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1. Even though have had a fair amount of musical training and experience myself including many years of playing the piano and composing songs and music als when it came to teaching music to my daughter Felicity was often at a lossasto whatto do Unlike reading and math where there were established and proven methods of teaching babies and toddlers there was no baby toddler music program for me to follow or even a particular method to use asa guide We tried some music classes when she was a toddler but though they were fun for her it didn t teach many of the things wanted herto leam things which knew she had the ability and desire to leam Incorporating Early Leaming Methodologies After creating Little Reader and Little Math therefore started working on Little Musician incorporating a lot of the eany leaming and right brain philosophies that were the foundation of those two programs except the area concemed this time was music and musicality Little Musician is everything wished for when Felicity was a toddler In fact it has become even more than what wished for because back then wasn t even familiar with many of the things with which lam now familiar regarding what can be taught to little children Teaching with Little Musician The Importance of Solfege and Singing One such area was solf ge do re mi fa so etc Solf ge goes hand in hand with singing One thing feel very strongly about is th2. Gershwin pieces especially since often played them from memory But what about when had no sheet music in front of me Or what happened when with the passage of time could no longer remember the pieces What was actually able to play The answer NOTHING Surely don t mean that literally right How about a simple tune like Itsy Bitsy Spider Come on If could play all those piano concerto pieces that well surely could play Itsy Bitsy Spider Nope basically wouldn t have a clue how to play it Sure could give ita good guess But it would involve a little hunting and pecking and a lot of praying that I d play the correct note Teaching with Little Musician You see for all those years was taught and taught very well only how to translate notes ona page onto the keyboard through my fingers see a note and know which key to push And even if it s a difficult piece if you give me some time to practice could do it very well But if you don t show me the notes on paper then how am supposed to know which keys to push J ust from knowing what the melody sounds like Sorry doesn t help I can translate the music notes that SEE onto the keyboard but not the notes that HEAR whether extemally orintemally in my head That s because even though can reproduce a very complicated piece of music in my head complete with all the different parts basically have no idea what
3. Guide please see the comprehensive Little Musician FAQs section on our webste www BrillKids com gt Support gt Little Musician For more detailed information about your lea ming system please refer to the Little Musician manual You can access the manual from within Little Musician You can also get technical support through the forum Forum BrillKids com gt BrillKids Software gt Little Musician General Disc ussions If you have other questions orconcems please email us at www BrillKids com gt Home gt Contact Us Teaching with Little Musician 3 THE LITILE MUSICIAN CURRICULUM Little Musician contains many different types of lessons covering many different aspects of music In Semesters 1 and 2 of the curriculum you will see these types of lessons more than once a session in some cases Chord Recognition There are nine chords that we want your child to be able to recognize instantly For you musicians these are the C F and G chords in root first inversion and second inversion The chords are played with instruments and sung out in solf ge Examples are domiso for the C Major root chord and falado forthe F Major chord Together the nine chords cover all the notes of the C Major scale white keys This is similar to the Eguchi method used in Japan which some consider to be the best way to foster perfect pitch and which apparently has produced a very high success rate
4. Here are some ideas e After solf ge voices have been played repeat them by singing out the notes again and encourage yourchild to sing along if possible e During lessons that require manual forwarding of slides take your time to sing back or talk to your child about what is shown Go back to the previous slide or repeat the Slide if necessary clicking the nght mouse button and mouse wheel respectively e Talk and comment about what you are seeing whenever possible For example if you see a picture ofa viola you could comment That sure looks like a violin doesn t it Teaching with Little Musician e During Clap Along lessons help your child to clap along by holding her hands or even her feet sometimes e During Music Appreciation lessons encourage your child to be the conductor of the music You could also try to identify instruments that can be heard in the pieces being played or encourage your child to dance or move to the music and clap along to the beat e During the Exercises e g Hear and Sing prompt your child by asking What note is that before advancing to the answer slide You could even take a guess yourself think it sa Fa Let s see e Consider using the different associations described in the next Chapter Taking It Further Lastly you will notice that the Music Appreciation 2 lesson which contains a longer version of the musical piece is always placed as the last le
5. Teaching with Little Musician Note Sounds This is the most basic of lessons and lets your child associate pitch with the written note on the musical staff lt sa good way to show how higher pitched notes are written higher and lower pitched notes lower Random instrument sounds are used each time Solfege These lessons teach individual notes in solfege e g Do Re Mi with notes shown on the music al staff Your child will start associating pitch with the note position on the music al staff as well as with the relevant solf ge syllable Semester 1 focuses purely on C Major Semester 2 introduces solf ge in F Major Lesson slides are forwarded manually because we want to encourage you to take your time to interact with your child During the lessons it s very important to sing out the note you hear and if possible encourage your child to sing it out too Teaching with Little Musician Exercises These are exercises which help train the ear Hear and Sing and help to promote sight reading of notes See and Sing Hear and Sing exercises train both chord recognition as well as individual note recognition encouraging your child to listen to the chord or note and sing it out in solf ge See and Sing exercises show notes on the musical staff and encourages your child to sing it out in solfege similar to how your child would read out words or sentences Teaching with Little Musicia
