Full article 'Soft Way to Mozart' published by Moscow conservatory

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This article was published in book for educators 'How to teach solfeggio in 21st century"

SOFT WAY TO MOZART

 "Without music life would be a mistake" – Frederich Nitsche

Music language is an international one but its elements are not available to most people. Common methods of teaching music are in desperate need of a reform. In the era of science and technology less and less interest is being paid to advanced forms of music and music education. Technological progress calls for a new progressive approach to music education that can both regenerate this interest and make it universal. This article is dedicated to the above-mentioned ideas and to new reformatory ways of teaching music together with computer technology.

Some ideas regarding social and historical preconditions of total musical ignorance

Throughout history music education has been failing to reach the majority of people. Musical illiteracy as in inability to read and write music has plagued human society for centuries. However until recently regard for music skills such as mastery of a music instrument or control and clarity of singing voice was generally very high.


Nevertheless during these “golden” centuries for development of the professional branch of music education, music pedagogy was not the most popular subject of music knowledge. In scoffing at lack of talent and dilettantism by music professionals, beating hands of negligent pupils, rigid methods of music pedagogy focused at raising “new geniuses” and disregarding amateurs. Even well known composers in their memoirs expressed some irritation against “hard of hearing” dilettanti whom they had had to teach to earn money and nothing more.

Remember one of the “Small Tragedies” by Alexander Pushkin – “Mozart and Salieri”. There is a scene where Mozart brings home a fiddler and asks him to perform “something by Mozart” and Salieri is indignant at the sight of such “mockery of an object of worship”. This is a very indicative scene in which keen Pushkin’s eye noticed the difference between genius’ and artisan’s attitudes towards the problem of dilettantism in music.
From today’s perspective that scene has a deeper more elaborate meaning.

The point is not only that Mozart was tolerant to the fiddler’s mistakes but also that he had a wise attitude to music in general. One needs to be a genius in order to understand that a music composition is alive only while it is being performed, even though imperfectly.

Until emergence of adequate sound-recording devices human society needed gifted, bright performers, but as a rule there was no lack of listeners. Therefore, most of music schools in Europe and later all over the world concentrated on training future virtuosos. Music pedagogy preoccupied with problems of their technique improvement, created entrance contests that were to eliminate “hard of hearing” ones and was not particularly interested in universal music competence. The methods of teaching to play music instruments, reading and writing music were so difficult for ordinary people that they would give it up early on joining the army of ignorant dilettanti. As to gifted learners, they stood the test of the first steps in music not because of the existing systems of initial training but in spite of them.

This can be the very explanation of such a great amount of nonsense, mistakes and bad habits that remained in music pedagogy until now.

Neglectful attitude to the vocal nature of music language is accepted in the countries with literal system of naming music notes. Music pedagogy in general is not able and is unwilling to develop ear for music and singing voice of people without marked music aptitude (in spite of discoveries in this field made by some well-known pedagogues who could teach even hard of hearing persons to sing clearly). Music schools have a tendency to turn any beginner into a performing artist. There is no tolerance to mistakes and imperfectness of playing even at the very beginning of music studies.

All these drawbacks apply to both pro-western countries where the government does not support music education and the countries of former socialist block where professional music training is supported by the state.

However, it should be mentioned that although in Russia and the other republics of the former USSR music schools, colleges and conservatories also aimed only at perfecting professionals, at the same time there was a wide net of public music schools easily accessible and affordable to everyone. These circumstances contributed to greater music education coverage than in countries with capitalist system. Thus not only exceptionally gifted learners but also children with average music aptitude could attend music schools in former USSR. In addition, the quantity of classes a child had in his/her schedule at a music school, gave much better chance of getting a better foundation for music development. This in turn encouraged professionals to keep searching for new methods to improve the initial stages of music education. Gradually some of these attempts resulted in music classes being introduced to in education programs of regular schools

However, division of music education into general (as a part of general education) and specialized (music schools and studios) and selective approach to enrollment for music school did not encourage music pedagogy to create methods that would be aimed at teaching each child how to read music Although there are certain advantages to Russian system of music education with its time-proven structure and methodology, Russian music education has not managed to overcome the problem of overall musical illiteracy.

With technical progress, extracting music sounds by means of pressing  “Play” button on a record player or a tape-recorder has quenched people’s thirst for music decoration of their own lives. At the same time their common musical ignorance in the first place has raised the demand for music production meeting the lower level of perception. New standards were established In the society as Chuck Berry succinctly put it in his hit: “Roll over, Beethoven!” “If they can’t teach us, then we can do without it” – this is the gist of general public’s attitude to music education at the present time. His men make the king, and now a new generation of music performers and “composers” has appeared on stage. Despite not being able to read or write music these musicians are gaining popularity.

This is the reason why today interest in studying music in USA is much lower than popularity of sports or martial arts. The profession of a piano teacher is one of the least secure partially due to high drop out rate. According to the statistics recited by L.M.Boyd in the “Houston Post”, publishing houses that issue appliances for piano classes, which are designed for several years of studies, sell 100 books for the first year learners vs. 10 books for the second year and only one book for the third.

Any US Federal or State Programs has rarely subsidized professional piano and other music instruments education. Low effectiveness and high cost (an average American cannot afford more than one individual lesson per week) bring about further loss of interest to the subject. At schools, kindergartens or nursery care centers as well as in households of common Americans one can hardly meet people who are able to play piano and especially read music.

Children in Russia also have little possibility to learn music language during the lessons in non-music schools. Outdated methods of training at music schools make the majority of graduates only partially literate with added aggravation of feeling extremely negative toward playing music for the rest of their lives.

