Customer Reviews

Music for Little Mozarts: Deluxe Starter Kit

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a mom that sings, but not a pianist. The price of piano lessons prevent us from having our kids take lessons at young ages. I looked at one of the lessons from a local studio and they said they use this series, so I ordered it.

I know how to play a little, and this book/cd/notecards, etc... is absolutely perfect for us. My 4-year-old son is learning at an amazing speed and he loves it. The cd that comes with it helped with the excitement. The dry-erase board that you can learn the letters of the keyboard with is wonderful because you can erase and don't have to use papers over and over. Plus, the little magnets that come with it are a great tool in getting them to understand that they can compose their own little measure or two, then I can play it for them.

I'm a huge fan and will be using this for my 2-year-old when she's old enough too, and I'll be ordering the next levels soon.

And we're saving TONS of money. I figure that once they are old enough out of these books, and are still interested and beyond my capabilities of teaching, we'll pay the high price of lessons.

A few months ago I splurged on the whole "Music for Little Mozarts" package. This comes with a music lesson book, a workbook (coloring, drawing, etc.), a CD, flashcards, another "music discovery" book with another CD (these are pretty worthless as far as I can tell), two stuffed animals ("Mozart Mouse" and "Beethoven Bear," who feature in all the materials), and a magnetic/dry-erase musical notation board with magnetic notes. I also got the teacher's guide, but I don't think this helps much, unless you're a music teacher perhaps.

By the way, we tried another music package--it wasn't very good. This, by contrast, is professional and well-thought-out in practically every way.

This is a very basic, from-absolute-ground-zero package. I appreciate the very gradual pace, which begins with low and high sounds, then talks about loud and soft, then the groups of two and three black keys. Then you start playing two black keys together, then three, then you start going up and down the black keys... Anyway, it's very gradual.

The CD recording of the main lesson book helps a lot. It basically contains the entire text and tunes from the lesson book, and is written in a sort of "story" form--my little boy (almost 4 now) bought it anyway. We've listened to the CD many times (all at the kid's request), so now the tunes (if you want to call them that--they are as basic as you can imagine) are totally ingrained. So he really got into it. He sleeps with Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear (you might not think the stuffed animals are necessary, but they really help).

As to lessons, well, I take this approach: if he says "no," then we absolutely don't do it, and probably not the next day either. If we take breaks of a week or even a couple weeks, that's absolutely OK. On the other hand, if he seems enthusiastic, we kick things up a notch, and we have lessons daily or even, rarely, a few times in a day. We received the package around March 15 and were at it nearly daily for a couple weeks. Then there were a couple weeks in which we did only 3-4 lessons total. Since then we've been practicing fairly regularly, not a lesson every day but 2-5 per week.

Results: we've gone through half of the first book and have ordered the second. He can actually play the little tunes in the book, and when he successfully pulls one off, and I say, "Yay!" then he claps and says "Yay!" very excitedly himself. He's very proud of himself. He's getting better at putting the fingers where they belong, and also he can play different notes with different fingers.

I've also been teaching him "Chopsticks" which is his favorite thing to play. Today he almost got it right. I just had to prompt him once.

He loves the flashcards. We've gone through them many times by now and he likes to do all 32, or whatever it is, in one shot. This takes time because many of the cards involve clapping rhythms written on the cards. He can't do this yet just by looking at the notes--he has to look at the back of the card to read the numbers written under the notes--but he's very good at the actual clapping part, which I guess is the important part for now. He does know a lot of the signs inside and out anyway, in no small part because of the powerpoint & LR flashcards we'd done before.

Anyway, so far we can recommend "Little Mozarts."

BTW, I had 8 years of piano lessons as a kid myself, and once upon a time, for a short time, earned a living teaching violin. So I have experience with this sort of thing--your experience may be different, and if you haven't got a clue about where to start or what to do, you might want to hire a teacher (or not!). We are currently playing on an electronic keyboard (which he loves to explore and make noise with).

My five year old son LOVES the bear and mouse and is very excited. He was getting a bit overwhelmed with how quickly the kid's Alfred course was going and so he wanted a gentler and more fun program. We found the perfect one for him. He wants to do all the books and learn about all the musical animals. I also bought the Church, Christmas and Halloween music books which he is so excited about. He likes the coloring assignments, the flash cards, draws notes for Everyone on the staff whiteboard, begs to listen to the cd, etc. Just a great all around program. Recommended by my piano-loving son. p.s. my son is doing this with his music teacher.

Product was as described. It was a gift for 18 mo an 24 mo children. They love the music discovery cd and enjoy dancing to it. I also purchased the teachers handbook, but it was not too helpfull. They also love the little bear and mouse. and the carry case keeps it all together. I think it's a good program

This is a fantastic product. I am a music teacher and have used some of the material in the kit, especially the books before. The CD was new to me and is excellent!

The kit is very well priced for so many items, bought separately from my local music shop the cost would have been double.

I would urge every parent of a child aged 4-6 who would like to learn piano to consult the teacher about using this. It is money very well spent.

Great system. My daughter started at 3.5 and now were on book 3. love it.

My daughter is 4 years old and she can refer to the books by herself.

I highly recommend this kit. The Music for Little Mozart's series is terrific and the kit has most of the items you'll need to get started at a cheaper price than buying the items separately.

This package is a must-have for all music teachers who have been asked to start children as young as three years old in music lessons. Two small stuffed animals named Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear capture the kids' attention and a workbook, CD of suggested songs, beginner lesson books, and a coloring book with musical notes etc. theme are included, providing all the tools necessary to being an awareness of music and theory in a fun way, getting them ready for more serious study when they're a little older!

In Alfred's Music for Little Mozarts, students follow their friends, Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear, in exploring musical sounds and concepts as they learn to play the piano. The Discovery Book contains songs for singing and movement using solfege syllables. The workbook has written exercises, like naming the notes on the keyboard, and the lesson book has the songs students actually learn to play. The Discovery book and lesson book both come with a CD recording. The songs are short, fun and easy to learn. The flash cards include quarter, half, and whole notes and rests, notes A-G on the keyboard, notes moving up and down, and the repeat sign. The Deluxe Kit also comes with a dry erase board and marker for practice writing music notes.

The major weakness of this course is that after learning the 2 black keys and 3 black keys as geographical references, note reading and playing are limited to the key of C. In my opinion, the best beginning keyboard methods introduce patterns and teach students to play them in different keys, rather than focusing on a single key. I also regret that composition is not emphasized more in this course. Students this age should be creating their own melodies based on simple rhythms and tonal patterns and harmonizing them with 2-note chords. So I find as a teacher that I have to supplement Little Mozarts with other materials.

All this being said, however, of all the beginning keyboard methods, Little Mozarts is by far my favorite for early childhood. Students love the stickers and coloring books with all the Little Mozarts characters, including Mozart Mouse, Beethoven Bear, Clara Schumann Cat, Pachabel Penguin, J.S. Bunny, and Elgar E. Elephant, which students meet in the advanced levels of the course. The Deluxe Starter Kit is a bit pricey but a worthwhile investment and a better value than purchasing the items separately. I highly recommend this course for young beginners.