Piano for Visual Learners

I mentioned some time ago about my plans to increase LM’s music exposure and to, perhaps, start introducing her to the idea of playing a musical instrument. The benefits of listening to music are well-known and unquestionable, but playing music goes as far as “fine-tuning” the brain’s auditory system and has a profound impact on speech and language, memory and attention, and even emotional development.

Playing the piano offers further benefits as it involves playing with both hands  and is, therefore, a great coordination and fine motor skill exercise, working the corpus callosum in your brain – yet another important focus area in our homeschool. Since I received some piano training in my (very distant!) past, I feel I would be more comfortable to help LM with this instrument.

A couple of months ago I tried Music for Little Mozarts, as I wrote here, but, unfortunately, LM did not share my excitement about the programme and we did not progress very far with it. It did not offer enough visual stimuli to LM, the Beethoven Bear and Mozart Mouse storyline did not inspire her to explore the black and white keys and was simply beyond her level of comrehension. This is why, at that point, I decided to leave teaching her to play the piano aside till, perhaps, she was ready one day.

My hopes rekindled when I learned about two software programmes, which looked like they could provide the missing visual support to learning the piano.  The two programmes in question are Piano Wizard and Soft Mozart and they both offer a game-like approach to learning to play the piano (keyboard) and, ultimately, to read sheet music. They both claim to be suitable for young children and older learners with a variety of aptitudes, and have excellent reviews. This could be a way round her current auditory comrehension difficulties!

Having raised some sponsorship from LM’s grandparents and procured a more decent keyboard, I have found myself at crossroads, as I can’t make up my mind as to which one to go for! Neither of the programmes comes cheap, and with money being a HUGE issue for our family, I have to be careful with my investment.

While the two programmes seem to be very similar at first glance, you will find some essential differences once you look at them more carefully. The creators of both programmes Chris Salter (Piano Wizard) and Hellene Hiner (Soft Mozart) have been great contributors to BrillKids forum and they have had a few very heated discussions regarding a variety of subjects pertaining to musical education. If you would like to learn more about these programmes, I recommend reading through those discussions (trying to remain impartial to the contributors' communication styles!).

I will continue researching these two methods and will write up my thoughts. In the meantime, if you have had experience with any of these programmes or are simply willing to share your views, I will greatly appreciate your input!