As a result both approaches to music education – self or government supported – still end up dividing society into a small stratum of talented professionals and musically ignorant masses that are not even able to appreciate the skills of the former.

Thus, the essence of the problem is not just in the structure of financial support of music education but also in lack of effectiveness of its methods. We will be able to save music only by means of highly effective systems of teaching music at public schools and free access to knowledge for any child, no matter how musically gifted. Further survival of music language of the world depends on that drastic measure.

However, human society is still strongly and dangerously convinced that music competence is available only for the talented. And therefore, the problem of universal music education is assumed not to be very urgent and vital. Somehow we don’t see a connection between empty philharmonic halls and packed stadiums with frightening spiritual ignorance of the majority of people.

Similarly, we fail to notice causal relationship between teenage violence, drugs, and depression and  primitivism of music that builds up their ideology.

Even when people understand the catastrophic situation in music education, their efforts to “save music” are very often spent in vain. For instance, progressive community of the USA shows sincere concern for the state of music. Institutions, funds and associations are founded with the main aim of “saving music” (™). However, salvation of music in the opinion of these funds and societies consists of purchasing music instruments, manuals and notes. It is considered by default that all methods of music education are already invented and do not need any revision.

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However, there are no universal methods that will teach everyone independently of their talent to read and write music, and resources to save music are spent with not much to show for. Salvation of music is out of the question without reforming music education, without universal music competence. Music art can be saved and supported only by an army of competent listeners who have a highly developed music memory, ear and thinking, and who can read and write music texts.
Is it possible to love a language passionately without understanding it?
We are often asked the question, “Is music education really necessary for people without music talent?”

Music in our opinion adds another dimension to our life. This is a language, which can connect people of different cultures and backgrounds, a language that opens up new horizons for everyone using it. This language becomes a great part of our life; it forms our consciousness and ideology. Recent research at the University of California, Irvine conducted by now deceased Gordon Shaw has scientifically proven that music and piano studies develop human brain and above all spatial and temporal reasoning.

Psychological discoveries have also verified a fact that is more incredible: there is no people deprived of ear for music. And it is only natural. A child is exposed to music language, like the spoken one, even in his/her mother’s belly. Human speech has a music component - intonation. A newborn baby responds first of all to the intonation (the music part) of speech and only much later he/she begins to comprehend the meaning of words. It is natural to conclude that child begins to understand music language much earlier than spoken language. Plato once said: “Music training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul”. Why should we deprive anyone of the greatest tool in developing one’s soul and mind?

Where do the people who sing out of tune come from?
 
Scientists of the Moscow State University guided by A.N.Leontiev* along with English scholars have discovered an interesting fact There are two main mechanisms of sound perception: tonal perception – which basically allows us to differentiate between sound pitch and timbre perception which lets us determine sounds timbre.

They tested a non-musician audience on perception of two sounds of the same frequency but different timbre. For English speaking audience they used “u” as in “boot” and long “ee” as in “beet”. Amazingly, 30% of people could always answered that “u” is a lower sound even though in reality it was sometimes an octave higher that the corresponding “ee”. Taking the tone-deaf group and making them do simple exercises on tonal perception then continued experiment. For 10-15 minutes a day that group practiced vocalizing a given sound produced by an electric device (in order to take timbre out of the picture). The outcome of the experiment was sensational – previously tone-deaf group showed highly significant improvement. That lead to a hypothesis about the way our perception is developed. Early on, most of the interaction that child is involved in comes through speech. Perception that is being developed is mostly timbre based, rather than tone-based, particularly in Indo-European languages. The development of tone-differentiating apparatus is very minimal. This is also supported by the fact that individuals from cultures whose languages use tone modulations in their speech (like Chinese Mandarin) have better ability for tone recognition.

* (https://yurpsy.by.ru/biblio/leontev/25.htm Leontiev A.N. Lectures on general psychology. Moscow, 2000. Lection 25. Pitch hearing).

Thus, human voice is not only an organ of perception but also an important instrument for the development of an ear for music. Even D.E.Ogorodnov (famous Russian music teacher) argued that the human larynx is as sensitive to sounds as human hearing. By improving the voice with the help of a music instrument, we can infinitely perfect the learners’ capacity to perceive absolute pitch. It is impossible to cultivate music memory and music thinking without this ability.

Singing without notes does not help in developing music literacy. It does not assign any constant “names” to sounds and does not stimulate association between perceived sounds and music written language. Solfeggio is the basis of music literacy of children. Without it, further rigorous music development is impossible.

However, in the present day world Solfeggio is not generally used either at public schools or at private professional music studios. These words refer particularly to the countries with so-called “literal” system of teaching.

“Solfeggio”? But what is it?

The majority of people of the USA do not know what the term “Solfeggio” means in its first, classical meaning. Even modern English-American dictionaries spell this word differently: some of them with a single “g”, others – with double “g”. Music teachers are still discussing if one should say “Solfeggio” or “solfege”. Solfeggio is not a compulsory subject at American music studios and schools; Solfeggio training is not used in the classes of most private music teachers. One can attend a Solfeggio class officially only at music colleges and universities.

However, the level of such classes is barely adequate. For example, students from the former USSR who have come to the USA by exchange complain regularly that the level of teaching Solfeggio at the universities is extremely low. Professors usually select repertoire for individual lessons in accordance to student’s proficiency. At the same time during group studies at music colleges and conservatories students are forced to write dictations of complexity level corresponding to what 10-year-old third-graders of average Russian music school have to deal with. Even understanding of “Solfeggio” itself is different in Russia and USA.