6. chords Remember sing and sing often By singing freely you are encouraging your child to also see singing asa natural and care free activity instead of something to be shy or embarassed about like so many adults feel today Lastly you may also wish to try out the music activities listed in our Teaching Your Young Child Music booklet Teaching with Little Musician 5 TAKING IT FURTHER Chord Toys The Chord Recognition lessons contain nine chords which help to develop your child s sense of pitch and associations to these chords are made using the rainbow color scheme the position of the noteson the staff and the solf ge name of the chord If you wish we would encourage you to make it even easier for your child to remember the chords by providing additional associations to the chords You could add another powerful association by using a toy for each of the nine chords thereby adding a physical aspect to the associations Simply choose a distinct toy or object foreach of the chords and stick to it An example of chord toys provided by a Little Musician user showing Domiso Falado and Sotire Teaching with Little Musician Here are some guidelines to follow in choosing the toys e Each toy should be as unique as possible especially in its shape e Forconvenience keep the toys relatively small in size so that together they are easy to handle and do not take up too much space e Itispreferable t
7. in place of note heads to make lessons more enjoyable and fun forthe child Accidentals instead of key signatures Our general preference isto show accidentals beside the note instead of showing the key signature in orderto make the accidental more obvious to the child Other markings and highlight effects You will also notice that we often highlight or use colors to emphasize certain things For example when notes are played we often Teaching with Little Musician show a green highlight of the entire line or space of the staff in order to make the note s position more obvious Otherthings you may also wish to note e Solfege system For those familiar with solf ge we chose to use So and Ti instead of Sol and Si although you will be able to change this manually We also use different syllables for black keys such as Di for C Lastly we chose to use the Fixed Do system over Movable Do as this is more consistent with our efforts to teach note and chord recognition e Note Names In Semesters 1 and 2 we do not use note names C D E etc atall As mentioned the focus is on solf ge so as to encourage the singing out of the notes Note names will be introduced in Semester 3 e Treble Bass Clef In Semesters 1 and 2 we also focus primarily on treble clef when the musical staff is shown and not the bass clef Bass clef has more prominence in Semester 3 There are problems wit
8. in tune Of course it would be preferable that your singing is in tune However your singing is very likely to be betterthan you think it is and the advantage of live singing probably outweighs any pitch inaccuracies that you might have If in doubt sing and sing shamelessly Who Teaching with Little Musician knows you may even improve your singing the more you do it At the very least you are giving your child the message that singing is a natural thing that is nothing to be shy or embamassed about Can this replace music classes No Little Musician is not a substitute for music classes especially where leaming a musical instument is concemed However we expect that Little Musician will likely make it easier for your child to leam an instument since many of the musical concepts that are required in the leaming of the instrument will already be familiar to your child Having a betterdeveloped ear for music and note recognition will certainly also help with any instrument your child may choose to leam And lastly Little Musician may also serve to give your child a much wider understanding of music in areas which may not be covered in the music classes What type of music classes would you recommend We like music classes that encourage singing in addition to the leaming of music instruments Classes which use solfege will most likely do that Group classes may also have an advantage over private classes if t
9. G So to another G So two octaves higher Most lessons in the cuniculum cover the C octave so the solfege actions start from the lap Do to the crown of the head Do To use this system encourage your child to gently tap on the appropnate body area whenever you hear or see a note in solfege For example when Do is played help her use her two hands to pat her lap as you sing out Do Similarly when the chord Domiso is played help her use her hands to pat her lap belly and chin in sequence as you sign out Domiso Teaching with Little Musician 6 FREQ UENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS What age is Little Musician suita ble for Little Musician was largely designed with infants and toddlers in mind However like with Little Reader the suitability depends not so much on the age but on the level of fa milia rity the child already has with the musical concepts being taught We have therefore seen children from very different age groups enjoying Little Musician In fact even adults who were previously unfamiliar with music concepts appear to be benefiting from it What if my baby cannot talk sing yet Even if your baby toddler is not able to talk or sing you should still sing out to your child and encourage her to sing along as best as she can Listening to a live voice is much more effective than just listening to recorded audio that s played out through computer speakers What if can t sing
10. TEACHING WITH Little Musician Kids are brilant TABLE OF CONTENTS Greetings from the Founder of BrilIKidS ooooooonnoninnnnnnnnncnnnnnioncnconcccnnnnccn cnc 3 A A 5 CHAPTER L NtOCUCHON old ie dd oe aie A ee eee 9 The Importance of Early Leaming in MUSIC 0 cee ee ceeecteeeeeeceeeeea eens eeaeceeeeeesaeseeesaeeeeeaaeeeesaeseesaesaesaeseescaesaeseeseeeeaeseeeeaeeeees 9 The Promise of Little MUSIC AN eeeccecceeeeeeeceeeeeeeceeeeeeaeeeeese sees caeeeeesaeeaeeae see caegeessaeseesaaeeesaeseeesageeeseaseeesaeseessageaesaeseeseaeeeees 9 About Teaching Music to your YOUNG CHIC ee ee eecee cece ete eeeeeeeee eee eeeeeae see saeseeeeaeseeeaeseeecaeseeseaeeaeeaseeesaeseeesaeseeseaseaee 10 Basic MUSIC Teminology c occcccicnicnninnnnicinanncnnar ANu NANANEANENEANENNANEAEANENEANENEANEANANEAEANENENEASENEENES AEAEE EAEAN EAEN E ENEE E EENE nE 11 CHAPTER 2 Getting Started with Little MUSICIAN ooooooicnnnnnicnnnnnnnnnnnnonncnconnecnanccccerccr 12 CHAPTER 3 The Little Musician Cuniculum nsec cece ccc eee e ee ceee cae cee eaecaeeaaeeeeeaecaeesaeaesaaeseesaeseesaeseeseaseaesaaseeesaeseeseaseaes 14 Chord RECOGNIION eais ead ee ec en et A a A S 14 Note Sound Si A Bee 15 BO TS sees oak NN 15 EXC NC Sia A ead Sn ee athe eee een ee 16 Cla P AlO NG te tt tote eet ici ieee a a een el ee ee eee eee edie ele ee 17 MUSIC Knowledge iii A A 17 MUSIC Appreciation cui Gaunt Gil Ge ean E Kania aaia ud nea aa pa aanda
