waterdreamer:
WOW! that is AMAZING!!!! i'm a professional conductor/composer and the fact that he is repeating the stuff from TW is a testament to how fabulous that program is. i do have a few questions for you:
1. when he repeats the notes, does he play them on the piano and THEN sing? or does he sing the correct pitch and THEN play the note?
2. is there any other music going on in the house?
this is my suggestion... you can take it or leave it.
if you go onto itunes or an mp3 site, search for pieces with the key in the title. for example, type in F major or minor (the name of the note, any note you remember from TW... i don't know how far along you are) and then either the word major or minor but NOT TOGETHER. TONS of music will come up. if he is focusing on a specific note, than play music with that note in the key. for example, if he is liking 'F', then play Beethoven symphony #6 in F. get it? it will reinforce the pitch, which is exactly what TW is trying to do.
i would foster this like crazy... i would also explore those piano lessons that are on you tube. i found the video on this forum. she was great at showing the non musical parent how to teach the piano and read music.
also, if you are so inclined, i would do 2 things:
1. get some flash cards of notes in MULTIPLE CLEFS. there are 7 clefs in music. most people only use 2 but it is good to know at least 4. i would start flashing treble (TW) bass cleff, alto clef and tenor clef. you can find them by doing a web search... i think the site is called music time. if people are interested i'll put some up on this forum.
2. when your son is naming notes like F, G, C, etc. say to him "F is also Fa" and "C is also do". i wrote this out on another post, do a search for my postings and you will see it. in my opinion this is very important. this is called FIXED DO and every music student all over the world knows this system except for the states, which does movable do, numbers, the list goes on. the thing is, once they get past a certain point they have to learn fixed do anyway, so just learn it now. if your son knows this system they will NEVER be asked to learn movable as they will be put into a perfect pitch class that only uses fixed do. i believe with all my heart that fixed do early fosters great pitch. i'm sure there will be people on this site who strongly disagree, but i have been all over the world and the best musicians ALL used fixed do. it is the only way to go to teach music properly.
i'm also sure that there are some who will disagree about learning several clefs simultaneously. i believe this skill sets apart the "men from the boys" so to speak. when you son is ready to start taking lessons, you must find a teacher who can read at least 4 clefs. it will be a pain b/c a lot of people call themselves music teachers and barely made it through a music class and are into teaching for the $$. stay away from these people... you want the real deal if you are going to invest in lessons.
granted, all of this is just my opinion, but it is what i'm doing with my little one. i also think you must decide what you want for your child: do you want him to fool around with it until he's about 8 still playing simple songs and forcing him to practice and giving up OR do you want him to give him the gift of being able to sit down and sightread something when he is 20? i'm not talking about being a concert pianist, i'm talking about giving him the fundamentals now that will stay with him so he can learn any type of music that interests him: jazz, pop, classical, whatever. learning fixed do as well as clefs will really hone his ear and make it so when he does start there will be no barrier to his learning and the sky will be the limit.
may children stop playing an instrument b/c trying to coordinate the hands with looking and struggling to read music is just too frustrating and playing very simple songs is not fun. if you do what i suggest, i believe when they finally do sit down to play a piece of music, they won't have to think about about reading the music, it will come automatically, thus any barrier is going and they just get to concentrate on playing and having fun.
sorry for the rant, hope my 2¢ helps.
the doc
ps: you need to know that i have attended conservatories my whole life and i have a classical bend to my opinion, FYI.
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