In Russia, Solfeggio is an important part of work with a student not only in the area of ear development and perfection of intonation but also in the acquisition of skills of music writing and sight-reading. In the USA and other countries with “literal” system “Solfeggio” is mostly based on the system developed by Zoltan Kodaly. That system amounts to nothing more than to training students skills of singing in a chorus and using seven Italian syllables and seven hand signs.

Thus, sometimes during the first years of music study at grade schools in the USA children are taught to sing simple melodies using the names of notes of Solfeggio. The first sound of any key can be called “Do”. Kodaly used slightly modified syllables for his relative system (Jo, Le, Mi, Na, So, Ra, Ti) to separate it from the traditional notation but this is regarded as inessential in the countries with the “literal” system.

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Using so-called “movable Do” has become alpha and omega of Solfeggio training at American public schools. It is considered that relative usage of “Do” of the major stop to all the other major keys would lead to the development of stop-harmonic hearing. But at the same time one’s ear for music is connected in no way with the inexhaustible source of music information – music written language. Students are limited to the repertoire learnt from teacher’s voice or hand signs. Without the ability to read aloud or to oneself new music material, learners’ music thinking is not developed properly, it is closed in the frame of a limited repertoire.

Unification of Kodaly’s system with Solfeggio into a single whole did not improve either one but it definitely had a detrimental effect on Solfeggio as a training system.
Since music singing and intonating are part and parcel of training, teachers at music studios of the “literal” system try to sing music using alphabet letters. It is inconvenient but they do not see another way to go about it. Professionals got used to believing that Solfeggio with “absolute Do” is excessively difficult for students to understand because there are no mnemonic associations connected with verbal language logic. They think that it is more difficult to keep in mind names “Fa, La, Do, Mi” than the abbreviation “FACE”, because it is generally accepted that we can build words of letters but Solfeggio syllables are no more than an abracadabra for human memory. I will discuss the validity of such speculations further in this article.

During our presentations of the latest achievements in music education, music teachers often ask me questions concerning “fixed Do”. Many music teachers consider that the aim of using traditional, classical Solfeggio with different keys does not go beyond development of perfect ear. The majority of teachers in the USA know little about the vocal nature of music language and about the intonation basis of music perception. Very few of them are able to cope with music dictations or singing music fragments at sight.

Literal naming of notes, popular in the USA, has divided music training into “singing” and “playing an instrument”. As a rule, those who play an instrument read music texts using the above-mentioned mnemonic techniques of visual-logical learning. For example, to memorize the notes of the treble clef they use the phrase “Every Good Boy Does Fine”; to learn the notes between the staves they employ the abbreviation “FACE”. The notes on the staves in the bass clef are learnt with the phrase “Goofy Babies Do Funny Acts” and the notes in between – with “All Cows Eat Grass”.

Many “innovative teachers” in the USA create more and more fairy-tales and manuals, as though they are competing with each other in inventing stories, which could draw a parallel between the world of notes and the world of letters. They believe that such linguistic discoveries can help beginners to learn note reading and writing. All these attempts look like works by medieval alchemists who were trying to find formula for transformation stone into gold.

Music pedagogy restrains development of note reading while trying to interpret music language by means of logic of verbal language. Although these devices seem to be attractive, simple and suitable for memorizing of separate notes on the staff, this approach is one of the main reasons for the ineffectiveness of music reading training. It also delays children’s music development overall. This situation is caused by the following facts:

1.   First of all, literal note naming makes it impossible to teach children of younger preschool age music reading and writing. Children’s ability to recognize letters and to read is considered to be a necessary condition for music study. It follows that it is not music that prepares a child’s brain for successful studies of other sciences, but quite the contrary.
2.   Secondly, sounds [ei, bi:, si:, di:, i:, ef, dзi:] are very unsuitable for singing and hardly help to develop the ear and voice while training to play an instrument. Singing a music fragment using letters is inconvenient for the voice and does not contribute to the connection between “singing – hearing – remembering”.
3.   All the other syllables in the literal system lean on the vowel [i:]. Though it is one of the basic speech tones, it is also one of the tensest. While pronouncing the vowel [i:], singer opens his jaws only for 15 %. A voice, trying to sing alphabet letters, cannot “rest” on any one of the syllables, five of which are [i:] and two – [e]. It is no wonder that teachers stay away from singing music texts and prefer regular music performance

From the standpoint of comfort for vocal organs, the sounds of Solfeggio are more suitable for the larynx. They include different basic vowels –

• (50 % of jaw opening), [e] (50 % of jaw opening), [a] (100 %). The vowels alternate with each other provide a strong phonetic basis for vocal cords. They require using different muscles of the larynx when singing. Uniqueness of pronunciation of each sound “name” helps to remember the sound pitch both on the hearing, timbre level and on the muscular one.

* Linguists consider the vowels [a, o, e, i:] to be fundamental and basic for human speech organs and the main vowels in all the languages. The sound [є] is regarded like a secondary one. Usage of the vowel [e] in the syllables [ei] and [ef] is unsuitable for singing not only because of the tension that pronunciation of the sound [e] creates in the vocal cords and only partial opening of the jaws but also because the syllable itself is cut short by the consonant endings [j] or [f].

Studying of music language in literal system neglects tonal nature of music and excludes human larynx from the process of development. Such disregard can be considered among the greatest and the most destructive mistakes of the modern music education in the countries adhering to literal music system.

Literal system does not stimulate development of music thinking and music memory. Sounds do not correspond to signs due to “translation difficulties”, because signs are perceived with eyes and sounds – with ears and larynx.

