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Ideal application to teach little ones to play piano
In our world of technology, many children are using computers at younger ages. There are many programs out there that act like games but have a learning perspective to them. But these games usually are for math, reading, spelling, and other subjects that are taught and learned at the grammar school level. Yet there are a few companies out there that make learning programs that are for musical instruments. The My Piano application from eMedia teaches kids from young ages how to listen, recognize, read, and play the piano.
Although rated for children ages 6 and up, I think that any child who knows how to use a computer would be into playing the My Piano program. Through both visual and audio aided lessons, the My Piano learning program takes a child through the cruical beginning steps toward learning how to play the piano.
From start up in the program you are greeted by Pam the piano who walks you through every page and lesson in the program. She reads the directions, lesson, as well as background information about what she's talking about. Pam is the audio aide through the entire program along with live recorded audio of the songs that are played in some lessons, and the note feed back which tells you the note that you played versus the note you should have played. There are also instructional videos for the songs in the lessons and games for some sections that are used to check to see if the player is ubderstanding what is being taught in the previous sections.
Having taken piano lessons since the 6th grade, and using a different learning program starting in the 3rd grade, I can tell you that this program uses the same basic training methods that I went through. In the beginning lessons, the program takes the player through the basics of the piano including a little background information on piano types. It then steps into the realm of the numbered fingering system where the numbers 1-5 are used to label each finger starting with each thumb at 1 all the way to the pinkies at 5. This same system is widely used in piano instruction books such as the John Thompson books that I've learned from. The introduction of key lay out, finger placement and smaller technical aspects of playing the piano are then introduced.
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| What is the Grand Staff? |
After the introduction to the piano comes the introduction into a little thing music teachers will call music theory 101, just on a smaller and more simpler scale, but just enough to get started. Shown in the next few lessons are the different types of notes, different rests, and the introduction to ledger lines, the treble and bass clef, and the grand scale. Also mentioned here is the fact that most melodies are played by the right hand while the left hand takes care of playing the accompaniment.
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| Introduction to eighth notes |
Here the player is taught how to play with both hands in both the bass and treble clef together to make up a song with both melody and the accompaniment played. Also used in the lessons is something called tonal recognition or tonal memory. In tonal recognition, a series of notes or chords is played and the player has to recognize the style of the progression, either going up or down in pitch or up or down in scale. In tonal memory the same technique follows but in this case the player has to match the sounds previously produced by the program.
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| The most important Middle C |
As the lessons continue the songs get progressively harder in dificulty, with introduction of different playing speeds, accent marks, crescendo and decrescendo marks, as well as the different ways of playing notes, both piano, or forte. The names of different playing speeds and their names are also introduced.
After going through the program I found it very easy to use and actually attention grabbing. Using audio to walk the player through each lesson keeps the player's attention and paying attention. As a trained pianist, eMedia My Piano is a great first time program to jump-start a future pianist into playing piano at an early age.
Although eMedia My Piano ($29.95) doesn't require the use of a MIDI keyboard or any type of keyboard for that matter, it should be noted that a MIDI keyboard can be used in conjunction with this program and can only enhance the player's overall piano playing experience. For more ionformation, visit www.emediamusic.com
Joshua Virata is a 2008 graduate of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, CA. He has been using computers since the age of 2 and is proficient in the areas of home wired and wireless networking, music creation, secure computing, cell phone communication and GPS navigation. You can email him at jvirata@mac.com
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