11. aff indicate different lengths of time and therefore how rhythm is notated Rhythm lessons start from Semester 2 Teaching with Little Musician Scales Through these lessons your child will see and hear different scales in different keys Lessons cover both major scales as well as the different minor scales harmonic melodic and natural and are played out using instruments as well as with solf ge voices Scales lessons sta rt from Semester 2 O O Keyboard Keyboard lessons will introduce your child to the keyboard showing how the different black and white keys of the keyboard correspond to the different solf ge notes and music pitches Instead of perceiving the keyboard asan overwhelming sea of black and white keys your child will see them in distinct groups made up of lowerto higheroctave pattems Keyboard lessons start from Semester 2 Teaching with Little Musician Rainbow Colors You will notice that many of the lessons show either notes or icons using a rainbow color scheme where C Do is shown in red D Re in yellow and so on These colors give your child a very strong visual representation of the pitch which will help her rememberthe note she hears through association Color coding is particularly useful for training the earand to help develop perfect pitch The use of colors will slowly be reduced in Semester 3 onwards and eventually disappear altoge
12. at far too little emphasis is given to singing in today s musical education Rather than developing the most important instument our children have their voice boxes we instead just focus on having them leam a musical instrument such as the piano With solfege not only do we cultivate their voices but we develop their musicianship as they leam about music notes in a way that goes much deeper than say traditional piano training does wrote about this at length on the Brillkids Blog in a piece titled Why I Avoid Classical Piano Training for My Daughter have included that blog post in the Appendix and recommend that you read it It should come as no surprise therefore that solfege is featured heavily in the Little Musician curriculum firmly believe that a mastery of solfege and the development of a child s singing ability would prove to be enormously valuable in developing the child s musicality regardless of what instrument if any the child may choose in the future Last but not least Asl always emphasize the number one tule of teaching isto have fun doing it Results should never be the focus of lessons Instead treat lessons primarily asa time for bonding and enjoy the leaming experience with your child KL Wong Founder BrillKid s Inc Teaching with Little Musician PREFACE By Gregory Blankenbehler M A Mus Common Myths There is an unfortunate persistent myth in many of our cultures tod
13. ay that music is simply a medium of entertainment and that it is best left up to those lucky few who are bom with talent But a growing consensus of research is showing something quite the opposite music education makes people smarter healthier and more successful in life regardless of whatever talents they are bom with Recent studies have shown music study to cause greater physical development in the brain and up to 27 higher math 57 points higher SAT and 46 higher IQ scores It hasalso been shown to have a strong correlation with improved reading and test taking skills better behavior decreased anxiety and higher grades in sc hoo 5 The myth of the bom musical genius is also being disproven as research is showing it is nurture not nature that accounts for most of the musical skills that leave us in awe It is well known in the field of child development that there isa crucial window between birth and about 6 years old during which a child makes extraordinary progress in language development Not only doesa child leam all of the structure and fundamentals for their own native language at this time but if they are taught a foreign language during this window they can also speak that language like a native for the rest of their lives The potential to leam and develop incredible abilities is almost without limit during this once in a lifetime formative window and is accordingly used to an advantage by eany education programs s
14. ce on the subject was plain to see Since the day he enlightened me how solfege works and that solfege did not come from that song have always kept in mind the importance of leaming solf ge Yamaha Music School Fast forward many years to when Felicity was bom was already thinking of how to train her musically knew only one thing Classical piano training at least the way was taught was not the best way to help herdevelop musicality I had heard many good things about the Yamaha Music School so enrolled her at age three in the Music Wonderland course It wasn t really about leaming the piano It was more concemed with music appreciation and exposure One year later the piano playing began with the J unior Music Course In her first lesson Felicity was taught to play Middle ay Except it wasn t called Middle C It was Do The other striking difference between this course and traditional piano lessons is that singing formsa big part of it In fact the sequence is this Teaching with Little Musician o USEN o SING o PLAY Yep playing comeslast By labeling each of the notes with solfege syllables tudents read and reproduce music by singing out the notes It s only after that that they play the notes on the keyboard often while singing In the Yamaha Junior Music Course there is a huge emphasis on leaming solf ge In every class there would be solf ge singi
