Preparatory B (from 3 to 5). Lesson 16
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Stages of Development of the Hands. Something That Both Teachers and Parents Should Be Aware Of.
The development of the awareness of the fingers
As was mentioned earlier, a child's fingers become independent and require further development as early as the age of two. I hope you already witness it with your own eyes with your little tot.
Usually, a child can count his fingers and give them names, but he does this slowly, out loud or repeating the sequence to himself.
For a more effective development of this skill we need to follow the practice of temporarily connecting the fingers to the names of the notes. So, on the right hand, the fingers from thumb to little finger are called, for example–Do Re Mi Fa and So.
At school and at home, teachers and parents should conduct regular exercises in regard to the awareness of each finger.
Practice *optional*: If your child still having problems with his fingers awareness you can buy play-doh and make holes in it–a little 'house' for each finger. Put the child's fingers in them and ask one or another of the fingers, 'to come out of it's house' as finger Door, Rain, Mirror etc. This is another fun and creative way to build your child fingers' awareness.
Playing, using the Gentle Piano program, requires first and foremost from the child, the formation of hand-eye coordination. Only after that, your child will be able to focus on the next task: fingering or controlling his fine motor skills.
Fingering Management
When toddlers are just starting to learn, any fingering is correct.
Our first objective is to establish, in the child, simultaneous operation of his vision, hearing, motor skills and voice, so that he can easily find the note and the corresponding key, to hear the sound and to sing the notes correctly.
As long as the child plays from note to note, and the time 'temperature' he is searching exceeds the number of notes played, we must understand that the hand-eye coordination of the child is still in the development stage. Do not ask your child to use the proper fingering at this stage! 
Moreover, it is better to give the child the opportunity to listen to the whole piece, but work on a small fragment. For children, with serious difficultieswith developing coordination, one to three notes can be chosen to work on.
The main rule here is–reasonable gradualism. You do not give your child breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time, once a day, do you?
Teaching fingering notation to younger preschool age children, at the beginning of working on a piece, is a task that is not only difficult to achieve, but it is also completely useless. As was mentioned earlier, the selection of comfortable sequence of fingering should be the conscious action of the little one himself.
On this video, the child herself came to the correct use of her fingers after improving her skills of playing the piece.
We are preparing in advance for the child to be able to correctly choose which fingers to use, with the help of working on the awareness of the names of the fingers, games exercises and the pieces of Gentle Piano. As soon as the child develops fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, he easily finds the 'right' fingers himself, or is willingly to listen to our advice, about which fingering to use.
It is necessary to overcome 'the traditional music teaching syndrome' and allow your child to use whichever finger he feels comfortable with. Patience is required to wait till the toddler wants to change something and to include all the remaining fingers in his playing.
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1. If you play the Chromatic scale with confidence, speed up the pace of its performance.
2. Watch the video of one of our students. Did the student stop correctly? Which key did you need to stop on?
3. Try to play the Chromatic scale faster and stop at DO up and down.
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Today we start working with our interactive 
Note Alphabet® module.
What do you need to know about our theory modules from pedagogical point of view?
The use of software modules should be introduced gradually.
How many minutes do you need to study with the module? This decision should be made based on the child's concentration level.
We need to press F1 and stop playing at the first sign of fatigue or loss of concentration. Remember: it is not the number of minutes that matters, but the comfort and interest of the child. So don't ask the question, "How many minutes should the child play?" Put the question differently: "How long does it take for a early learner to work comfortably?"
Even if it's just a few seconds of attention, these seconds should be used to help you get things done. All modules of the program are based on such an algorithm that takes into account every movement of the student and slows down to a complete stop when a large number of errors occur. If the child makes quick and correct decisions, the program takes him to more difficult, faster levels.
This is why you don’t need to help your child. This will only disrupt the work of the program algorithm.
It is not necessary to give the kid more than 10 minutes of game time to play, even if he/she has a "sports interest" woke up. The algorithm was created so that it does not exhaust the child, but stimulates his/her progress in the field of attention, not endurance.
Goal:
This module helps the player to memorize the music note name order: A-B- C-D-E-F-G or Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti. It gives a student the skills needed to relate one note to another and to easily read notes in any forward or backward sequence.
Rules
Use LEFT and RIGHT arrows to put falling notes into the correct note name order. Use Space key to make a note fall faster if the note is in the correct position.
Computer control keys
LEFT arrow - Move falling notes left or down.
RIGHT arrow - Move falling notes right or up.
Space key - Make note fall faster.
A - Switch the program to Alphabetic (A, B, C ...) note names
I - Switch the program to Italian (Solfeggio: Do, Re, Mi...) note
names
Ctr-X - Exit the program.
Tips
- Play several notes in a row correctly (the number depends of the module stage) and the program will switch to the next level of difficulty. You will get more points for every correctly played note, but notes will move faster.
- If you make two mistakes in a row, the program will switch to a lower level of difficulty.
Few words...
This module addresses the important fact that a playing musician, consciously or subconsciously, constantly reads notes in an ascending or descending order. This module provides exercises to help the student to expertly read the music notes in a precise order and be able to immediately identify any following or preceding note.
An advanced student can finish the module in 30 minutes (20 minutes of playing time), but beginners should start by only playing for a short time. Please, contact our professionals for your customized guidelines for playing this module!
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If your child is developing faster or slower than our plans suggest, we recommend writing to us at admin@softmozart.com to start working with our certified specialists.
1. Repeat all of your previous piano pieces
2. "A New Year's Tree"- memorize separate and both hands R-RH, L-LH, P-PH. Try to make minimum mistakes with the minimum time lag.
3. "Ode to Joy" : R1, R3, L1, L3, P1, P3
Music Sight-Reading: Russian Dance from "Nutcracker"
Play R3, L3, P3
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Keep looking for new interpretation of the "Russian Dance" on the Internet listen and compare the performances
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Visit our Soft Mozart forum and start your progress diary here. Use the current year section. This is the place for you to ask questions and share your experiences.
At least 2 photos and 1-2 videos of the listed activities will count towards your child's credits for the graduation DIPLOMA. Please upload the video to You Tube, copy the address from the BROWSER window and paste it into your Progress Diary. Do not forget to indicate the year and type of work in the description of your Soft Mozart Academy photo / video.
Sincerely Yours,
Hellene Hiner
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