BrillKids Forum

Hi everyone!

It is with great pleasure that I’m announcing the commencement of OPEN BETA TESTING for Little Musician - everyone can now get to try it!

Thank you so much for your patience with this project, especially those of you who have been waiting since years ago.  The good thing about this long wait is that Little Musician is now much, MUCH more than what I had envisioned back then.

Many thanks to all the closed beta testers that have given invaluable feedback over the past months.  Since then, we’ve taken a lot of your feedback on board, and we’ve been working hard on getting the most important part of Little Musician ready - the curriculum.

I’m glad to let you know that the curriculum (Semesters 1 and 2) is now ready!  What’s more, you can try out the FULL 1-year curriculum during this beta testing period.


Types of Lessons

In the curriculum, you will see these types of lessons appear - more than once a session in some cases:

1. 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 Solfege.  Examples are “domiso” for the C Major (root) chord, and “falado” for the 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.

2. Note Sounds

This is the most basic of lessons, and lets your child associate pitch with the written note on the musical staff.  It’s a good way to show how higher pitched notes are written higher and lower pitched notes lower.  Different instrument sounds are used, and we use different note icons like baby faces instead of notes.

3. Solfege

These lessons teach individual notes in Solfege (eg., Do, Re, Mi), with notes shown on the musical staff.  Your child will start associating pitch with the note position on the musical staff, as well as with the relevant solfege syllable.  Semester 1 focuses purely on C Major.  Semester 2 introduces Solfege 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.

4. 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 Solfege.  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.

5. Clap-Along

Clap-Along lessons are designed to give your child an introduction to rhythm and beats.  During these lessons, children songs (such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) are played, and your child is encouraged to clap along to the beat.  Different beat rhythms are introduced as the curriculum progresses.

6. Music Knowledge

In these lessons, your child will get to learn more about how music is made.  First, your child is introduced to different musical instruments (eg., violin, trumpet, clarinet), hear what they sound like, and see how they are played.  Second, your child will also learn more about famous classical composers (eg., Bach, Mozart, Beethoven) and some of the famous pieces they composed.

7. 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. 

8. Rhythm

Rhythm lessons will introduce your child to rhythm syllables, such as “Ta” for quarter notes/crotchets, and “Ti” for eighth notes/quavers.  Rhythm syllables are a good way to learn how music notation on the musical staff indicate different lengths of time, and therefore how rhythm is notated.  Rhythm lessons start from Semester 2.

9. 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 Solfege voices.  Scales lessons start from Semester 2.

10. 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 Solfege notes and music pitches.  Instead of perceiving the keyboard as an overwhelming sea of black and white keys, your child will see them in distinct groups made up of lower to higher octave patterns.  Keyboard lessons start from Semester 2.


Points to Note:

- Solfege
There is a large emphasis placed on Solfege.  This encourages us to use the best instrument we all have - our voice box! Furthermore, I believe it is an excellent (if not the best) way to let us have a deeper understanding of notes and musical relationships.  To understand more about my thoughts on this, please read my blog post titled "Why I Avoid Classical Piano Training for My Daughter":
http://blog.brillkids.com/?p=126

(For those familiar with Solfege, 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.)

- Unconventional Notation
The way we notate notes on the musical staff can be unconventional, and therefore, sometimes not strictly correct.  For example, 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 clarity and focus when we do not deal with note stems and note values.  To teach note values, we use dedicated rhythm syllable lessons that are introduced in Semester 2.

- More Semesters
We plan to release Semesters 3 and 4, as there is a lot more to cover that could not be covered in Semesters 1 and 2.

- No Note Names etc.
In Semesters 1 and 2, we do not use note names (C, D, E, etc.) at all.  As mentioned, the focus is on Solfege, so as to encourage the singing out of the notes.  Note names will be introduced in Semester 3.

We also focus primarily on treble clef when the musical staff is shown, and not the bass clef.  Bass clef will have more prominence in Semester 3.

- Rainbow Colors??
Please add your thoughts as to whether we should have different colors for different notes:

http://forum.brillkids.com/little-musician-general-discussion/using-different-colors-for-different-notes-opinions-please!/

- Commercial Release
When will Little Musician be released commercially? It’s hard to say right now as a lot will depend on what bugs show up during this beta testing period and how fast we can fix them.  We’re hoping to have it out sometime in May if all goes smoothly.

Pricing is also yet to be decided, but you can probably expect it to be in the same range as Little Reader and Little Math. 


Installing Little Musician Beta

[PLEASE SEE THIS THREAD FOR AN UPDATED BUILD:
http://forum.brillkids.com/little-musician-general-discussion/little-musician-beta-near-final-version-download-here/ ]


Known Issues

The current version should be reasonably stable but we are still working on a few things to improve stability.

Other than that, these are some of the things we will be doing before launch:

1. Replacing some of the voices in the title slides with professionally-recorded audio

2. Fixing the timing of Clap-Along - some of the songs are not clapping correctly

3. The Start Guide and Download sections have been disabled until we finish the content for it, and much of the Support section is still empty.

IMPORTANT: Those of you with older / slower computers may experience problems with some of the lessons playing back smoothly, in particular, the Rhythm lessons or song presets which play out voice audio in real time.  These lessons require a lot of computer power which older computers may not have.