15. ching the language of music at least in terms of developing a good musical ear Even if this develop ment in the child s musicality does not immediately translate into the child s ability to express herself musically through singing or playing musical instruments due to limitations imposed by the child s age and physical development we believe that a solid foundation can nevertheless be built from a tenderage The Promise of Little Musician For many parents the thought of teaching music can be rather daunting especially to those who have had little orno background in music Parents who wish to develop their children s music al abilities typically have no choice but to send their children to leaming centers with music classes and this often can only be done from around the age of 3 to 5 thereby missing out on the crucial eany years Teaching with Little Musician A Little Musician was created to empower all parents to help develop their young children s music ality during the early years the period when leaming can be effortless No musical knowledge is necessary on the part of the parent as information is presented in a straightforward factual manner with no explanation necessary forthe child to grasp the crux of the lessons All that isneeded isforthe parent to interact and have fun with the child About Teaching Your Young Child Music If you re new to the topic of teaching your young child music you may want to am yo
16. d That brings me to an interesting metaphor that I ve noticed about teaching solf ge Imagine looking through a musical score and being able to read it by singing it out or having the melodies reproduced in your head as easily as you re able to read a book aloud orin your head Knowing solf ge is like being able to read words Conversely not knowing solfege is like not knowing how to read out words It s like all you re able to do when encountering words is to type them back out on a computer and let the computer read the words out for you In both cases you have become dependent on that machine instrument to be able to hearthe words or music By having focused on training our fingers to operate an extemal instrument instead of training our own musical instruments our ear and voice we ve effectively outsourced the most crucial part of musicality with dire consequences And similary with writing Knowing solf ge is like being able to write out the words that you speak or hear When listening to music you know what notes are being played at least relatively so you re able to write them out Without solfege the chances are you d be quite lost It s a bit like listening to someone talk but not being able to take dictation because you have not mastered the alphabet am therefore thoroughly convinced as to the benefits of solfege towards developing musicality and a good ear That s why consider any musical tra
17. f another family member who studied the keyboard and heard every single exercise and song well before they could play them Both became child prodigies far surpassing their older siblings and are now known as the two most famous composers ever Were these two musical geniuses simply bom with more talent than anyone else Perhapsthey were bom with some helpful predispositions but their success cannot be attributed to just that Mozart and Bach had the unusual opportunity to receive an extraordinary education in music from the day they were bom and that is what caused them to be extraordinary composer musicians 6 Shinic hi Suzuki Nurtured by Love 2nd Ed Athens OH Senza y Publications 1983 pp 79 15 7 Sadie Dingfelder Pitch Perfect American Psychological Association 36 2 Feb 05 p 32 For more information on Perfect Pitch see my article at http pitchperfectmusic org articles perfect pitch recognizing notesthin air Teaching with Little Musician So since we are not all composer music la ns ourselves must we give up now on our children ever receiving this kind of music education Not at all Technological advances today allow children to receive musical exposure and training that before was only available to the very lucky or rich The classics that before could only be heard by assembling a large group of expert musicians can now be played any time of day with the touch of a button Never before in history has s
18. h the sound Those of you with older sower computers may experience problems with some of the lessons playing back smoothly in particular the Rhythm lessons or songs presets which play out voice audio in real time These lessons require a lot of computer power which older computers may not have The sound quality of the instruments you hear also dependson the quality of yourcomputers sound card Computers with old or low budget sound cards may reproduce instrument sounds such as during the children songs that sound unrealistic or computerized Teaching with Little Musician APPENDIX 1 BASIC MUSIC TERMINOLOGY Staff This refers to the five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch This is commonly shown in two sets showing treble notes above and bass notes below Clef This refers to the symbol at the beginning of the staff that indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that staff Generally they indicate whether the notes are treble denoted by the treble clef orbass denoted by the bass clef 4 gt Note This could mean either the musical notation to represent the pitch and relative duration of a sound orto represent the pitched sound Here isan example of two notes on a staff Quarter notes Teaching with Little Musician Chord This is a combination of two or more notes generally in harmony with each other and played together or close together Octave A
19. hat the toys use neutral colors such as black white grey so there is less conflict with the rainbow colorscheme that are used in the Curriculum forthe chords e Show the 3 chord colors on the toy in some way Forexample you could apply color stickers on the toys orsew color buttons onto them in the case of soft toys e You may also wish to label the toys with the solf ge names such as domiso to make them more easily identifia ble to you During the lesson when a chord is shown take out the corresponding toy and let your child feelthe toy and interact with it Play the chord sound again if necessary Solfege Actions Perhaps an even more powerful association you could use for remembering notes and chords in solfege is through hand actions and corresponding parts of the body Unlike the Curwen solf ge hand signs system used by some today which requires finer gross motor movement with the hand and fingers the system used here is designed to be suitable for even infants and toddlers and require only gross motor movements with the armsand hands In this system each solf ge syllable corespondsto an area of the body or areasaround the body in some cases and the child simply puts her hands on those areas as each solfege syllable issung out Please see the chart on the next page forthe different body areas Teaching with Little Musician Teaching with Little Musician These solfege Actions cover two octaves from a
