Preparatory C (from 5+). Lesson 4

Why starting with #softmozart today is only choice for successful music foundation? 

It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Eye-Hand Span in exact numbers as crucial breakthrough in music education that music pedagogy could only dream of.

Our interactive modules are an excellent toolkit. Using these modules to work with a music text eliminates the need for the constant presence of a teacher.

 Mistakes in music lessons are of two types:
1. Errors in playing the musical text (if a student presses a wrong note, with the wrong finger or plays it rhythmically incorrect). These are "student" mistakes and they are the most common.
2. Errors in interpretation (if a student plays Beethoven with the sound of Chopin's touch). These are not student problems and require a "master class" with an experienced musician.

Most often, it is the errors of the first kind that are a stumbling block for the teacher and the student when they study remotely!

A strong, reliable sense of rhythm and timing is an important aspect of any music making.

When learning without #softmozat technology, any time lag is critical and interferes with a healthy workflow. If the Internet gives a delay in sound, this is really critical when communicating using Zoom or Skype. Our approach, in which we use an accurate measurement of Eye-Hand Span or EHS, is more effective in telecommuting.

The Gentle Piano^® module contains numbers to help a person understand, to the nearest second, where a beginner's skills are.

What is Eye-Hand Span - EHS?

Eye-Hand Span in the Soft Mozart technology, namely its most important part of it -- the  Gentle Piano^® module - -- is the exact time measurement that it takes for a beginner to see and register a note or several notes in short memory, turn his/her eyes to the corresponding key(s) and press it/them.

In fact, EHS is the MOST IMPORTANT thing in music education.

If EHS approaches or equals 0 (for the number of notes off and the amount of time lag), then reading notes with 10 fingers occurs so quickly that the performer has time to see the entire text both forward and backward, think about phrasing and articulation and sound quality, consider the composer's style, and be aware of much, much more.

Have you ever met such pianists in life who took any unfamiliar sheet music and played it with feeling, sense, and arrangement? This is it -- it is an EHS approaching 0.

Any teacher of music and piano, evaluating the playing of his/her student, can intuitively evaluate EHS in one way or another when the student plays a particular piece. But this tool is especially valuable for parents, who can use it to understand whether or not there is progress in homework.

If the EHS is very large and the reader barely moves from bar to bar, then, as a rule, the teacher using a traditional approach drills it with the student from bar to bar accordingly. There is an element of "staffing" so that between lessons the student can practice playing what he/she has learned at least by heart. And then whatever is memorized without thinking is considered success! If the text is memorized correctly -- on the next lesson you can memorize a few more bars. If the text is memorized incorrectly -- you have to start by relearning the incorrectly memorized segment mostly from the teacher's hand.

This is exactly how, slowly and difficultly, classes are held where it is impossible to track the EHS.

That is why you must definitely master the new technology of learning to play the piano remotely with an accurate measurement of EHS.

How does it work?

 1. Visually, each student can adjust the score to their own eyes by pressing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 to change the format of the text in the Gentle Piano^® module

A beginner does not need a teacher to point out a text error or a notesound not pressed long enough or pressed way too long. The text will "communicate" with the student in such a way that he/she simply will not miss any mistake that is made.

2. Each student can choose the pace, the reading speed, the gentlest mode for his muscular system all by him/herself. Well, no one is an enemy of oneself. We choose what we can do and accept challenges when we feel like it.

3. Delays or time lag is given in exact numbers. And now, having played the text at the most optimal visual-motor level for oneself, the student can see the result of the EHS in exact numbers.

And then it is precisely on these figures that the teacher can come in to play and help decide what to do next and how to work further to ensure that mistakes, as well as time delays, are as small as possible.

And then it is precisely on these figures that the teacher can decide what to do next and how to work to minimize mistakes, as well as time delays.

I always like to use this video as an example because it shows how independent even a 3-year-old child can be if the teacher chooses the right path of development based on the EHS numbers.

And for this, shouting into the Internet space of Skype or Zoom is not at all necessary! You need to look at the numbers, see how the student is playing in real time or on an uploaded video -- and show the Soft Mozart specialist along with the numbers obtained during the work on the piano piece.

The expert opinion of a specialist certified to work with the Soft Mozart system will be much more accurate and useful than ordinary comments without relying on specific data.