Usually when someone shows up at a forum and makes multiple posts to promote their product, it is referred to as "Spam".To answer your ostensible question:I use the computer too much in daily life. I use it in my musical practice, as well: for recording, for programming my synthesizers, for storing my music library, taking care of business, and more. I believe we spend too much time staring at a screen, that this is especially so for children, and I believe this is not good for us. Piano is a relief from this.I don't use spell check, because I want to retain my ability to spell.
Although I do agree that kids use computer screens (along with T.V. and DS screens...) too often, I do find myself using my computer regularly to teach. Many of my simplified arrangements for students are typeset almost instantly with finale, and I use Cubase regularly to record myself or my students for educational purposes.
Call me thoroughly old-fashioned, but I prefer the traditional, face-to-face teaching. I also compose at the piano, and notate it later on the computer, simply because I find it a lot easier.
Good for you!I am also a good pianist, can write any music down by ear, musicologist etc etcWe made it! Great!What about the rest of people, who couldn't? Let them struggle?
I can't write things down by ear. Not well at least.
Musicalrebel4 - By chance, is there a language based confusion here? All my acquaintances + teacher have Russian training, and all of them have movable do, not fixed do. I understand movable do to be the diatonic scale where in the major scale "do" is always the tonic. In G major, "do" falls on G, in C major "do" falls on C, in F major "do" falls on F, etc. By contrast, for "fixed do", as in France for example, in G major the tonic is called "sol", in F major the tonic is called "fa", because the solfeggio syllables take the place of the note names.So in the way you were educated, was it the first, where "do" is always the tonic, or the second?I grew up knowing only movable do solfege and not knowing note names. I have had to learn that more recently. Therefore I related to music relatively, always with the diatonic scale and familiar patterns behind me, like a ladder you could move up and down the keyboard and staff. Some things in note reading that others find hard are easy for me. However, I could easily transpose accidentally since I was not aware of pitches.Joining note names and pitches to that is not only a matter of getting new names, but a totally different concept. In pitch association, which is the only Western way, an A is always an A regardless of what is happening around it, whether it is the third note of F major, part of a triad, or the first note in A major. Joining the world of pitch and note names with the world of relative pitch and orientation within scales makes music 3-dimensional.In your system, when you have the children transposing, for example, are you gently leading them into a solfege kind of mentality so that they will have both of these worlds?
I must admit that I'm a little bit confused, because the people I know who learned in the Russian system definitely said that they learned movable do. But you were there, so you can't be confused about what you were taught. I, too, automatically sing what I hear, and recognize it immediately. I have also learned to fix pitches, but as A B C, to distinguish and came to the point of recognzing an A as an A, even of random sounds like a kitchen fan (C#). I'm still trying to understand this more. I will hear pitches as A B C, and I hear them correctly as pitches. I was taught to sing the scale or a melody as A B C, be aware of the pitches, while also being aware of the relativity within a scale, i.e. do re mi fa, at the same time. I think I would have been doing something similar to what you describe, but not under those names.In any case, the training you describe sounds thorough and wonderful. However, you also say that only a few were given that training, and the rest were left in darkness. You are trying to rectify that. I think you are also saying that few would be able to undergo that kind of training? However, your system will bring them into the ability to read music in a way that incorporates some of that?
In order to learn piano keys and music notes layout we have some mnemonic 'tricks' like 'Every Boy Does Fine' etc
I played it with the alphabet and I got mildly tense. I don't enjoy computer games; I'm the wrong age, maybe. I tried solfege, and I was faced with a picture of a barn, a cloud with rain falling from it, a mirror, a salt shaker, and a coffee cup. Eventually I figured out where the cloud, mirror, and barn went. I had no association with music, no sounds, no life - it made me tense. I did not memorize "every good boy deserves fudge". I began with movable do solfege. Later I memorized note names, associated them with places on the treble clef, as pitch sounds in my head, as places that lived beside certain keys in their homes. It was multi-sensational, pleasant, and never created tension.I am sure that fixed do solfege is a good system. You have pleasant words instead of the alphabet. Unfortunately I had rain, mirror, barn, salt shaker, and coffee cup. Having the names of hte objects was missing - I'm sure they are on the full demo. I do know the solfege syllables, but I could not associate them the the pictures: do, re, mi, fa, sol = which is the barn, which is rain and mirror? I'm sure the salt shaker is "sol". Having children see pictures is a good idea. It reminds me of the Waldorf approach.As an adult, the sequence of ABC was easier because they are familiar. I cannot judge about the solfege becuase I already know it; then the handicap was having pictures with no names.
Topic: Books or computer interactivity? 