20. he testing stage parents have been reporting that their children have developed perfect pitch through the program From day 1 they also leam to read those pitches on the musical staff By piecing together basic melodic and rhythmic pattems common to the westem musical tradition children not only leam to correctly read and sing music but they also become tre composer musicians that have an innate sense for good music and can create their own The program also teaches them about different musical instruments from the violin to the banjo and composers from Vivaldi to Gershwin and well known songs including many classical masterpieces and children s songs Having passed through the cuniculum of Little Musician any child will be ready to make much more effective use of private music lessons and become exceptionally successful Besides having already leamed how to hear and read music correctly they will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience that will make their playing much more artistic and natural And most importantly they will love playing music Teaching with Little Musician Music has been languishing in our word because too many of us think of it as frivolous entertainment But recent research is showing what our societies used to know and what the ancient Greek philosophers ta ught high quality music is education of the highest degree It promotes mental development and helps students do better in math and reasoning It teache
21. hey incorporate group activities like ensemble playing or group singing or give your child opportunities to perform in front of the other students Teaching with Little Musician If the course involves exams and grades we would recommend you find out how much time is spent on practicing set pieces with the goal focused on doing well in the exams and how much time is spent more on understanding and enjoying the instrument or enjoying music If the course is more exam centric then consider whether this may help to diminish or even completely kill your child s enjoyment of music and playing the instrument Why does Little Musician seem unconventional in many wa ys There are many ways that Little Musician is unconventional especially when compared to classical music training Forexample No Note Stems Most of the lessons omit the note stem and show only the note head The reason for this is that the aim of the lessons is to highlight how the positioning of a note on the musical staff higher lower corresponds to its pitch We believe there is greater clanty and focus when do not deal with note stems and note values To teach note values we use dedicated mythm syllable lessons that are introduced in Semester 2 Different colors and icons for note heads As discussed in Chapter 3 Understanding the Cuniculum we primarily use rainbow colored notes for easier solfege association We also substitute fun icons like baby faces
22. hildren ages 3 and up calling it talent education He believed that extraordinarily skilled musicians were made not bom and he proved it by taking in hundreds of common every day children and training them to be some of the finest violinists in the word Suzuki s philosophy is well summed up in his own words The purpose of music education is to train children not to be professional musicians but to be fine musicians and to show high ability in any other field they enter There is no telling to what heights children can attain if we educate them propery right after birth 6 Recently researchers have discovered that absolute pitch recognition ability often called perfect pitch is not simply a rare super human ability that only a few are granted through lucky genes but a language skill that neany all babies are bom with Most babies are bom hard wired to develop perfect pitch but most do not receive the right stimulation to develop and retain the skill forthe rest of their lives Since formal music lessons typically do not start until about age 6 at the close of the language leaming window very few children have been afforded the kind of music education that allows for extraordinary skill development Mozart and Bach are notable exceptions Both had fathers that were active composer musicians and were exposed to the rudiments of music every day from even before they were bom Both were also the younger sibling o
23. ining for any instrument that doesnot include the teaching of solfege to be severely lacking Teaching with Little Musician Don t Get Me Wrong Just so that I m not misunderstood and people don t go away with the wrong impression let me say a few more things about my beliefs Not all classical piano courses were created alike It may well be that the teachers had were simply not very good and if had had the fortune of having had a better teacher might have a different view or experience must sa y though thought had good teachers atthe time although now quibble with their methods Classical piano training even though it hasthe shortcomings mentioned above did give me other benefits From it I gota solid grounding in music theory great dexterity with my fingers and good hand eye coordination Even with classical piano training without solfege one can still be reasonably musical and develop a good ear though in a different way Despite not knowing solf ge for example still managed to compose musicals in college as well as pop songs that were sung by Asian pop stars among other musical accomplishments I m proud of I m not saying that classical piano training cannot help a student acquire skills such as playing by ear orhaving a deep sense of understanding of music Indeed know of people who were trained classically without solfege and who can play by ear It just appearsto me much harderto d
24. it But because never managed to pluck up the courage to tell my mother of my decision I wasten camed on with it consider myself lucky to have continued because after attending boarding school in England age thirteen actually started to enjoy playing the piano One major reason was that stopped taking exams Under the guidance of my teacher there leamed to play pieces that truly enjoyed like pieces by Gershwin I just loved the rhythm and jazzy feel continued taking lessons until left for university at eighteen would say became quite good atit often winning school competitions and playing at school recitals Teaching with Little Musician Classical Piano Training for Felicity Now that I m a dad would put my daughter Felicity through the same classical piano training My answer No Firstly would take a long hard look at any system which focuses largely on getting exam results feel that this can really take the joy out of playing the instrument Sure the training and practice will make you a better pianist no doubt But what I m far more interested in is being a better musician So what did my classical piano training actually teach me In terms of practical playing skills leamed to look at notes on a page and to play them on a piano keyboard leamed to play many such pieces very well received great applause and admiration when played those long and difficult Grade Eight