Feedback

Please give us your feedback, be it positive or negative!  Feel free to reply to this post or start a
new thread.

If you find any bugs or have any technical issues:

> Please post your question / problem in the Technical Support board here: http://forum.brillkids.com/tech-support-b295/ (http://forum.brillkids.com/tech-support-b295/)

> If you are experiencing software errors or crashes, please send a description of the problem along with your Diagnostic Report to support[at]brillkids[dot]com
http://support.brillkids.com/entries/20438423-how-to-create-a-diagnostic-report-for-your-brillkids-learning-system (http://support.brillkids.com/entries/20438423-how-to-create-a-diagnostic-report-for-your-brillkids-learning-system)


Happy testing!

KL

Wonderful!!! I am sure my 3 year old son will love it and already informed my friends in my community about LMs.  ;)

I've just got LMs installed and tried the first few days of the curriculum.  I LOVE IT!   Thank you, thank you so much for such an awesome program.  I can’t wait to use it with my DD when she wakes up.

I have just a minor question ... is there any reason the name of the chords (eg C chord, F chord etc) are not mentioned before the chords are played?

Wow is all I can say.
My 12 months old was so absorbed by it and she even tried to sing the alphabeth song she is familiar with.
Thanks for giving us full access.
 

I just downloaded LM and went through the Day 1 lesson myself to check it out. It looks great! Though I do have a question. What age is being recommended to start Little Musician? I'm not sure my 7 month old will take to it. We have been doing LR & LM for the past month and although she is still not showing any signs of understanding she is most definitely engaged or focused on the material.   :)

Ok. I just showed her the Day 1 lesson and she was into it! She actually started to make a few sounds during the Solfege sessions and she started rocking back and forth during the 1812 Overture. Though I will admit that she was interrupted by her laughing parents :) It was very cute to see her react like that. I see no reason not to incorporate this into her daily routine.  :D

Would love to try it but is not compatible with iMac :(

If you have a virtual machine that runs windows on a Mac, you'll be able to work with any program from Brillkids :)

Thanks KL :biggrin:   I'm so excited to download & try it out!

Exactly the same reason why we don't teach note names in Sem1 and 2, but focus on Solfege.  It's far more useful for children to know the C chord as "domiso" rather than "C chord", which itself is ambiguous (eg., which inversion?), not to mention not very informative.


LMs is probably the most versatile of all three of our programs in terms of age group.  You can start as an infant (probably best 6 months and up), but still benefit tremendously from it as a very old child. Heck, I would go so far to say even adults would benefit, especially those not familiar with musical concepts.  I can say that I, for one, still benefit from it, esp the solfege exercises and popular classics.

Ultimately, as with all our programs, you should just take your cue from your child. If he/she enjoys it, great. If not, put it away and try again another time.

Thanks for all your feedback so far - keep 'em coming! :)

Is there a password for the Semester 1 and 2 Content?  I downloaded the 240mb file but to import them to the program it asked me for a password.  And by that I don't mean the license key.  I was able to check out the first 10 lessons though.  WOW!  Thank you!

Hi, Just started the Day 1 curriculum with my son. He loves the program!

Just a few suggestions - I don't know if I'm being pedantic - but colour scheme during the chord progression and solfege - can it be a bit more pleasing to the eye? i think I'm quite visual but maybe you use complementary colour schemes for the session. Icons are very cute though.

Suggestion for the playing of popular classics. Maybe do some photo eye play pictures rather than a white screen, get the right brain training on at the same time!!

With the first chord progression, I don't know whether it is important, but should you mention the note names do, mi, so or maybe name of the key or is it just to familiarise the child with the sound before the later segment with the solfege names?

Hi at!

The only "password" you'll need to unlock the Semester 1 and 2 content is the beta license key, and you will be prompted about this in Little Musician (either right after you import the content, or when you try to access the courses after importing).

It might be that when you downloaded the content file, your browser saved it as a *.zip file instead of a Little Musician file, and this makes the file open with the wrong software. Please have a look at this article for the solution to this problem:

http://support.brillkids.com/entries/20432501-the-content-files-i-downloaded-were-saved-as-a-zip-file-and-now-i-can-t-import-my-lessons-completely

(If you decide to go with solution #2, the correct file extension is '.lmspk')

I hope this helps!  :yes:

Kezia,

Thanks for the quick reply.  It certainly helps.  I downloaded using Internet Explorer and the file was saved as a zip file instead of the little musician format.  But I was able to rename it.  Thanks.

Now do you have Little Reader French ready yet??????  (joking)

The Little Musician Beta will be usable until May 10th, 2012 - will you extend that if the "real" version isn't quite ready for release?   Will anything from the Beta version still function/be usable after May 10?    Will you run any deals for Little Musician once it's released?  :)    Can points be used towards purchase of software or curriculum?  Thanks!  Deb
(downloading now... looking forward to testing it out!)

Got the Little Musician up, but even after downloading the license key (had some trouble with this but my husband helped me), the Little Musician says that I am on a 'trial,' and that I have 15 days to update my license key. What do I do now to be able to continue the beta testing until May 10?

Colors are random, so sometimes they may clash, sometimes they may look pleasing.  :)
However, you can fix the colors manually if you want:  Turn "Override" (on the Play panel at the bottom) ON, click on the Settings icon, click on Display & Sound, Staff tab, turn on Note Color, and set your color there.


