SoftMozart vs Piano Wizard vs KinderBach vs other?

[queriquita]

Hi!  New to the board, but so relieved that it exists!  DS is 29 months and DD is 7 months.  DS is an 'early learner' child (eng/span/fren/asl + highly physical, sight reading for the past year & phonetically now + exposure to wide range of music, etc).  I wanted to get him involved in piano now and was leaning towards KinderBach (he loves Signing Time) and Piano Wizard over SoftMozart.  I noticed that quite a few people on this forum chose soft mozart, though, and didn't know if it was because it has been around longer or if it was because they find that product better in some way.  Was wanting your thoughts/experiences.

Thanks so much!

[NadiaD]

If you want to teach your kids to play PIANO I would highly recommend Soft Mozart, I've been using this program for the second week with my very active  28 month old toddler,
and I am shocked with her progress. I am keeping our progress diary at SM forum, here are the links:
1st week:
http://softmozart.com/forum/15-learning-experience/465-week-1-of-softmozart--toddler-28-months.html

2nd week;
http://softmozart.com/forum/15-learning-experience/571-week-2-of-softmozart--toddler-28-months.html

They say: " You need to see it to believe it " , I would say you need to try it to believe it. I always heard good things about the program, but only after I tried myself using it to teach my DD, I fully understood how great it is!
I so happy that I gave this program a chance.
You can purchase the 12-month  Soft Mozart software for $100  for 1 year license. (This is at a $50 discount 
USE Coupon code BRILLKIDS1111 And a chance to get a the perpetual license for FREE if you are active on the softway mozart forums.
Cheaper is only for free.
http://www.pianolearningsoftware.com/Soft-Way-to-Mozart-12-Month-Subscription-1240-per-month-ENGWindows_p_24.html

I do not know anything about PianoWizard, and I will not find out soon since it is way of our price range.
I am also curious if it is any good, and if anyone effectively used it to teach piano to toddler...

with KINDERBACH  I was not impressed, as I checked it out yesterday sample free lesson, that you suppose to show for the first week, but I did not see any piano playing there during that week.
you can check it yourself:

http://www.kinderbach.com/Learn/index.html

In SM your toddler will start practicing playing piano from the day one, you can ask the questions and ask for help on SM forums  and my DD.loves it.
Hope this helps!

This is my DD learning to play piano on Day 5 of using program!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/pUn_QoiXL1U&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/pUn_QoiXL1U&rel=1</a>!

[TeachingMyToddlers]

We viewed Kinderbach on 3 days using a 1 day pass (bought 3 times because they asked for it) and 35% off BK coupon. We'll see if we end up purchasing a longer pass or the full set, or going with another program. I am still undecided. We did not use the lessons as directed (with one lesson per week), but instead just let the kids watch a bunch of lessons that day, skipping through the repeats. I will say that one thing they learned that was very, very valuable is to discriminate the landscape of the keyboard. My daughter knows where "Dodi" (between two black keys) and she knows that the "train station" is three black keys, along with a few other of the characters and where they live (Clara-C and Edward-E).

One of the drawbacks with learning Dodi's house is if you are teaching solfege and note letter names simultaneously because different programs present it differently, Dodi is a slightly confusing choice because the note C is Do, but the character name for D is Dodi. Do versus Dodi right next to each other is a little tricky IMO, but she has not shown any difficulty in discerning the two. I might have gone with a different name other than Dodi for that reason though. Overall, it's wonderful that she can now see the differences in the sea of black and white keys after just 3 days worth of viewings.

[NadiaD]

Yes, TmT

That is the thing that I see as a drawback of Kinderbach.
 It gives you all this info about piano keys, one key a week, my daughter would be trying to memorize that key, trying to find the key  on the piano..
You can teach a person to tell the difference between a spoon, a fork and a knife, but it will not get him much help in teaching how to use them . For that you will just need to keep using utensils every day, little by little improving your skill . The same with the piano... From what I understood,  In Kinderbach you play the songs using print outs from PDF scores it is not a computer program like SM.   Of course you can make it work,  but it will take multiple fold of effort from both child and parent to learn that way. I did not use the Kinderbach program A-Z, if someone did please do share your experience. I liked how the music theory concepts presented there, and if they would have just separate package including all the episodes teaching music theory, I might consider it.
or I might just use this free resources or other tools when we will start to learn more music theory:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/p/4332F1CB60DA1A58&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/p/4332F1CB60DA1A58&rel=1</a>

But my opinion that to teach piano to a toddler SM is the BEST ! 
SM and LR are the best money I spend on learning materials.
In SM Hellene created  symbols for all 7 notes, you place the stickers on the keyboard, and your child starts to practice the piano, playing song buy song. seeing constant feedback on the computer screen..