25. lf ge and think that has partly got to do with the fact that many music teachers today themselves were never taught solf ge and therefore would not be comfortable or even know how to teach solf ge And think that s such a pity because teaching children to sing solfege isso easy and natural which little child has reservations about singing out loud even if it may not be in tune If using the voice wasencouraged and fostered from childhood believe children would grow up to being less self conscious about singing And would probably invest in karaoke bars Anyway just by sitting through so many of her Yamaha classes I ve already picked up a lot myself and can easily map most melodies into solfege now So too can Felicity to some extent When she sings a tune would sometimes ask her Now sing that again in do re mi She has never heard of the term solfege even though she knows all the syllables She would do so sometimes with amazing accuracy When show Felicity a simple piece of written music she can often sing out the melody Some of you may have seen the video where wrote out words like clap on a doodle board and Felicity at 12 months would read out the words Now in a similar manner would place black dots representing notes on a magnetic board with the musical staff lines and she would sing out the notes forme Teaching with Little Musician Like Teaching Children to Rea
26. n Clap Along Clap Along lessons are designed to give your child an introduction to mythm and beats During these lessons children songs such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star are played and your child isencouraged to clap along to the beat Different beat mythms are introduced asthe curriculum progresses e VU Music Knowledge In these lessons your child will get to leam more about how music is made First your child will be introduced to different music al instruments e g violin tumpet and clarinet she will hear what they sound like and see how they are played Second your child will leam more about famous classical composers e g Bach Mozart and Beethoven and some of the famous piecesthey composed violin S violin violin Teaching with Little Musician Music Appreciation The aim of these lessons is to expose your child to classical music and through the exposure let her gain familiarity with as well as appreciation of classical music These lessons include clips from fifty of the most popular classical pieces such as Beethoven s Fifth Symphony and Handel s Hallelujah Chorus Anvil Chorus by Giuseppe Verdi 1812 Overture by Peter llich Tchaikovsky Rhythm Rhythm lessons will introduce your child to rhythm syllables such as Ta for quarter notes crotchets and Ti for eighth notesquavers Rhythm syllables are a good way to leam how music notations on the musical st
27. n example that serves to illustrate this concept is the interval between one C or Do note and the next C or Do note that is above or below it e Scale This isa sequence of musical notesin ascending ordescending order Solf ge This is the system commonly used to teach sight singing where each note is sung to special syllablessuch asdo re mi fa so la and ti Pitch This is generally used to indicate how high or low in frequency isa note Perfect Pitch Absolute Pitch This refers to a person s ability to identify or reproduce a given music al note without any extemal help or reference Teaching with Little Musician APPENDIX 2 WHY I AVOID CLASSICAL PIANO TRAINING FOR MY DAUGHTER POSTED BY KL WONG ON THE BRILLKIDS BLOG ON MAY 13 2011 would like to set the scene a little by explaining my musical background my approach to giving my daughter musical training as well as some of the thinking that went on behind the creation of Little Musician My Musical Background started lea ming the piano at the age of six along with my two older brothers Like everyone else knew leaming the piano was taught the traditional way leaming how to read and play sheet music and most of the time leaming pieces for the purposes of piano exams took exa ms all the way up to Grade Five During those years despite good exam results piano was not very enjoyable forme At one point even made up my mind to qu
28. ng exercises like what you see here e http www youtube com watch v DiNntg xnBE e http www youtube com watch v yN9yNsx5A 8 As an aside here s something interesting to note for all of you familiar with the right brain flash card method forteaching babies skills such asreading and math Often when Felicity s Yamaha teacher plays out the notes it s all very fast and the children are expected to repeat or guess the notes very quickly following her demonstration with no time to think or analyze This reminds me of the right brain flash method where information is delivered rapidly in order to be accessed directly using the intuitive right brain without the logical left brain s interference Maybe whoever designed these exercises in Yamaha compared notes with Shichida Teaching with Little Musician The Most Important Instument You see solf ge is designed for singing Compare singing C D E F G See Dee Ee Eff Gee with singing Do Re Mi Fa So and it should be obvious which system is more practical for singing And that s one of the great things about leaming solf ge It encourages the use of the most important instrument that we will ever have our VOICE Frankly I m now astonished that a lot of music education completely ignores this vital intrument and instead just focuses on teaching traditional instruments like the piano and violin Ignoring the voice seemsto go hand in hand with ignoring so
29. o so than with a solfege based system believe those people mentioned had natural talent that enabled them to do so despite not having the benefit of solfege I m also not saying that leaming solf ge is a panacea for all problems Solf ge itself has problems For example Should one use the fixed do or movable do system and how do we apply solf ge syllables to accidentals like C sharp and E flat However these problems to me are minorcompared to the benefit that solfege brings Teaching with Little Musician Solf ge is probably not the only way to develop a good ear and musicality However it s the easiest and most fun way that know of Teaching with Little Musician
