of the excerpt here
2. Place cards in the same order as the melody of the Right hand goes.
3. 
Fruit lines - practice 1-2 min
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GENTLE PIANO
Canon in D by Pachelbel.
1. Learn how to play the piece by Right, Left and both hands
2. Ask your child to play the Right hand and sing the notes
3. Play the piece with your child (give him Right hand and play your part with Left)
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Canon in D by Pachelbel.
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Keep making videos and pictures of your toddler's accomplishments for his Diploma and your Certificate
At least 2 pictures and 1-2 videos of the listed activity will be counted towards your/your child's credits for graduation DIPLOMA. Please, upload the videos on You Tube, copy the address from the BROWSER window and past it in your Progress Diary. Don't forget to mention in the description of your photo/video Soft Mozart Academy, year and activity.
Enjoy this week spending quality time with your child, beautiful music and creativity!
Sincerely yours, Hellene Hiner.
Video sample:
PS
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for 24 months to 3 year old
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5+ year old
Intensive Course for Adults-beginners
Always check here, if there any recital in the progress! You and your child will benefit a lot from the participation.
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