You need to try it and see it for yourself.

I

[queriquita]

Thanks everyone for your feedback.  I am wondering: Is anyone using Piano Wizard?  The only thing I'm not a fan of re:SM is that they use those symbols.  I understand why ... for kids who don't yet know their letters, etc ... but I'd rather keep it as simple as possible for them to process and don't want him to start calling the letters 'flower' etc.  That's why I was leaning more towards Piano Wizard ... they use colors, which I prefer.  For those of you using SM with children who already knew their colors, letters, etc, did SM just muddy the waters for learning?

Thanks again!

[NadiaD]

Hi, queriquita!
I am sorry, I did not understand your question very well about "SM just muddy the waters for learning"...

In SoftMozart program there 2 options: you can use Solfege system or C,D,E system. They" have both systems for a reason: after accomplishing all games in Solfeggio – they switch them to Alphabet names( you can change it just by pressing a button on your computer keyboard).

Solfeggio goes first, because it develops voice, music ear and promotes music memory through speech memory. Alphabet names students ought to know for learning advanced music theory, chords and counterpoint.

Most of professional music teachers know both systems and teach both of them...".

My DD knows her colors, letters, shapes, etc. We chose to start with Solfege system, as I think it is more fun and right brain- oriented. The images are not random they are represent Solfege name of the note, for example: Do-door, Re-rain, etc. It is very easy to remember ... Later on we will switch to C, D, E system so like this my DD will have benefit of knowing both systems! We have plenty of time to learn them both! My DD only 2.

Hope this info helps!

[queriquita]

that does help! thanks so much for clarifying that the images were not arbitrary, but intentionally represent the solfege.  yes, we've been doing solfege for fun for about a year now, especially during bath time, so i'm glad to hear that it's also introduced. with solfege being able to be applied to notes starting anywhere, though, i would probably just start him on the letters. is there color? is there control over changing the images?  thanks for sharing!

[aangeles]

Hi queriquita,

I have been using Soft Mozart with Ella since early this year. We started when she was 2.5 years old and I wrote a review on why we chose Soft Mozart over other programs here: http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-music/ella-playing-the-piano-at-31-months-old/msg67221/#msg67221

Also, I highly recommend you to read Hellene's book "You can be a Musician" in which she explains her motivation for creating Soft Mozart and why she designed certain things the way she did in the program. I found it all quite logical, and, best of all, it works!

The program has two options - to show the notes as C-D-E or as the pictures for Do-Re-Mi (door, rain, mirror). Initially, it also bothered me that there was no option to show the notes as the solfegge syllables Do-Re-Mi since my daughter was also already reading quite fluently at that age. I even suggested to Hellene to add in that third option in their next software update for the babies and toddlers who are already reading. But, to be honest, the lack of that feature did not hinder my daughters' progress in learning solfegge in any way. She does not have any trouble singing Do-Re-Mi when playing the piano or saying Do-Re-Mi when playing with the flashcards even if what she is seeing are the door-rain-mirror symbols. It is all very intuitive and logical.

By the way, here is the link to Hellene's book: http://softmozart.on.ufanet.ru/smbookeng/music00.htm

Hope this helps!

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Yes Aangles, I remember that comment and was hoping for the same. Starting off, memorizing the pictures would be another unneeded step, just as for children who do not yet know their alphabet would have the hurdle of learning letters or note names written out. I still hope that Helene would add in that 3rd option.

With all of the buzz on the forums about SM lately, I decided to check it out via the quick trial. However, we are running into some snags and we're trying to get ironed out due to a computer crash so I haven't actually used it yet although I have the midi to usb cable.

Having said that, I had already glued on the note pictures on the keyboard. Previously I had colors on there (similar to rainbow piano technique) so I added them on as well. It was super distracting to have both the colors and pictures side by side and I ripped off the pictures this morning. I will set up a print out of the pictures ABOVE the keys if we ever get this program up and running.

My concerns with Piano Wizzard are-

1) I wish there was a way to customize the color of the noteheads because my kids have already memorized it in Roy G. Biv colors like YCCD teaches along with Curwen and I think Trebellina and a few others teach as well. It's not an industry standard (because there is none) but it's still pretty common.

2)You cannot set the program to pause until the child gets the note right, you can only slow it down to a snails pace. But if they still miss it, they have to move on to hitting the next note correctly while skipping the "missed" note.

3) The background is very busy and I wish there was an option to shut that off for young viewers.

Chris, are you reading this? Thanks :P

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