30. r Aaaa aiaga aa apenas 18 RAYE a rata did e eats 18 ales na O O 19 MSV OIC icp ana a e E E ada dao ai 19 CHAPTER 4 Using Litte MUSICIAN cece cece ccc cece cece cee eeeeeaeeeeeaaeeeeeaeceeeeaeaesaaeeecaeseeesaesaeseaesaesaaseeesaeseessageaesaaseeesaseaeeaesas 22 SESSION FEQUGNGY its 22 JUE 5 Minutes a Da y sit eed A A as tes A ee econ eae ae eee 22 DUNN ENG LE SS0 M1 ira elites AE ae eae penis ea aed tea eee 23 After the LS SSO iia int ti id o e Oro e 24 OLNEFACTVIOS cuca E et e cis 26 CHAPTER 5 Taking tt Further cece cece cece cceee cee cee eeaeceeeeaeaecaaeeesaesaeesaesaesaaseeesaaseessaesaeesaesaessaseeesaeseessageaesaeseessaaeaeeaesaes 27 CHOTO TO YS its adios lao idot tidad 27 Solf ge PC TNS cut A da dd 28 CHAPTER 6 Frequently Asked Questions oooocoooooconnonicnncnconnoniconanccncnncanccincncrr rr 31 APPENDIX 1 Basic Music Terminology 2 cccccecccee cee eeeeeeeeeeeeesaeeeeeaesaeeeasaesaaeeeesaeseeeeaeeaeseasaesaasessaesaeseaseaesaaseeesaeees 35 APPENDIX 2 Why Avoid Classical Piano Training For My Daughter 0 00 cece cece eee ceeeeee cnet eases nc nn 37 Teaching with Little Musician GREETINGS FROM THE FOUNDER OF BRILLKIDS Thank you for purchasing Little Musician It brings me great joy that your child will be able to experience Little Musician as it is something am extremely proud of How Little Musician Came About Let me tell you a bit about why Little Musician was created
31. s aesthetics history and cultural appreciation in a way that no other subject can It promotesappropnate behavior balanced emotionsand healthy relaxation As one of the most powerful forces in the world think about the influence one popular song can have over millions music has the potential to raise us collectively to a higher level of thought and action But just like any language it isa leamed skill May we all promote its effective study and use Gregory Blankenbehler is a recognized expert in singing and music education for children and is the author of the popularSinging Lessons for Little Singers method series With over 25 years of experience training performing and teaching music he has performed in Italy England and France and holds advanced degrees in Music and Education He is the music director of ohn Adams Academy and maintains a large studio of voice and piano students in the Sacramento Califomia area He can be reached at hishomepage www GBMusic me Teaching with Little Musician S 1 INTRODUCTION The Importance of Early Leaming in Music The easiest and most effective time to teach a child anything is often during the first few years especially between the ages 0 3 It s widely accepted that young children are able to leam multiple languages in those years effortlessly and the younger they are exposed to those languages the more effortless lea ming seemsto be We believe this holds true fortea
32. s curriculum organized as daily lessons allows you get started with teaching your child immediately after insta lling the software The curriculum includes different kinds of lessons which we will discuss in Chapter 3 of this booklet Step 1 Insta ll the Little Musician software and content The very first thing you need to do isto install the Little Musician software Please referto the enclosed Quick Start booklet to install Little Musician on your computer INSTALL When you open Little Musician forthe very first time after completing the installation process Little Musician will perform a system check to see if your computer has the required system specification it needs to run smoothly This System Check Wizard will test to make sure your speakers are working propeny Be sure your audio system is tumed on Once you ve completed the System Check Wizard your Little Musician should be ready for use Teaching with Little Musician Step 2 Activate your key When prompted key in the license key given to you If you bought this product online you ma y find this in the Brillkids Official Invoice emailed to you Step 3 Read the Beginner s Tutorial There isa very useful Start Guide accessible from within Little Musician To access it click on the Start Guide button It is very important to run through the Beginners Tutorial Don t skip this step For questions not covered in the Quick Start booklet or Start
33. sson in the session If your child does not want to st still and just listen to the music it is perfectly fine to let her wander around asthe music continues to play After the lesson If your child is still interested in continuing after the lesson is over the first thing you may wish to do isto browse around the Resources section Here you will find embedded YouTube videos of instruments composers and music appreciation pieces Browse according to the day of the curriculum you are on oraccording to the different categories Teaching with Little Musician L Music Appreciatio Popular Classics 4 Popular Classics 2 Romantic Composers 2 Modern Composers In addition you could also do the following immediately afterthe lesson e Play the lesson again It will not be exactly the same anyway as many elements are either random like instruments or rotate like voicesand pictures e Play the next day s lesson We only recommend this if your child already knowsa lot of the matenal already e Play specific lessons from the Play Edit screen For example you might want to try out more Hear and Sing exercises or explore more music instruments under Knowledge Teaching with Little Musician Other Activities If have piano or keyboard play chords like domiso often and sing out domiso after playing If not use the Free Play feature in Little Musician to pla y out the
34. ther when the emphasis of the lessons shifts from ear training to sight reading Flash Lessons You will notice that on some days the slides in some of the lessons may flash past very quickly Forthose unfa miliar with the right brain education this is the flash method where information is delivered rapidly Right brain educators such as Dr Glenn Doman and Prof Makoto Shichida believe that very young children are able to use their nght brain ability to absorb information at a rapid rate without needing to slowly process the information with their logical left brain Teaching with Little Musician The Structure of the Curriculum The Little Musician curriculum isspans a period of two years with four semesters of six months each Based on a five day week each semester compnises 130 days of lessons Each day s session is made up of a number of different lessons Forexample a day s session in Semester 1 containsthe following lessons e Chord Recognition 1 e Music Appreciation short e Note Sounds e Solfege 1 e Music Knowledge e Chord Recognition 2 e Solfege 2 e Exercises e Clap Along e Music Appreciation long Teaching with Little Musician 4 USING LITTLE MUSICIAN Session frequency The Little Musician lessons are designed to be shown to your child once a day You may choose to show the lessons again another time in the same day if you believe it is appropriate given your child s interest and atten
