Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)When my four year old daughter started showing interest in playing our piano, I immediately set about to find a course of instruction for her (as an intermediate player, I chose to teach her myself). I checked out several books from the library, and browsed several local music shops. In total, I analyzed 6 different courses targeted for young children. I told my daughter she would start taking lessons when she turned 5 (two months away), and her anticipation started building.
Ultimately, I chose the "Music for Little Mozarts" series. The story-based flow of the lessons seemed intriguing, and the material seemed to progress at a good pace.
Well, we are now on the third book (the blue one), and I can say that these books are absolutely fantastic. As it turns out, my daughter hasn't shown much interest in the stories of the books (involving the different mice and other animal characters). She just enjoys working on the simple exercises. We work on the book for at least 10 minutes every day, and she volunteers to practice a little extra on some days. In the beginning, she was able to get through one exercise/page per day, but now it might take a little extra practice for her to learn the new notes. I bought some stickers at Staples, and every time she "passes off" a page, we put a little sticker on it. She really likes that.
Best of all, there has been very little discouragement (or boredom). Each exercise seems to be just the right difficulty.
The support offered with this series is also great. We work through the workbooks as well, and they provide excellent reinforcement for the concepts in the books. We haven't tried the flashcards or other materials offered (parent's guide, "Discovery Book", solo books, recital books, etc.), but I would expect them to be similarly helpful. The coloring books are just pictures of the characters, and don't serve to reinforce musical concepts.
If you're teaching a 4-6 year old how to play the piano, I highly recommend checking these books out!
Click Here to see more reviews about: Music for Little Mozarts: Music Lesson Book 1
Lesson Book 1 is pre-reading. Concepts taught are: How to sit at the piano; Correct hand position; High and low; Loud and soft (forte and piano); Keyboard topography; Bar line and measure, Quarter, half, whole notes and rests; and Repeat signs. The first pieces in the book are played on the black keys. Later in the book, C D E for the RH and C B A for the LH (Middle C position) are taught with letter notes (the name of the note is written inside the note head).Song titles include: A BEAR'S SONG * A MOUSE'S MELODY * A THREE-NOTE SYMPHONY * BRIGHT STARS * CONCERT DAY * DOWN WE GO * E-I-E-I-O! * LEFT HAND WALKING * LITTLE DANCE * LOST TEDDY BEAR * MOZART MOUSE'S FIRST MINUET * MUSIC FRIEND WALTZ * NAP TIME * OFF TO BED * ON MACDONALD'S FARM * RAINY DAY * RIGHT HAND MARCHING * ROCKIN' PONY RIDE * THE A SONG * THE B SONG * THE C SONG * THE C SONG, AGAIN! * THE D SONG * THE E SONG * THE ELEPHANT SONG
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