Preparatory C (from 5+). Lesson 9
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It is time to learn a little about your home environment creation for the music lessons with your toddler.
Today we are going to learn the best practices in organizing your learning/teaching space.
Did you set aside a certain area in your home for music lessons? Hopefully, this place can be kept entirely for this purpose. Music education is going to be part of your household now, and in an ideal world your child should have access to our program all the time.
It should be as accessible as their favorite games, toys or books. Therefore, if you have an old computer (so old that you already thinking of throwing it out), connect it to your keyboard or digital piano and dedicate this machine entirely for music lessons. Our software doesn’t require much memory or extra gadgets. Even 10-year-old computer could work well. If you do not have such a computer, ask your friends or relatives. They may be very grateful that you can help them to get rid of their ‘piece of junk’ or ‘dust collector’.
The rule of thumb here is to have as much fun as possible during the process of learning and maintain a regular practice schedule.
Do not ever compare your results with the results of other people on our forum. There is no need to cry: «Оh my, we are so far behind!» When you are learning music, your initial progress might be fast or it might be slow.
I have heard many stories of people who have started very slow and then found their footing and progressed so much that nobody and nothing would dare to stop them. The goal of your learning is personal growth. The program is built for you and you are competing with nobody, but yourself!
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1. Learn to play the exercise "Chromatic Scale" from PE in a diverging motion:
- put two thumbs of the right and left hand on the PE key
- play the exercise in the opposite direction. The fingers in both hands are the same, which makes the task easier.
Video example:
2. Keep practicing 5 fingers, Rainbow, Spookie Wind exercises.
3. Piano Hand Position Exercises by Olga Egorova: "Visiting hands". Keep mastering
For that, please, open the Soft Mozart folder and find the 
Guess Key® teaches your child to find a piano key by note name or symbol. This is the best tool for training many important skills: eye-hand coordination, pitch recognition. fine motor skills, ability to focus on a moving object and shift eye focus between the computer screen and piano keys.
Rules
Press any piano key with a note name (sticker) corresponding with a symbol on falling fruit or flower bud. If several notes in a row are played correctly (the number depends of the module stage), the program will switch to the next level of difficulty. Every correct note will give more points, but notes will move faster. Two mistakes in a row will switch the module to the lower level of difficulty. You have 7 different trees to complete to finish the module.
Tips:
Use any convenient octave on the piano keyboard. Play with only one hand, left or right. Try not to look at the piano keys while playing.
Few words...
The module concentrates on notes within a single octave, which helps the student to recognize the keys much faster, even without looking at the piano keyboard. This basic skill is crucial for piano playing because this key pattern is the same throughout all octaves. For beginners and small children, special key stickers may be used for orientation between keys. In advanced levels of difficulty, the rhythm of the program forces a student to use only finger touch and hand coordination to find the correct key, without looking at the piano keyboard. An advanced student can finish the module in 27 minutes (5 minutes module time), but the timing schedule for beginners should be used in moderation. Please, contact our professionals for your customized guidelines for playing this module! But this will happen in the future.
For now let's start working with your child:
Let your child to play the module for 30 seconds or 1 min of the game time.
Press F1 to stop the game.
Write the score down like this
Guess Key Module
Date played _______
Time ______
Points _______
Try to give your child this module as often as you can.
Always record the score!
If your child is not struggling with finding the keys, ask him/her to SING the names of the notes.
To avoid the distraction of attention, you may visually allocate the area of piano keys:
Play the module 3-5 minutes of the game time.
2. Learn to pronounce the First Circle of the Music Alphabet as quickly as possible. The best result is recorded on audio or * better "video.
Video sample of saying the circle faster:
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. Music sight-reading/sight-singing -
Gentle Piano®- Nursery Songs Primer. Play and sing Ba-Ba Black Ship - R1, R3, L1, L3, P1, P3
Video sample:
2. Piano piece for mastering:
Introductory Songs: "Jingle Bells" - A play to be performed.S, then R1 - R3, L1-L3 and P1-P3
Video samples:
R
L
P
You also may learn the piece - A New Year Tree - S, R1 - R3, L1-L3 и P1-P3
Video sample:3. Keep mastering the French Song with and without computer.
4. Repeat the Hot Cross Buns.
Create a video playing this piece for your progress diary.
P. Tchaikovsky "Nutcracker". "Мarch":
Choose your ТEASER - more simple or more advanced.
1. Simple version: download the LMZ file of the simple version of March, save it and add to your Song Library from this link.
2. More advanced version: Gentle Piano®
Nutcracker. Level 4.0
Cut the bars 1-8. Play R, L and P (press F1, if you need to see Hot Keys for cutting a segment of a song in Gentle Piano® )
Video sample:
3. Listen to the orchestra version of the "March":
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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
Video Success:
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All the lesson plans:
For 2+ students
For students from 3 to 5
For students 5+
Always check here, if we have any recital! You and your child will benefit a lot from participating in our concerts!
Your place to start your progress diary is here.