People’s speech memory is much more advanced than the logical one. Every child begins to assimilate and memorize his/her mother’s speech from his/her birth. Free command of Solfeggio language on speech level – solmisation – allows beginners to read note texts easily. Attachment of notes to some artificially invented words and phrases minimizes development of music thinking.

To render justice it should be said that Solfeggio in its full variant, which is adopted at music schools, colleges and conservatories in the republics of the former USSR, is not a rule but an exception in the world of music pedagogy. Up until today music is taught at public schools of the whole world as a superficially informative subject. For the most part, it is lessons ABOUT music, during which they do not usually train the command of music language.

However, even is lessons of Solfeggio or piano would be introduced as general classes in public schools it is unlikely to improve something today. Nowadays, popular methods of teaching music are not able to effectively teach beginners with varying levels of music aptitude

Primary music education without the “point of support”

Well-known Moscow grade school teacher S.N.Lysenkova once wrote, “One does not simply like to study. One likes to study WELL”. The methods of all successful teachers are based on the main common sense principle - respect for human ignorance.

Self-control, self-evaluation of each movement, decision and conclusion, possibility to see one’s own mistakes are the point of support in teaching any type of activity.
The point of support is the “zero” stage of teaching, which contains an impulse to the first step in subject study. This impulse is more intuitive than logical. As a rule, the point of support is based on knowledge and skills that have already been assimilated, and it serves as a “lever” for “lifting” of unknown material.

Remember, for example, teaching aids of Maria Montessori, in which one can always check up one’s answer on the flip side of the card. The anxiety of some teachers that such prompting would “relax” students and would not teach them to “use their brains” does not stand up to criticism. There cannot be the first step without support. There will not be any trip without the first step. The point of support gives students reassurance and motivation to set themselves on more and more difficult tasks. If there is no help and nowhere for it to come from, confusion and inability to find the solution give rise to disappointment, diffidence, low self-esteem and unwillingness to study further.

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One of striking examples of how we study with the help of the point of support is alphabet blocks. Take for instance a block with a picture of an apple. There is an abstract symbol near the apple and child knows that it is a letter. He/she also knows what an apple looks like and how one pronounces the word “apple”. In most cases, he/she might know that there is the letter “A” in the alphabet as well. All these things have already been heard and absorbed by his/her consciousness. In order to “pick up” new information – to learn the name of the abstract letter near the picture of an apple the child must take only one step. The picture of an apple in this situation is the point of support, the link between the image of the letter and the pronunciation of the word that begins with this letter. As a result, the child’s consciousness copes with the unknown (the letter name) and assimilates new information.

Unfortunately, world’s music pedagogy still has not worked out a training system in which there would be a natural point of support for music reading and writing development. Many children, who are achieving the school age, already know some if not all of alphabet letters and some of them can read fluently. However, we have never come across a single case when a child entering a music class was able to fluently sight read music compositions, because he/she had learnt it from children’s sheet music. It demonstrates that the point of support in music reading has not been found yet.

Is it possible to create such point of support or is music language too esoteric? Is it possible to explain the rules of the abstract music language to a completely inexperienced person–with the help of training material? Is it possible to learn the elements of music reading and writing without a school or prior to it? How deeply and effectively can one study music language under conditions of a general school? How early are children able to learn to read and play music?

All these questions have been the subject of our research for more than 25 years of work in the area of music pedagogy in the Ukraine and the USA. As a result of this work, we have created a new system of music training, which got its name – “Soft Way to Mozart” – in 2002. Today this program is already being used at tens of public and private schools and music studios is the USA, Canada, UK, Spain, Costa Rica, Mexico and Russia. Interest to this system is rapidly growing because of effective results of training.

The system “Soft Way to Mozart” is based on all the remarkable achievements of the world’s music and general pedagogy, which we have collected and systematized. We tried to take into account the main laws of psychology of music perception and physiology of formation, necessary for the development and perfection of music skills. It is based on classic Russian music school, on advanced concepts of outstanding teachers of the past and the present, on the system by Montessori and Suzuki. Computerization of the method has considerably improved sound and graphic possibilities of the training course and added interaction to further promote effectiveness

The ways of solving the problems of general music education

While working on our program, we tried to address the above-mentioned challenges of modern music education and also:
1)   Allow for effective group training
2)   Make the training course easily understood for pre-school children, in order for each child to be able to read and perform music using both hands, sing and write notes at the same time  prior to learning the alphabet
3)   To create the ways of development of visual perception of music script in addition to singing Solfeggio and ability to write music by hearing; to develop muscular coordination in order to perfect piano technique, which is necessary for “music mind” formation (it will be discussed below) and for development of finite motor skills altogether.

 “Soft Way to Mozart” may seem like a commercial computer game, just another fun training program for children and grown-ups, but it is not so. “Soft Way to Mozart” is a well thought-out and thoroughly systematized program aimed to fight against musical illiteracy. It is a system of teaching music language for people of different background and music talent, point of support in music education.

Role of the piano in formation and development of “music mind”

Drivers always remember road better then passengers. One of the main theses of the system “Soft Way to Mozart” is the importance of the piano in formation and development of music reading, ear and thinking. As music is first of all a language, the most optimal organ of its “pronunciation” is combination of voice and piano, but not voice by itself.

It is related to the fact that in order to develop thinking in any language (including music) one needs to get used to its elements absorbing them into consciousness. Until now it was generally accepted to consider singing of a melody sufficient for music thinking development. However, when limiting music language pronunciation to solely a voice, we disregard polyphonic nature of music. Moreover, we are filtering out people who are not able to produce correct intonation.