We are working on visuals for this, but it won't make it to the first release.


The point of the lesson is this - every time you hear that chord, you'll immediately think of singing "domiso".  If you can do this, you'll know what sounds/pitches the chord is made of, and what each of those sounds/pitches are in solfege.


Getting closer and closer. It will be even closer once Little Reader v3 is released - LR users will get to beta test it very soon. :)


Yes, will extend if the final version is not ready by then.  No, beta will self-destruct on May 10th. :)
Haven't decided on the rest. Please stay tuned.


I think you missed out Step 3, which is downloading and importing the content pack which contains the curriculum.  You can just do that step now, and it should work.

Hi,

I just downloaded LMs, tried the first lesson, very impressive. My daughter will be 5 this year. I hope it is not too late for her, we ve been waiting for years. We ve just started using Soft Mozart since mid february, so far she loves it and plays the piano everyday, on free will! She is able to play all introductory songs in Soft Mozart, and is starting 2 new songs on the Nursery Song list. Lets hope she will love LMs too.

Hi,
Looks great!
Just a suggestion for the Clap-a-long section. I am a Musikgarten teacher, so teach music to 18 Months- 3 Years as well as 4 to 6 year old children. My experience is that the children have trouble clapping so slowly. I would suggest it would be better to start with clapping on every beat rather than 1 per bar. It's the natural way children move to music when they hear it as well.
Greetings
Natalie

Certainly not too late.  I truly believe that LMs is useful even for adults, and the feedback I've been getting from testers seem to confirm that.  Of course, the younger you start, the better, but there's no point dwelling on the time that has past.


Interesting, thanks very much for that very useful comment!  Which age group is it more difficult for, the younger or older?  I presume you mean the younger?  I was actually afraid that the younger groups wouldn't be able to keep up.

Would love to have more input on this from others.

Hi, just a few things I've noticed.....

Not all viola pictures are violas. Some have spike (not extended) and no chin rest (not that a chin rest is always necessary), but they look like cellos to me.

Day 260 Rhythm:
The last 2 notes are written as 1/4 notes but are spoken 'Ti Ti' 1/8 Notes

The Brass 1 mp3 sounds like a saxophone group rather than a brass group.

Just downloaded LM and watched 1st lesson with my 21 moths old son. We loved it both!! It was pleasant to start with Tchaikovsky... one of my favorites!! So cool, THANKS!

My son liked lesson one and must have really paid attention. I thought he was a bit bored during some of the lesson, I guess nor. He went and got a toy that played the 1812 overture after we finished! I was stunned and he was so proud of himself.

I just downloaded LMs and watched the first lesson with my 3 year old and 8 month old. We all loved it! DD (aged 3) was singing the solfege and the little one seemed transfixed!

I do agree that the clapping was a bit slow. I clapped along slowly but DD ignored the slower beat and clapped along in time with the tune instead. She did really enjoy this section and wanted to repeat but I was a bit worried as she wasn't really getting the steady beat concept.

Oh boy! I haunt been this excited since.....I found this forum  lol
Thank you thank you thank you! Ok now to tell the truth I am excited for myself, I think I will get as much from this as my kids will :)
Quick question, above you mentioned that the colours can be set rather than random colours.  Does that mean we can set one colour for each note and have it the same each time? I ask because at school my kids learn do re me and each one has a different colour, it would be good to have it all match up. Others may be interesting in matching it to other music programs (rainbow piano). Anyway I am off to download it, perhaps the answer will slap me in the face once I do  lol

On clapping -- my younger ( as studios as he is) having a hard time doing the slower clapping and claps perfectly on beat, but on every beat/every second beat. I think the older the child, the easier it will get for her/him to wait 3 beats and clap on the 4th, but for younger ones it is more difficult, and they prefer to clap more often. may be we can have different options?

I agree with Natalie.

My 3 years old son has trouble clapping slowly. He tends to clap according to the beats. He loves Clap Along lessons, though.
Also, he hums do mi so fa la do all day.. lol

Elle

I could not wait to try it.  I installed this morning as soon as I got the email with the link.  I tried it in a very small laptop that has windows and it worked very nicely.  My son of 12 months loved it!! I am a musician myself and this product is heaven sent!! please release it fast!! 
Any possibility it can be made for MACS??? I love macs and I have not been using windows since 2002.  It is hard to get use to it again as macs are so much more intuitive.  I just order LR, LR chinese, and will order also LM and and LMusician as it is release. 
It would have been perfect if they would have been mac compatible! 

Lali, it is in works!

Thanks for the feedback about the clapping, everyone!  We will swap around 'every beat' with 'first beat' for the Clap-Along lessons.
We'll probably also need to remove/replace the 3/4 beat songs cos every beat for these songs will be a bit too fast.


Great catch, thank you!!  Better watch out - if you carry on like this, we may have to give you a secret reward... :)

Re 260 Rhythm lesson - it displays fine for me. Can you please help me take a screen shot of what you see?
(Press "PrtScn" or "Print Screen" button and paste onto MS Word or Powerpoint).