35. those notes are wassimply nevertrained that way Introduction to Solfege l always admired people who could just improvise and play any tune on the keyboard This was especially so because sometimes played in a band and composed music and not being able to do that wasa severe handicap It dawned on me when looking down at the keyboard that despite all those years of leaming the piano basically didn t really KNOW it atall I could operate it mechanically sure but without any deep understanding of it Many yearsago I had a Filipino singing teacher who could also play the keyboard He never took any piano exams and could never play some of the pieces that could But he was someone who really understood the keyboard He understood it as well as he understood his own voice The keyboard was like an extension of his body Just name him any song and he d be able to play it even if he had never played it before A song wastoo high to sing to No problem He d just transpose it down instantly So asked him how he did it And that sadly was the first time heard about solf ge or solfeggio ashe called it Teaching with Little Musician What sthat l asked You know like Do Re Mi Fa So he replied Oh from The Sound of Music asked Yes know that song commented enthusiastic ally though still had no idea how a song from a popular musical could help My ignoran
36. tion span If that is the case we recommend that you do not do so immediately after the first session Monday The curriculum is designed to be shown during weekdays in case it s not convenient for the parent to teach on weekends and also to make it 3 1 easier to incorporate into a regular routine Weekends may be used to catch up on any lessons missed during the week J ust 5 Minutesa Day As mentioned earlier each day s session comprises several lessons The length of each lesson vares from a few seconds to over one minute The entire session lasts for around five minutes depending on how long you interact with your child Sessions are deliberately kept short fortwo main reasons Teaching with Little Musician Short Attention Span Young children s attention spans are typically fairly short often lasting no more than 5 10 minutes It is far better to keep the child s enthusiasm for the long term by letting her keep wanting more than to have the lessons drag on and feel like a chore Consistency is Key We wish to make it as easy as possible for you the parent to be consistent with the lessons Which parent does not have five minutes a day to spare What matters the most in the long run is whether you continue doing the lessons on a regular basis Five minutesa day is far far more effective than twenty minutes once every few days Dunng the lesson The most important thing to rememberisto interact with your child
37. uch a wealth of nutritious music been available to so many so easily Enter Little Musician Effective early music education goes far beyond simply putting on a Mozart for Babies CD The Little Musician software program by BrillKids is the closest thing have seen yet to an easily accessible early music education of the kind that gave us musical geniuses like Mozart and Bach Designed to be used daily with children starting at about 6 months Little Musician teaches musical skills in the same way that children leam language With the help of a parent who needs no more musical skill than simple dedication babies are exposed to the rudiments of melody harmony mythm and meter in a structured and compelling manner that slowly but powerfully builds their musical language skills Before the child has ever even begun studying a musical instrument they can identify a melody or chord in solf ge read pitches and rhythms on treble and bass clef staves point out the correct key on a piano fora given note and identify musical instruments famous works and the composersthat wrote them Little Musician is designed to be a pre music lessons music education Instead of focusing on musical performance as later instrumental lessons do it simply teaches children to correctly hear and understand musical language Using the 900 year old system of solf ge students leam to recognize and identify individual pitches intervals and chords Even in t
38. uch as Little Readerand Little Math 1G Schlaug L Jancke Y Huang and H Steinmetz In vivo morphometry of interhem ispheric assymetry and connectivity in musicians Proceedings of the 3rd intemational conference for music perception and cognition Liege Belgium 1994 pp 417 418 2 Amy Graziano Matthew Peterson and Gordon Shaw Enhanced leaming of proportional math through music training and spatialtemporal training Neurological Research 21 March 1999 3 College Bound Seniors National Report Profile of SATProgram Test Takers The College Entrance Examination Board Princeton NJ 2001 4 Rauscher Shaw Levine Ky and Wright Music and Spatial Task Performance A Causal Relationship University of Califomia Irvine 1994 5 Fora list of additional studies on the benefits of music go to http littlesingers info pa renty why study music studies showing amazing benefits of music education Teaching with Little Musician The Role of Parenting What is not perhaps as well understood is that musical abilities operate in much the same way as language and that they are leamed and developed almost identically The amazing language leaming window opportunity from birth to 6 is also a window for unequaled musical skills development Shinichi Suzuki founder of the Suzuki method and one of the foremost experts on child music education understood this concept and promoted the study of music by very young c
39. urself with knowledge on this important subject before beginning to teach For that reason we ve enclosed a special Teaching Your Young Child Music booklet designed to provide all the information you need In case you don t have time to read the whole booklet you may want to skim the chapters that interest you most Vicki Watson atime ors roc beillkids If you think your young child is too young to leam music or AAN wonder why anyone would specifically teach music just read Why Teach Your Child Music Many would argue that the best and indeed the easiest time to teach your child music is while they are young Young children love to leam They are naturally creative and inquisitive keen to explore the world around them in all its facets Music isno exception To leam more about why you should teach your child music tum to Chapter 1 of the Teaching Your Young Child Music booklet Teaching with Little Musician Basic Music Terminology While you go through this booklet and as we explain how Little Musician is used you may come upon some terms which you are unfa miliar with Not to worry we ve included a list of words and their definitions for you to refer to in such cases visit Appendix 1 of this booklet to leam more about Basic Music Terminology Teaching with Little Musician 2 GETTING STARTED WITH UTILE MUSICIAN Your Little Musician Lea ming System already comes with a built in curriculum Thi
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