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In our method the piano is the most important component of primary training. By “piano” we mean first of all the new generation of digital keyboards from five octave ones to grand pianos. We regard the piano as the point of support for music mind development because playing this instrument does not require an outstanding music talent and sound extraction does not demand any physical effort.

Piano is also the only instrument available to all, which unites reading of the treble clef and the bass clef simultaneously. It also enables learners to develop melodic and harmonic ear, sense of rhythm both at class and at home. Certainly, this instrument was and still is the king of music education.

Electronic pianos are not much inferior to acoustic instruments. They vary in size, cost and sound quality. These instruments, like picture books, have unlimited tonal, meter and technological potential. But the main quality of new generation pianos is the possibility to link them up to computers in order to create interactive element for teaching music.

Is it possible for a computer to teach music language?

After all it is only a machine, not a human
The idea to connect a computer up to a music instrument and to create a training program does not belong to us and it appeared in the eighties of the XX century. For decades, manufacturers have been making electronic music instruments with MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface) – communication protocol between an electronic instrument and a computer. Several computer programs, some integrated into electronic pianos and some computer-based were developed. Most of these programs are electronic manuals for self-education with some elements of interactivity. As a rule, computers are used in them mainly as “interpreters” of music theory.

Our goal was to create educational program for development of basic vocal and piano skill on the intuitive cognitive level. In our program computer became a learning partner rather than an interpreter. In order to achieve it we integrated:
1)   speech memory
2)   ability to distinguish colors and drawings
3)   ambidextrousness-ability to use fingers of both hands*
*any two-year should be able to do it



Key principle of deduction: from simple to complicated, from concrete to abstract was used in our system’s core. Piano helped connect vocal, muscular and vision skills and build a basis for the development of voice, hearing and music reasoning of every child.

Do you know music alphabet? Then read it back to front!

We believe that teaching music alphabet is one of the fundamentals of music education. However, the world’s music pedagogy has not yet decided what the music alphabet is and which symbols must represent it. It is often accepted (by analogy with the verbal language) that music alphabet is seven basic notes in Do-major key: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti.

However, music language has its own logics, different from the verbal one. There is no single direction in it. Therefore, music alphabet should rather be: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do, Ti, La, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re, Do.

1) Music language consists of modes, and seven steps of these modes form seven systems of note orders. So, knowledge of all these seven basic systems and ability to read them in direct and reverse orders fluently is a necessary basis for music literacy. .
*Practice has shown that it is useful and possible to teach pre-school children seven systems of music alphabet in direct and reverse orders. (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do, Ti, La, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re, Do; Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do, Re, Do, Ti, La, Sol, Fa, Mi, Re; Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do, Re, Mi, Re, Do, Ti, La, Sol, Fa, Mi, etc.)

2). Notes can be ordered sequentially with none missing at every step, with every other missing (Do, Mi, Sol, …), two missing (Do, Fa,Ti, …) , etc.
 Knowledge of these regularities in direct and reverse orders starting with any of the seven sounds is as important as the skill of spelling.

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At Russian music educational institutions, children sometimes memorize music alphabet when they study the scales, the chords and the intervals.

For any child of preschool age it is very important to learn music alphabet on the articulation level because speech memory is being trained from birth. Music text learnt on the articulation level is the first step towards ear for music and voice development; it is the point of support in understanding of the music organization of sounds. Our long-term experience has proved that learners, while memorizing a music composition, rely mostly on their own articulation. They begin to pronounce the memorized material correctly even though they still confuse with the keys on the muscular level and do not always reproduce its pitch clearly.

In regard to this, I would like to analyze the popular in the USA mnemonic device of memorizing the notes’ places on the grand staff using the alphabetical system. As I have already mentioned above, there is no preferred direction in music language. Therefore, any attempt to attach the logic of note sequence to the logic of phrase construction can decelerate music reading as a whole. For example, the widely used in the USA phrase “Every Good Boy Does Fine” is used as a witty prompting for recognition of five notes on the staves of the treble clef. However, this phrase also carries unnecessary meaning, which is likely to confuse every time such association is used

Music alphabet memorization must be based on pronouncing of scales and learning note successions like verses. One does not need a bright music talent and a special music education to learn such material. Still it is as important as learning the alphabet. In “Soft Way to Mozart”, we use different games, songs, manuals and computer programs that help beginners to learn music alphabet on the level of automatic performance. This helps to considerably accelerate sight-reading while playing the piano and singing Solfeggio.

'Music vision' is essential component of music literacy.

We consider that development of people’s music vision is the next most important basic stage of primary music training. Music vision is the main instrument of “acquiring” new information from music literature. It is the ability of learners to perceive visually written note texts as a whole, not one note at-a-time. That’s why we have created so-called “elementary presentation” of music texts. While developing it we tried to take into consideration basic note writing problems of beginners’ and to find ways around them with the help of complementary graphics.

Beginners’ problems of visual perception of written notes and the ways of their solution

Traditional notation is the alpha and omega for the beginner. It is usually accepted that children should be able to read music after they can read books.

There are very few methodologies of music education not relying on ability to read as a requirement. Probably Dr. Suzuki Shinichi developed the most famous one. Methodology is mainly based on students’ hearing and motor memory. Exercises that require visual perception of music text are introduced much later.

Partially, it is attributed to the fact that traditional music staff (and traditional music writing as a whole) is unfit for teaching music to little children. It is the carrier of purely music information. It could have been a very entertaining training tool indeed if in addition to note signs it used colors and pictures. Ability to recognize colors and shapes in addition to the ability to recognize sounds complement each other in mastering new information – music writing.