Funny you should mention this.  First, yes, you are able to do it, but you have to do it as a new icon set (and choose "By note" instead of "simple"). If you try this, MAKE SURE YOU ARE ON BUILD 561. 560 will crash on you, big time.  Second, we are actually about to implement this by adding a rainbow colored icon set.

Please add your thoughts to this discussion thread I've just opened:

http://forum.brillkids.com/little-musician-general-discussion/using-different-colors-for-different-notes-opinions-please!/


Eventually, I'm sure - YES.  However, I wouldn't hold my breath for it... You're more likely to see it on the ipad first before you do on the Mac, just like you are seeing LR on the iPad first (Mac version will be based off the iPad app.)

Lali, it is in works!

That sounds great!! will it be available for macs in May when the program is released? 

Since I bought already the LR and Chinese content, will I be able to exchange them to get the mac version?  Should I hold on till Lmath is available for macs??

I can't download it, it won't open.

I'm still trying to figure out why I cannot get past the 'trial' and download the license key properly. But here are my suggestions so far (sorry if these problems are addressed after Day 10 of the curriculum):

Under the Music Appreciation section:
It would be very helpful and more stimulating for the learner to observe the piece of music being played (very, very valuable), the melody moving as notes on the score, or the metronome moving according to the music while the composer's piece is being played. These could come up in a randomized fashion as they do in Little Reader. Even showing the multiple instruments that make up the musical piece would be more beneficial than a blank screen.

Under the Clap-Along section:
I agree with another user that it is harder especially for the younger learners to clap so slowly. Also, for when it's appropriate to clap only on the first beat, for example, I think there needs to be reasoning shown why (for example, a moving image "1-x-x-x-1-x-x-x," where "1" represents a clap-- sorry, just trying to creatively express what I mean using only keyboard symbols), not just teaching a 'kareoke' mindset of clapping when the icon shows you it's time to clap.

When introducing musical instruments:
I think it is crucial that not only the photo image of the instrument is a real one, but that it is shown a real instrument is being played by a real person. Teaching how the instrument projects sound (plucking, pushing, strumming, rubbing, hitting, etc.) is an essential part of learning what an instrument is or does. Unfortunately at this point I don't see this part being introduced in Little Musician. (To give you an example, it's like teaching the word "hammer" to a child, but not showing what it does of what you can do with the hammer.)

Furthermore, music is a form of nonverbal communication. This form of communication simply cannot be shown or taught by animations not exactly playing the instrument properly. (Sorry, I feel so bad for the workers who worked so hard on this!) Showing video clips of real, professional musicians expressively (you'll see why in my last paragraph below) playing the instrument being introduced in this section (and don't forget--also showing video clips of children joyously playing the instrument) will improve the quality and value of Little Musician TREMENDOUSLY.

Another category you can add is Instrument recognition. Again, forgive me if I simply did not see this because I'm having trouble downloading Semester 1 and 2. But this is a good category to add in the beginning anyway.  Perhaps an audio of a violin being played with a "?" on the screen after a "Can you guess what this instrument is?", and the next page showing a violin (or even several instruments to choose from, and the next next page showing the answer) with the original musical audio. The level of difficulty of this game can be increased by perhaps, a flute and a harp being simultaneously played, with the question, "What two instruments do you hear?" etc. Listening activities such as: "Do you hear the triangle? Can you raise your hand when the you no longer can hear the triangle" also teaches the valuable and unique traits of various instruments. It also encourages more interactiion (rather than passive listening and repeating) and more parental involvement and modeling behavior to actively encourage the learner to mimic and learn. Let me stress the word actively.

Under Chord Recognition:
What a wonderful a guessing game! But this guessing game can be easily ruined if you couldn't hear the chord being played and your only choice is to turn to the next page (which already tells you the answer) when you didn't have the chance to guess. An option of a "repeat button" on the "?" page would solve this problem easily (like, "Press the space bar to hear it again.").

Well, those are the comments I have so far. I love that the notes are occasionally trucks or strawberries! It keeps it all interesting! Just wondering, though: does a section for emotional interpretation come up later in the curriculum? Because as I've said, music is a form of nonverbal communication, and I think emotional interpretation deserves to be recognized in music education.

I forgot to mention:

During the Clap-Along, for example during Itsy Bitsy Spider, the "clap" icon moves down the screen for verses 1 and 2, but not during the bridge. The baby animation stops clapping also. This could suggest the wrong message that the first beat (or any beat you're trying to teach through clapping) in every bridge is nonexistant or is to be ignored. However, I understand the value in not clapping the whole time. For younger learners it could be too long or difficult to keep up with; also it could get boring. So maybe an entirely different image can come up during the bridge (hiding the non-moving left clap-signal and maybe the baby), like, maybe a spider, in this case, can be moving up the spout. The learner can still rest, but the wrong message is not sent as if to say, "Now, there is no first beat." Gives more eye candy, too.

Also, I continually get an error message when I click to continue from the String Instruments 1-3 to the second Chord Recognition of the day: "Little Musician has encountered a problem and needs to shut down." However, when I select the second Chord Recognition of the day and start from there, I do not get the error message. This has been the hase every time I am on Day 5, and occasionally the case when I am on other days of the trial curriculum.

Lali,

I believe, KL have answered your question earlier, but since it was together with a few other responses it might have had escaped your attention, so I wanted to cut and paste it here in response to your second question.


