Anyone used this? Just read about it today and wondered what people think. Have been using Music for Little Mozarts with my 5 year old but it's not really working.

If I get Dogs and Birds should I get the whole lot (wooden animals etc) or just the book?

Thanks

Hi I'd recommend it, actually. I gave it a try when I started a small group of small beginners a few weeks ago. I was fairly sceptical to be honest but it was so cool - they could 'read music' almost instantly, and they were so chuffed! The singing before and as you play, improvisation ideas and games with rhythm and pitch are all really good too. You could probably get by without the wooden animals but they are nice and tactile and spark interest in getting to know the next note/animal as you go along. I would definitely get the notes for teachers and parents booklet though.

Good luck - I haven't tried your Little Mozart book so i can't give you a comparison, though.

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Hi I'd recommend it, actually. I gave it a try when I started a small group of small beginners a few weeks ago. I was fairly sceptical to be honest but it was so cool - they could 'read music' almost instantly, and they were so chuffed! The singing before and as you play, improvisation ideas and games with rhythm and pitch are all really good too. You could probably get by without the wooden animals but they are nice and tactile and spark interest in getting to know the next note/animal as you go along. I would definitely get the notes for teachers and parents booklet though.

Good luck - I haven't tried your Little Mozart book so i can't give you a comparison, though.
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I'm glad you have tried it Hils - it's such a shame that so many people are sceptical about this brilliant new concept - if they weren't it would be taking off so much faster and giving children a superb introduction to music.

I use this book / concept with all my young beginners and it is absolutely wonderful. The children are able to remember where the notes are almost instantly, none of the usual problems of not being able to remember where D is for example. Also the problem I used to have of children playing by finger numbers disappears since they are totally focused on which animal note they are playing. The children love the animals, I have both puppets and the wooden animals. You can use the animals not only to put on the notes on the keyboard, but also on the floor stave. There's a very useful game that covers so many areas of development - e.g. after a few weeks, using just D & B you play D and tell them it's D, they put it in the correct place on the stave - you may be surprised that they don't always know this (first benefit - practise with notation), you then play the next note - either another D or a B, they sing it and then decide which it is and put that in the right place (excellent aural training). And it's fun, I have discovered it's many children's favourite part of the lesson. As they progress through the book you start adding the other animals (in the order they appear in the book) and the children get really familiar with where all the notes go and how they sound.

The singing as they play - which could be done with any tutor book but people don't because they don't know about the benefit of singing - teaches the children to sing in tune, and of course develops the inner ear wonderfully. You may find that your students begin to be able to sight sing the tunes - which of course will help sight reading later since they will have an idea how the piece will sound before they play it.

You can also encourage the children to make up words to the pieces - they enjoy this.

I can only recommend that you get the whole package and try out the ideas, I hope you find the benefits pay off almost immediately. If you have any other questions please do ask.

What age is it meant for?

I bought the book for my five year old a few weeks ago and am really impressed with it. I had tried her on the music for little mozarts book too and she seemed to be struggling with it. She took to calling the notes by their animal names straight away - it has even encouraged her to go back to the little mozart book and sing the animal names instead. She also likes to go through each note with me on the keyboard and sing back a-g (ant to goose).I haven't tried it with my piano students because I worried they would find it too babyish but my older daughter who is 7 was fascinated too and has started making stories up for the pictures (we then think of lyrics for the tunes to match her stories) If anyone has any thoughts on using it for older children too I would be very interested.

ps thanks barcarolle it was down to one of your previous posts that I bought the book in the first place.

You're welcome! I'm very happy you tried it and it's working. The book is intended for children aged 5-7 (I think). I have used it with a couple of older children (9-10), one girl thought it was far too babyish but she was a very tricky customer and only had three lessons anyway. The other is a very quiet, shy boy in year 6 - so I guess he's 10 or 11. Anyway, it's very hard to tell what he thinks, I keep telling him to let me know if he doesn't like anything we're doing. I use the blank notes book with him. The only way I can tell he does like me / his lessons is that every week he gives me a lovely little smile just as I'm seeing him off at the front door! I think the animal names really help everyone, a mum of one my students (I teach both) initially started using animal names as well!

I also use the book with year 4 (8-9 yrs old I think) keyboard club at school and they like it too.

This sounds very interesting. Please can someone give the name of the author, publisher and price and perhaps some more details on exactly how the method works. Are the wooden animals and or other supplepentary materials expensive ? Does the methode relate closely to the ABC note names or could I adapt it for use with the French fixed solfa system? I have a couple of little girls who have been in my nursery music class this year and who have shown interest in learning the piano as from September when they will be five or very nearly five years old. I thought about Pauline Hall's Tunes for 10 Fingers but the Dogs and Birds might br an alternative.

http://www.dogsandbirds.co.uk/

I think this is it.......... just googled it......

Thank you chocolatedog. I've had a look and unfortunaltely for me it is letter name based which was more or less what I suspected from other posts. However, I think I'll order a copy and see if there's any way of adapting it. This business of do ré mi versus ABC is a real headache. All the best methods of piano teaching for for young children are either English of American and use letter names. The French methods are very difficult by comparison. You can never use word association or sentence association for anything.

The only other one to try instead might be Playing With Colour by Sharon Goodey http://www.playingwithcolour.co.uk/

which I've been using as extra material for one boy who struggles with his reading - he finds it much easier as he can instantly play without having to work out the notes. There's a thread on this one somewhere - hang on a minute BRB.................

aha - found it - I started it too!!! http://forums.abrsm.org/index.php?showtopi...ing+with+colour

I am using this book with a very mature adult beginner student who decided he liked the look of it! He likes the constant repetition of the same notes in various guises as he finds it difficult to make the note names "stick". We're also using the Alfred Adult book, which he already had and which gives him a change from the Dogs and Birds.

I am certain you could adapt it. The book introduces so (d) and mi (b) first and continues to introduce the notes in the 'Kodaly' order. So if you use the blank notes book I expect you will be able to use it. If you contact the author via her website I am sure she will be happy to answer your questions.

In the French system D is "ré" and B is "si."
"mi" is E and "sol" (so doesn't exist) is G.