How to incorporate that in music methodology? Whoever is starting to learn music, first of all looks for cognitive associations from previous life experience. For example learning how to read. Majority of beginners consider sheet music to be “books” with sounds instead of letters with most of the rules of reading applicable.

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However, each letter of the alphabet is unique and its recognition is happening by comparison with other letters. Note signs look very much alike and it is much easier to remember them as part of the system. Book lines are parallel to one another and so are the note lines. However, space between the lines of text is simply to separate one from the other, whenever space between five lines of the music staff is informative. During usual reading our focus is shifting laterally from letter to letter. When reading music part, our attention is scattered between several note lines with no breaks between them.

Beginner’s vision is not prepared for such an operation and needs some special training. Finally, rhythmic notation in music is more vivid and recognizable than the pitch notation. Nevertheless, for a person just starting to master the instrument the most important goal is finding a proper key, making the proper sound, and not the rhythm.

In order to help our students overcome these “visual” difficulties we decided to use some additional graphical presentation.

Color and sound?  Should we look for direct analogies?

How many colors should be used for the optimal didactic coding of the staff? This is a central question to using color as an educational tool in our system. Some teachers tried to use color to differentiate between sounds of different pitch. This approach does not seem rational to us. Physiologically, we perceive sound and color using different senses: hearing and sight. An attempt to use sight to recognize sounds is unnatural which confuses our perception. That’s why we are using color only to aid in development of recognition of note signs not sounds.


How do we decode music notation?

As we already mentioned, one of the problems of reading music text is the similarity of note signs. In order for the beginner to understand their organization, we decided to systematize note shapes based on their position on or between the lines of the staff. Based on the association lines of the staff - “hard”, space between the lines – “gas”, we chose to contrasting colors: red for notes on the staff lines and blue for notes between the lines. Considering that most of two-year-olds can tell a difference between the sexes, we called red notes “girls” and blue notes “boys”.

Equivalence of lines of the staff and spaces between them, which is not a part of usual notation (lines are thin and white spaces are thick) we emphasized by making them the same size.
This helps beginners understand that white spaces are not spaces per say but equivalent lines for music notation. In order to discrimination areas of bass and treble clefs we colored widened lines in contrasting colors. Choice of the actual colors: brown for bass and green for treble clef is also non-random and based on visual experience of the student.

The composition of green and brown colors became the graphical point of support for understanding the very nature of music notation. Natural association of the tree helps to understand the principle of sound distribution between the registers. Sounds of the lowest register are written in bass clef on additional lines, which we can compare to tree’s roots. Lower register is known for depth and richness of overtones – tree’s trunk. Air is gradually filling the middle register – most of tree’s branches and finally high register is tree’s crown – additional note lines above.

Color-coding of treble and bass keys helped graphically discriminate two different systems and prepares student’s sight to differentiate them when reading on the subconscious level.

Because simultaneous reading of tens of note lines is impossible for the unguided eye, we also numbered the lines. In contrast to widely accepted bass clef enumeration system from bottom to top, we suggested a reversed one, from top to bottom with additional line for the “middle C” – “Do” of the first octave marked by 0 and coloring it partially brown and partially green. Note staff started looking like a coordinate system.

Our system is also symmetrical (Pic. 1) and because “Do” of the second and third octaves are between third and fourth lines we used less intense blue-grayish color shade it. This visually divides the field of the staff in four parts and helps a student to find a point of support in each one of them.

Music reasoning of the child is tied together with the development of speech. Similarly to letter block we introduced pictures which help children to remember the notes. Whatever is drawn on the picture is phonetically associated with the name of the corresponding note. “Do” is represented by the picture of a door, “Re” – “rain”, “Mi”-mirror, “Fa” – “farm”, “Sol” – “salt”, “La” –“ladder”, “Ti” – “tea”.(Pic.3)

A picture is worth a thousand words; it can be not only a link between the note sign and its name, but also a link between pronunciation and pitch singing. If we put a picture on each of the piano keys, the corresponding piano sound will help our voice find the correct pitch, if we also put the same picture next to the corresponding note sign, then it will become a tying link between sound, sign and pitch – a point of support in our methodology.

As a result, the modified staff became an abstract learning system in itself. All the necessary information for playing and reading music is contained in it. In order to unify music notation and piano in one visual system we devised green and brown piano key stickers, numbered them and placed a corresponding picture on each piano key (pic. 2)

About the importance of “turns”

When sight-reading at piano lessons, students experience a problem of different directions – right/left and up/down. Before playing the music test beginner should go through following preparatory stages:
1.   Learn the placement of notes on note staff (I see)
2.   Learn the placement of keys on the piano (I find)
3.   Build an association between notes and keys (connection between I see and I find)

If we reverse the notes staff 90° clockwise, so that 5 green lines (treble clef) were to the right and 5 brown lines (bass clef) were to the left , we can visualize piano keys like the continuation of the staff and movement top-to-bottom will be associated with left-to-right. This elementary presentation of note staff helps build the third stage of the learning process (connection between I see and I find) faster and more effectively. The advantage of such presentation is difficult to overestimate. Graphics of the note staff associated with the visual of the piano keyboard. Consequently we have all the conditions for visual, motor and audio- perceptions worked in unison from the first steps of studying music.

Especially important is that the reversal of the note staff 90° and its basic presentation promote the development of music vision. The speed of developed sight-reading allows hearing to recognize music thoughts without diverting attention to decoding music score. Voice finds its point of support in piano sound, which it uses to navigate itself to the right frequency.

All of the above makes our senses to work together for achievement of the ultimate goal – development of music reasoning. Elementary presentation of the note staff also helps to get rid of one of the most detrimental problems in studying piano – stiffness of performing apparatus by allowing student to concentrate on developing proper balance without deciphering music notation.