Quote from: Lali on Today at 01:24:02 AM
Any possibility it can be made for MACS???

From KL: Eventually, I'm sure - YES.  However, I wouldn't hold my breath for it... You're more likely to see it on the ipad first before you do on the Mac, just like you are seeing LR on the iPad first (Mac version will be based off the iPad app.)

Hope this helps!

I am just now exploring this, but I have to say I LOVE the beat with the clapping animation.  This will really help to teach rhythm.  Brilliant Brill Kids!!!!!!!! Well done.

I'll give more feedback, shortly.  Just wanted to say I love this piece!!

Someone on youtube came up with a wonderful idea for visualizing classical music.  I don't know if it's at all practical for LMs...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRgXUFnfKIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATbMw6X3T40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QHzI5HmXl4


They really allow you to see the textures of the pieces.  Amazing tool for music education.

I agree with pitch perfect INTRODUCING THIS WOULD BE SO GREAT AND BENEFICIAL ! Or at least an orchester playing the piece but definetely NOT just a blank screen.
I also agree that the clapping could be improved with at least a thicker line and bigger symbols.
Please bear in mind that I don't have a musical background. Meaning there might be more great suggestions from people that have.
And don't forget when reading all these constructive suggestions that we are overall delighted and grateful that the brillkids team has come up with such a fine product!

Congratulions!

Hi,
Yes, the younger children (18 Months - 3 years) have trouble clapping slowly. The slower clapping should be brought in towards the end of the course. I would suggest the rhythms also be so introduced, i.e. starting with 1/4 notes rather than whole notes.

I/m so excited to see little musician.... My son (3 year) s able to recognise do mi so and fa la do... m so happy.
but the clapping part , he is not in tune with the beats!! he beats faster...
Thanks brillkids.. Great job..

Well, KL and Team!  Well Done!  It must be exciting to be putting something like this together when you know that there are so many of us thrilled beyond belief about it! 

Here are my 2 cents (noting that I've only gotten to Day 3):
Clap Along - my son (four years old) did want to clap every beat at his first go at it, but I counted 1, 2,3,4 and he got it pretty quickly.  I also counted through the bridges.  On his second try he got it perfectly.  I fooled around a bit with the options seen at the bottom of the screen and chose the option of clapping on the different beats and he was thrilled with trying to keep up with the falling icons.  He really liked this.  In his IRL music class the teacher "sways" her arms during the bridges - that might be an option for your animated babies.

Sound:   It took me until Day 3 to figure out how to change the sound so that we could hear the voices and not have the clapping/piano be ear piercing.

Instrument Visuals - My son plays violin and noticed that the bow wasn't moving with the music.  I, too, thought that maybe this area could be a bit more realistic - I suppose having access to that many musicians would be unlikely and difficult, though.  I LOVE Danny & Amy's idea about having an instrument sound recognition game.  That would be an excellent addition!

Free Play - LOVE THIS!  I like how you can put your cursor on the staff and see the piano key it represents.  My son loved playing around on this screen.

Please make sure you have done Step 3, after which you should see both semesters showing. If not, please let us know what you did and what you saw.


I totally agree that would be immensely more helpful. I can add to that list too. :)  Unfortunately, this is what we have right now given the constraints we have.
Here's what's feasible in the near future (NOT in the upcoming release):
What we've been exploring for v2 is to have some visual patterns (like the Windows Media Player) when you hear the music.
Another idea is to have someone go through every single piece and list out all instruments being played, and make a collage of those instruments (will require a lot of man hours).


See the "DOWNLOADS" button at the top row of buttons, that's currently deactivated? In the final build, it will say, "RESOURCES", and in it, you will find a well-organized directory of links to all the knowledge lessons. One of the sections will be INSTRUMENTS, and under each instrument, you will be able to play back Youtube videos showing those instruments being played.

That's the best we can do for now. Incorporating the videos into the lessons is not feasible for us right now.


Please vote as to whether we should play the pronunciation audio file instead:
http://forum.brillkids.com/little-musician-general-discussion/lms-poll-regarding-instruments-animation-please-vote!/


Great ideas - thanks!  Will implement in future builds.  Not sure if it'll make it into the release build.


You can repeat the slide or sound by pressing on your scroll-wheel button on your mouse. 
(I think we probably need to make these instructions clearer.)


Agreed, but it's not something that's within the scope of the current version of LMs.  v2, perhaps? Thanks for the suggestion.


You guessed correctly - we only activate the clapping during the melody to give the child a rest during the bridge and to avoid monotony.  As for your other suggestions, it's something that's more easily done with fixed DVD programming rather than a software program that can be used with unlimited songs. Pros and cons of each.


Let me ask you this - does this only happen after you've left your LMs on for a long time, like overnight, or even immediately after you start it?


Thanks for that.  Would be fantastic, but won't be feasible for our popular classics which is mp3 based (we'll use other forms of visualization that's more easily implemented - see my comment above).  We can see if we can implement what is shown in the youtube videos by using midi files of those pieces.  Perhaps in a future version.


Can you elaborate on that? What lesson are you talking about, and what's ear-piercing?


Please add your vote:
http://forum.brillkids.com/little-musician-general-discussion/lms-poll-regarding-instruments-animation-please-vote!/


Lastly, thanks everyone too for your encouraging comments!

I tried to install LMs on two computers. On first it was successful and on second unsuccessful; I can not get the license (previous version worked on both). Is it how it should be?

Hi Frukc,

That's odd -- the key should work for your two LMs installations (the same way regular LR and LM keys work).

For your second computer (where the activation doesn't work), please try the following:

1. Make sure that the Internet connection is stable when you import the key

2. Disable your Firewall or Anti-Virus temporarily

3. Re-import the key and see if it works this time


If it still doesn't work, kindly send us an email (to [email protected]) with the following information:

> The type of Internet connection you are using (e.g., dial-up, DSL, LAN, ethernet, etc.)
> Your Internet browser and browser version
> Your second computer's name
> Describe what happens when you import the key, and mention any error message(s) that you saw on screen
> Confirm if your two computers are in the same house / location / IP address and if both have LR and LM in it too

Parents from my community experienced a few issues when they attempted to install LMs:

- Installation was successfully. However, the software stops working the next day and asked for a license key. They changed the calendar from Thai to English but still did not work. The only way to get it to work right now is uninstalling and re-installing LMs again.

- Installation was complete but when some of them try to reopen it again the next day, they were asked to input a license key. So, they reactivated LMs again but they received an error message "This license key already exists. Please enter a new license key and try again”.

- LMs crashed while playing.

What should I do to help them solve these issues?

Thanks,

Elle

Kezia will get back to you, but in the meantime, please make sure they have build 561, not 560.

Hi KL,

In answer to your question:
Yesterday we downloaded the program and I watched Days 1-3 with my son.  It was only until we got to Day 3 that I realized that I had control of the sound - that both the voice/hands and instruments had their own dial.  I also have a headcold so that could explain some of my fog :)  Hey, let's just be easy on myself and say ALL of the fog lol  Anyway, it is plain as day at the bottom of the screen, but for the first three lessons the voice was all but silent and the instrument was shockingly loud - it's all been fixed, but maybe the default doesn't have to be set that way.

However, just a moment ago I opened Day 4 & 5 and the Solfege part was giving me problems.  It kept skipping - with the voice saying Do, Do, Do, etc or if it did progress, it did so without saying Do the first time and then on the 2nd note you'd hear a slight "D" sound - sometimes their was a voice, sometimes not. 

I'm going to give my head a better chance to clear, reread your initial post about what we should be hearing/experiencing (atleast I THINK you wrote one) and give it another try tomorrow or the day after. 

Maybe there should be a baby bottle with a thermometer in it's mouth - until then, this is me :blink:

Thanks, KL.

Mine is Build 560 but works really well. It only crashed on me a few times. Do I need to upgrade LMs to 561?

Oh my goodness!!!!!   WOW!!!  Little Musician is soooo much better than I'd even hoped for.  I knew it would be great, but oh my gosh!!!  It's incredible!  I just did the first lesson with my 1 year old.  She loved it from the start.  We had fun singing and clapping together.  she was quickly bored by the long song at the end, but all other aspects very much held her attention.  Looking forward to doing more lessons.  Can't wait!

Thanks so much for opening it up to us all.  It's fantastic!

mistermom..my son is the same! He loves LMs but is not interested in the long version of classical music. Probably it's not fun for him to look at the white screen.  :D

Hi Vera, which browser did you use when you tried downloading? If you used Internet Explorer, please choose to "Save" the file rather than opening it, and once the download is complete you can try if it installs or opens without errors. Alternatively, you may try using a different browser like Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/) or Chrome (https://www.google.com/chrome) in case the download problem is browser-related.

If you're still having problems, please let us know which particular step(s) you are stuck in (you may refer to KL's post at the beginning of this topic for the complete steps).



Hi Elle, kindly ask your friends to install 1.0.561 and try this while connected to the Internet:

1. Open (or restart) Little Musician and wait a few seconds until you see the message "License key status has changed. Little Musician will now refresh." If this message doesn't appear after a minute or two, you may still try the next step.

2. Click OK in the "refresh" window, and after Little Musician refreshes, check for the following:

 > You don't have a "Trial Version" label in the Little Musician window's title bar or in "Tools > Software Information" (beside the software version number)

 > If the content file has been imported already, "Tools > Software Information" should have the license key displayed beside "BrillKids Music Course (Semester 1)" and "BrillKids Music Course (Semester 2)"

** For those who haven't imported the license key when they had 560, they may try importing the key after installing 561.

We're already investigating about this issue, but do try the suggestion above in the meantime and see if it helps.


About 1.0.560, it does work fine except that there's a bug in the Media Library screen -- LMs will crash if you try creating a new Icon Set. Once you encounter this bug you can still use LMs, but you won't be able to use the Media Library screen by then. We've fixed this bug in 561, so for those interested in looking around the Media Library, it's best to uninstall 560 and then install 561. :)

Kizudo - so, you're experiencing sound playback problems, like sound being cut off? If so, can you attach a diagnostic report, or email it into our Tech Support (support at brillkids dotcom).

Re the long classical piece not being able to hold your child's interest - that's expected, and that's why we put it at the end.  Just let your child wander off but keep it playing in the background.  Also, different children at different ages will respond to it differently.

Mine prefer the long music piece, much more time to show of their awesome dance moves  lol

We've been doing this for the past couple of days and my daughter loves it! Thanks for giving us access!