From Elementary music staff to the regular one.

We tried to make the return from elementary note staff to the traditional one as gradual and as understandable as possible. We also tried to adhere to the golden rule of learning: a problem should have only one unknown. Thus, 6 versions of note staff have been designed:

[musicrebel4u]

Version 1: Vertical note staff red-blue notes, green and brown lines of the same width and pictures associated with note names. Unknown: placement of the keys corresponding to notes (pic. 4)

Version 2: The same but without pictures. Unknown: key names (pic. 5).

Version 3.
The same, but note staff is horizontal. Pictures associated with note names, are placed on notes to help student get used to note staff reversal. Unknown: note staff is not aligned with piano keys. We need spatial correlation (pic. 6)

Version 4. The same, but again without pictures as in 2. Unknown: note (pic. 7)

Version 5. Black and white note staff, thin lines with large note signs and simplified rhythmic notation. Unknown: sound longevity (pic. .

Version 6. Traditional black and white note staff. Unknown: metric ornament and pauses
(рiс. 9).

Transfer from color-coding of keys to the traditional keyboard is also done in stages:

1.   Learning piano keyboard and development of coordination. Stickers are attached to the corresponding keys (pic. 11).
2.   Piano space is almost mastered and coordination is improved. Special reminders behind the keys replace stickers.
3.   Playing piano without the reminders

This methodology helped effective education of students of all ages at home and in school with a teacher and without. However, it was most effective only when translated to the language of computer graphics. Interactivity and computer visual capabilities became so natural to the system that it is hard to imagine it without them.

Development of fundamental music skills with the system “Soft Way to Mozart”

Coordination development
The system develops manual dexterity of learners by means of constant interaction of hands and fingers with the keys of the instrument (and in theoretical games – with the keys of a computer). Learners themselves create their own training process when they extract visual and acoustical images by pressing keys and following visual signals on the monitor. These images and sounds develop their capacity to recognize notes, to read and sing Solfeggio at sight, to “cut” complicated fragments of the composition in order to learn the music text in parts, to perfect playing technique and coordination of both hands, to learn the composition by heart and to work at rhythm.

In the system, there are elements of hands coordination development even in mostly theoretical games, made only for a computer. In our methodology, computer keyboard is used as a predecessor of the piano. Interaction with several computer keys is a preparatory way to the piano playing.

Thus, rhythm reading training on the basis of note duration identification uses only one computer key at a time which allows learners to concentrate on reading and memorizing visual information (note duration) and to minimize coordination difficulties. That way, learners “play” a number of melodies with different rhythmical patterns by pressing down a single key. While working at perfecting theoretical knowledge (the music alphabet learning, connecting the music alphabet with the Elementary presentation of the grand staff, learning the notes of the treble and bass clefs) the program demands simple coordination of both hands; at the same time attention is mostly concentrated on memorizing, developing logical and spatial thinking and ear training.

However, part of the suited designed for coordination developing is “Gentle Piano” – the principal program that teaches to play certain music compositions. “Gentle Piano” is based on the Elementary presentation method described above. Computer technologies helped making the program animated and interactive. We have managed to work up a whole series of visual images that help in developing hand-eye coordination technique.

When users press the key corresponding to the note on the screen (in colored presentation the notes are drawn as flower buds), the buds blossom out quickly or slowly – depending on duration of the note, which this flower represents. If users release the key earlier than they should, the blossoming-out stops and a dwarf peeps out of the flower and expresses his dissatisfaction. This is devised for learners to develop the skill of using hand weight in playing piano and learn to follow note duration intuitively, guided by already acquired ear experience. The note ending is demonstrated on the screen by appearance of a butterfly waving its wings. The butterfly shows the location of the finger pressing the key and helps to determine the direction of the melody movement with the next note appearing to the left, to the right of the butterfly or directly under it. With the help of butterflies, one should establish legato playing (“not losing butterflies from eyeshot”) and also foresee the direction of the melody movement reading notes as a unit, not one by one. Little spiders appear on the screen, when the wrong key is pressed, identifying a mistake and also indicate where fingers should be located on the keyboard (the grand staff).

With visual symbols, the computer program tackles all the difficulties of hands synchronization. For example, there is a triad of whole notes in the left hand and there is a melody of quarters in the right one. The chord looks on the screen like three blossoming flowers, which one must keep pressing (until the flowers have opened completely); at the same time the flowers in the right hand blossom out four times quicker and butterflies appear on the screen, which is an indication for new notes to come.
It is very important that the program helps to learn music compositions with separate hands. While students are playing with one hand, the other is accompanying automatically. That allows not only to perfect technique of each hand, but also provides necessary visual and acoustic information. That helps consciousness to keep in sight the whole composition while working at the particular parts.
                         

[musicrebel4u]

Music Timing

We pay a special attention to music timing. All the games included in our software suite are based on the movement of objects, which represent different music sounds (objects with note names, fruits, flower buds, note symbols). By choosing appropriate sounds (by pitch, visual qualities, similarity or difference, etc), user is gaining necessary skills for translation of audio information into phonetic syllables, and then into notes, trying to stay within certain time intervals.

Time is calculated in our program with mathematical precision and it plays an important part in skill development. Only upon achieving the fastest speed, student can finish the game and become a “master”. While learning music pieces we use “chess” time. Real time is pictured as a ray of light. When a note is highlighted by it, an immediate and appropriate muscular response is required. The actual number on the tableau indicates any mistiming of the response.