Love it but I think I would like to see the rhythm (ta..etc)  introduced earlier and more varied. I think the children's songs should be done in the ta rhythm. Still not sure why mine crashes so much. Happens on the second chord recognition.. I am running Windows 7 and when it crashes it puts up a thin red x. It does not appear to be repeatable. Is there a reason why in the clapping rhythm section you only clap on one beat?

Hi Patreiche, can you you create a Diagnostic Report from Tools and send it into support(at)brillkids(dot)com with a description?

We don't want to overcrowd sem1 with concepts hence why rhythm only appears in sem2.  The Clap-alongs are getting changed based on feedback from others, where it will start with every beat, then 1+3, 2+4, etc.  More variety of beats will also be added.

Yes I will make a diagnostic report today. It kind of acts like I am missing a utility or something but since it is not repeatable I doubt that. It flashes value not something. I am clicking through the lessons quickly to evaluate so maybe some initialization of a variable is getting skipped. If you want to replicate trying clicking through lessons quickly maybe.

Can we make the children's songs into ta rhythm format. I have seen in videos children sitting in circle with percussion instruments learning to keep the beat to songs with the ta format. I think is a nice way to learn rhythm. If they play this in a song format when they get to the curriculum of notes and ta, I think it will click faster. Just something outside the lessons we can play with them more fun then lesson.

I love the idea of associating a color with the notes. I think it will help to translate to playing and reading music much easier.

Hi everyone, kindly note these details in case you need specific technical help:

> If you have a question or if you need help with installing, please post at the Technical Support board: http://forum.brillkids.com/tech-support-b295/ (http://forum.brillkids.com/tech-support-b295/)

> If you are experiencing software errors or crashes, please send a description of the problem along with your Diagnostic Report to support[at]brillkids[dot]com
http://support.brillkids.com/entries/20438423-how-to-create-a-diagnostic-report-for-your-brillkids-learning-system (http://support.brillkids.com/entries/20438423-how-to-create-a-diagnostic-report-for-your-brillkids-learning-system)

Thanks!  :)

Hi,

My daughter is 4 1/2 yrs. She enjoys LMs very too, but she do not like the long version of classical song at the end. So i tried dancing with her, walking very fast or slow (according to the rythym of the piece), jumping,flapping arms to fly , using crayons to draw freely on the paper (eg, when song is gentle, the drawing is gentle, just by using 1 colour crayon) I remeber i saw the crayon idea in one of the SHichida DVDs.  As for clapping hands, sometimes i let her use the tambourine n other musical instruments to make it fun. Hv fun

I tried running the support tools to create a diagnostic report and it didn't work. I downloaded the standalone version it also had the same problem and told me windows was checking for a solution, i did not anxiously await a windows answer

I'm sorry to hear about that, Patreiche.

Can you please try creating a report this way:

 > From your Start Menu, go to All Programs
 > Open the BrillKids folder
 > Open the Little Musician folder
 > Click on the item labeled "Diagnostic"
 > A black window will open, collecting your system information
 > Once the tool has finished a Windows Explorer window will open, containing a file named "BrillKids_[NAME]_[DATE].zip"

Please attach that file when you email us again. If the Windows Explorer window doesn't open immediately, you can get the file from your "My Documents \ BrillKids \ Tools" folder.

I still can not finish installation of LMs on my second computer because I can not get the license. I press "manage license keys". Since today, it shows:
Brillkids Acconnt. This program cannot display the webpage
At the same time I am logged on and visiting account page (parental control is off).

upd.
Website opened and asked me to log on. It offers only Little Reader Content & License Keys.

The license key is included in my first post in this thread. It's a file that you can just click on and run/open. See my first post for details.

I think it would be good to have something on the screen rather than just white for the longer piece of music. Maybe some random patterns kind of like in a screen saver. My daughter would definetely sit still and listen to it better if she had something to look at. The rest of the program is a big hit. SHe loves it and I'm learning something too!

I absolutely agree. If the image of the structure of the piece cannot be displayed because the files are mp3 ones as kl said in an earlier post, how about at least showing an orchester playing the piece? Although I would  prefer the first wonderful suggestion by dannyand? Even if it would mean paying more. Are you still posItive it cannot be done for this version, KL?

I have followed the installation steps carefully, but when I try to install the content packs I get the message: File is password protected.

What am I doing wrong?

Re blank slide during music appreciation lessons - Yes, it will still be blank for the release version. Any changes we make to it (eg., adding visual effects) will not be ready for the release build.

HOWEVER - once you get the release build, you'll realize that it's really not a big deal.  When you get to the end lesson, simply click the mouse to SKIP the lesson, and you will be asked whether you want to watch videos of the various knowledge lessons. Saying yes will take you to a new section which you haven't seen yet, which will show you YouTube videos of all the instruments or composers and music appreciation pieces that were shown that day.  So simply play the full length piece from there.

In any case, that's why we put that piece at the end, so you can let your child wander around. He/she doesn't need to continue to watch the screen! :)

Animalcrackerkat - you should find this article helpful:
http://support.brillkids.com/entries/20432501-the-content-files-i-downloaded-were-saved-as-a-zip-file-and-now-i-can-t-import-my-lessons-completely

We are still really enjoying the LMs programme.  I had a lovely moment this evening when the whole family was sitting around the table watching it and singing the solfege notes, and when the clapping section came on, even my 9 month DS got very excited and banged on the table (almost in rhythm!) along with us.  :)

I'm just wondering about whether it is possible to use LMs to help with other music programmes such as Soft Mozart.  I would love to be able to interchange the Solfege noteheads for the Soft Mozart images.  Ideally, I'd like to alternate between written notes (Do, Mi etc) and the images, so that we can learn both as words and images.

Is this possible?

Oh what a clever idea Izp11! I was planning to link the coloured notes to softmozarts DO RE ME pictures, ( well actually I already did see file sharing section tomorrow on softmozart forum ;) ) and do it that way, but I like your thinking. We could make a set of ( preferably coloured) icons in softmozarts pictures and use them.
I still would like the picture to be different at times but would love this in our rotation!

You can set whatever icons you wish.

Go to Media Library, Icons Sets, and choose "By Note" and then set each note with your own icon picture.

However, best to wait for the release version cos we've made some enhancements to that section.

But to answer your question - YES, IT'S POSSIBLE. :)

Hi,

This was THE MOST awaited launch...i have been following brillkids for a few years now and was keenly waiting for this. Congratulations and thanks a lot for working on this.

Unfortunately i'm not able to unzip the installer once downloaded. It throws an error "unrecoverable zip file read error".

can you please help me with this. i have downloaded it multiple times but with the same response  :(

Thanks,
Jatinder

Hi Jatinder, can you confirm how large the file you got is? The installer zip should be around 84.2MB.

I assume you've already tried re-downloading using different browsers, so perhaps using a different archiving tool will help. If you are using WinZIP now, or if you're using the built-in utility in Windows, kindly try using WinRAR or 7-Zip to unzip the file:

WinRAR - http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
7-Zip - http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

I hope this helps! If it still doesn't work, please do let us know  :yes:

Hi,
My son pay attention to the solfege and enjoys the clapping, but only when the girl claps and its a song he know ;-)
When the music appreciation come he shakes he head and says STOP!  ???
From my experience as Musikgarten teacher I would suggest starting with Mozart and repeating the same music for maybe a week so they get familiar with the music. I start for example with Mozart 'Eine kleine Nachtmusik' or Mozart Symphony 40. It sould be simple music with a clear beat. I would leave the romantics until later. They always talk about the 'Mozart Effect' in early children learning. I would also make the suggestion that instead of just sitting listening to the music you could dance with the child, either holding them in your arms an moving to the music or allowing the child to move by itself. I think there should definately be a dance section to the music lesson so that the child can feel the music with his/her whole body.

Maybe the words would be helpful to show along with the Clap-Along section so that the parents can sing along with the song if they don't know the words.

Greetings

P.S. I also noticed that the solfege lesson on some days don't allow you to 'click to continue'

Yay!! We are so happy to hear this. We have been waiting for LMs for three years and eagerly anticipating its release date. Thank you Brillkids for working on this and making this incredible program available for our kids. You are truly a blessing to us!  :)

My little one (9 months old) LOVES this programme! I can barely believe it but, fourth day in, and she has sung three solfege notes which to my ear sounds pitch perfect! Little Musician is a winner!

Please please make LM available for purchase once this testing is over otherwise me and my LO will cry!  lol

As mentioned in other places, if this happens, just let your child wander off. That's why the piece is at the end.


Actually, the "Mozart Effect" has been disproven. Flawed experiments or something.  Doesn't mean that playing classical music is not good or has no effect though, just means that the experiments are not 'proof' of it.


Great suggestions. We also recommend this in our accompanying "Teaching with Little Musician" booklet.

===========

BTW, NEW BUILD IS OUT. PLEASE SEE THIS THREAD:

http://forum.brillkids.com/little-musician-general-discussion/little-musician-beta-near-final-version-download-here/

Hi, when i tried to import the content, I encountered this "error has been happened during import operation". I have checked the extension of the file. It is correct, so what went wrong ? Please advise. Thanks.

Did you use the files in the new build:

http://forum.brillkids.com/little-musician-general-discussion/little-musician-beta-near-final-version-download-here/

If you're having problems, UNINSTALL everything (make sure you choose to delete database and media library), and try again from the new link.
If you're still having problems, please create a diagnostic report and send it into our Support.
ANy other questions please post in that new thread, thanks!

Hi!

I´d like to know if it´s possible to play a full lesson without any click?

Thanks!

Hi. I tested little musician to my 14 months baby. She could concentrated everything but popular classic (long). She twisted her body or did other things when she listened to that long music  lol . Anyway, Even though my computer is kind of old, most of part can run smoothly. (there is little delay to open first page in every part) I think this is great product and really hope to release as soon as possible . I checked semester 2 curriculum and I found that there are little unnatural sounds in solfege. The sound cut  into each note mechanically. I totally understand this is because of computer work, but I think this part need more work. I could't distinguish between half note and quarter note in solfege sound.
Sorry to my poor English expression  :wub: 
Thank you your great works.

=============
EDIT BY KL:

Please post all replies to this thread:
http://forum.brillkids.com/little-musician-general-discussion/little-musician-beta-near-final-version-download-here/