                       More on graphics

Program is designed for a gradual replacement of color images of the “cheats” by the black and white one. The replacement of colors or their hints is providing additional information for focusing practice on appropriate skill areas. This simplifies the education process, by concentrating it on the solution of specific problems. It is difficult to overestimate importance of visual effects in memorization of music text. Traditional process of memorization is sometimes difficult due to lack of self-discipline and motivation. Interactivity and entertainment of computer graphics makes it much easier. Also, each hand’s part is removed from field of sight and is shown only in case of the correct reproduction or as a reminder when pressing the wrong key.

Solfeggio

As noted previously, vocal nature of music leads to solmization. That’s why we introduced Solfeggio into all parts of music activity – from theoretical exercises to learning piano repertoire. Presence of note symbols in the 1st and 3rd versions of the note staff allows for beginners to sing Solfeggio during play using piano as sound reference. Singing of music fragments significantly improves the quality of playing and accelerates the memorization of music fragments. Accompaniment during singing develops harmonic hearing and improves of music memory. Any task in our suite of programs is oriented one way or another to help the development of music hearing of the user. However in some exercises are specifically designed to train music hearing. For example, in Solfeggio training user has to sing several melodies, memorize and write them down, and then find proper accompaniment. Computer animation helps students to correct themselves.

On the verge of music literacy

Creation of Elementary staff is in our opinion a breakthrough in music education. Beginners of any age can use it to quickly become musically literate. Notes with note staff and stickers should be used in nursery schools and kindergartens. Games for learning music alphabet should be introduced at the same time. Elementary note staff can also be used in both public and music schools. That way music literacy will enter every house and will be accessible to anyone.
                       
                       
Conclusion

Ability to translate educational methodology to the language of computer games turned upside down our view on human music ability. It showed that teaching a five-year-old to play a simple piece with both hands is not a matter of several months, but a matter of 15 minutes. It showed that three and four-year-olds could freely read and write music, sing Solfeggio, play by heart Bach’s minuets prior to learning how to read and write. All you have to do is to get an electronic piano, connect it to computer and voila – thirty elementary public school students in 45 minutes will learn more than music school students learn in several month. The dream of many outstanding music teachers about global music literacy can come true. Computer’s interactivity and objectivity and unlimited audio and video capabilities can solve multitude of problems from coordination to sight-reading and memory development. In “Soft Way to Mozart”, music education is not segmented in “Specialization”, “Solfeggio”, “Music Theory”, “Rhythm”, and “Music History”. All these disciplines are closely connected and make a universal system.

The program has been developed in USA, although it is based on the achievements of world music pedagogy. Knowledge and experience that author has acquired during studying in Zhitomir’s Music College and Kharkiv University of Arts, experience of teaching piano, Solfeggio and theory of music in Ukraine and United States are all reflected in this software. Confidence that such system is badly needed has been growing through the years. We hope that “Soft Way to Mozart” will help next generations of teachers to find optimal and fruitful ways of working with students, so that music language will become universal and music art will continue flourishing, developing and perfecting.

[musicrebel4u]

Here some colorful illustrations from the book

[m19834]

Dear 4u,

I would be interested to know, if you are willing, in which ways you think this method can/will be improved in years to come ?

Also, what do you suggest as the ideal way to use this method in a home studio (what kinds of supplements should go along with it, etc) ?

[musicrebel4u]

Posted by mistake 

[musicrebel4u]

Dear 4u,

I would be interested to know, if you are willing, in which ways you think this method can/will be improved in years to come ?

Also, what do you suggest as the ideal way to use this method in a home studio (what kinds of supplements should go along with it, etc) ?

Well, first of all, I would not call it a 'method' – it is rather another foundation, which is similar to our modern ways of teaching students to read: ABC books, picture books, chapter books and novel. We created the same formats for music notation in order to provide learners with balance between reading and coordination development.

Even though the approach was successful with all kinds of students (even students with muscular dystrophy and Down syndrome, it is just beginning of a big journey. Teachers who currently use it in different countries send us some suggestions, but later on (when they work longer with it most of the time they say 'never mind! Everything works perfectly)

We need to translate pictograms into different languages (for example in Spain, Portugal, Germany, France) teachers have to teach kids with English pictures. First they complain, but after that amazed how fast kids memorize 7 English names for the music notes. But we have to do the different pictures any way. We also are planning to add more programs and theory games, more music pieces. This is matter of time.

I think that what my team and I created is only 10% of what is in our plans. Unfortunately, as you know, I am just music/piano teacher and my sources are pretty limited. In order to keep the project going I have to go through many personal sacrifices and we have to work 7/24 with no vacations.

Sometimes I feel extremely tired , but when I see the results and receive letters from other teachers who finally became happy with their work, I gain my enthusiasm back and regain my strength.

In piano studio all what you need is the software  (teacher's edition that includes all the pieces from primer to university level and all the theory and ear training programs), computer, digital keyboard and/or piano. For a long time I had only several 61-keys Casio keyboards and digital Roland piano. Later I bought a baby grand acoustic piano, which all my student admire and can't wait to be able to play. All of them start with keyboards and it didn't spoil their technique at all. 

I also recommend having flash cards and my training. I am training teachers for free personally or through the  Internet/phone. We certified such trainee upon graduation and experienced educators are certified to train other teachers.
For example, I had a trainee from Spain, who is vice dean of Madrid conservatory. She flew to Houston, got the training and now training a lot of teachers not just in Spain, but from Portugal.

All our teachers promote the program for students' home practice successfully and they get 25% commission from each sale. It means, that they completely cover the cost of software pretty soon, because parents are mostly willing to get the program after seeing  the results.

Here you can find more info:
-https://www.doremifasoft.com/settingpiano.html