Customer Reviews

Trebellina Ages 1-4 Music Dvd

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

"Teach Your Baby to Read Music with Trebellina," proclaims the DVD cover of Introducing Trebellina from the Cristofori Baby Company. Tapping into the trend towards early education (teach your baby to read, teach your baby to sign, etc.) Trebellina provides a lighthearted, informal introduction to simple music theory for one to four-year-olds.

Trebellina is an exuberant, animated treble clef that leads young children through a simple, lively introduction to Da Notes of the treble staff (a gang of bright, animated notes that live on the staff) with the help of her friends Rock Bassey (a bass cleff) and Rhythmo (an abstract representation of rhythm), while providing simple music appreciation segments. Various musical instruments, familiar songs, live action dance sequences, and rhythm recognition are all incorporated into this fast-paced half-hour program for pre-schoolers.

The child approval rating for the disc runs high in our home. All of our children from age six down to our ten-month-old baby are fascinated by the bright, fun-filled antics of Trebellina. They are learning the names of a variety of instruments, singing note names along with Trebellina, dancing to the live action sequences, and clapping along with Rhythmo. I might be imagining things, but I believe I heard our wee baby sing "F" after I echoed Trebellina's introduction to the note.

Personally, I don't recommend pushing young children into early academics, and my little ones aren't reading music yet. I am however, very interested in developing an affinity for music, rhythm and tonal recognition from a young age. Trebellina can be effectively used as a pre-primer to formal music lessons, as part of an informal music program for preschoolers, or even as a guilt-free babysitter for busy parents who can assure themselves that, "Well, they are learning something at least!"

Parents looking for a highly structured program to teach their child to read sheet music won't find Trebellina the best program to use with their children. There are no formal lesson plans presented, and the pace of the video is so rapid that only a general familiarity with the concepts presented will be gained. By incorporating the parent-led teaching tips included with the DVD the learning experience can be taken deeper, and becomes more interactive rather than a passive DVD viewing experience.

Being independently produced, the music can at times be tinny or too loud, and the animation somewhat choppy but my children don't mind. In fact, if I let them have their way we'd be dancing with Trebellina upwards of three times a day! My three-year-old is her biggest fan, and our baby loves to groove along as well. The disc can be run through in one go and has the option of watching only the animated portions or live action segments.

While I remain unconvinced of the disc's ability to transform the average child into a virtuoso, this child-friendly DVD is a fun way to introduce the simplest concepts of music theory through play, bright visuals and fun tunes.

Despite all the rave reviews I found this DVD very poor. It is true that every note is introduced (A,B,C,D...) on the music staff, by singing,on the keyboard and sounded on the piano, but there is very little to help the child link the notation with musical sound. What we need are simple tunes with the notation displayed as the tune plays. We don't get this.

There are mistakes even in introductory part: (she sings an e instead of an f, and the piano sounds the last four notes one tone lower than it should).

We do get two bars of "old Macdonold" where the tune is played and the notation is shown at the same time. This is great, but it only happens for those two bars. For the rest of the music we either get no notation at all, or we get notation for a different tune altogether. Where we do get examples of music with matching notation the music is complicated (in many parts) and the notation does not follow the 'top line' but follows first one inner part and then another and is impossible to follow for a novice.

When "counting the rythmn" is introduced they use a complicated jazz piece with syncopations. This is very difficult and there is no explanation of what is going on. The counting gives up after a bit.

There are a few sequences showing people playing instruments (some times playing a different tune to the one on the soundtrack), but in many cases all we see is a still photo of the instrument or a photo of a soft toy playing a toy instrument.

I bought this DVD for my 2 year old twins who love music. After reading all the rave reviews I purchased it on Amazon.
I was very disappointed with the quality and the sound. The animation is rudimentary at best and the songs have no rythem. I did not even finish the DVD it was so bad. The picture quality was pretty bad too, especially on the non-animated parts.
My kids lost interest quickly and I did not think it was easy to follow and make sense of it.
I play Sound of Music, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang & Mary Poppins instead and feel like they learn more music, rythem and song from those movies.
I would return this DVD if I could. I am seriously thinking of throwing it away. I can't give this to anyone...
I definitely do not recommend this product.

Upon purchasing this DVD I had hoped for a tool to teach my two children, aged 2 and 8 months how to read music. What I received however was a presentation that seemed haplessly thrown together, with little thought as to how children 4 and under actually learn.

I am a big fan of the "Your Baby Can Read!" series, and through my experiences with that program, as well as a lot of investigation into the work of Glenn Doman, I have learned one very important factor when it comes to teaching babies to read. And that is that what children see and what children hear should go together. In the case of music, that would mean showing the notation while simultaneously playing the note audibly. This rarely, if ever happens, on this DVD.

What does happen though, is a bunch of poorly animated, web-cartoon-like characters dance about. Row, Row, Row Your Boat is played, while showing a toy boat with a man rowing(much like Baby Einstein). And they try introducing children to the concept of rhythm with a completely ridiculous song choice. Worst of all, towards the end, they go through all the notes on screen while playing a piece of classical music. They don't play the note AT ALL, and don't even say the name of the note! This is rather like showing a child the letter A and just expecting them to learn it's called an A without ever telling them.

There are good points to this DVD however. They do introduce the notes in a haphazard way. They show quite a few different instruments, and how they sound. I have given the DVD two stars because my son loves to watch it. I do agree that this DVD does seem to speak to children. I'm just not sure it's message is all that useful for learning music.

My husband is a classically trained Juilliard musician and I, a former dancer..our children, ages 2 and 4, are very responsive to and have a keen interest in music - singing, dancing, and playing all kinds of instruments (as do, potentially, all kids). As soon as we watched this video, we had to play it again, right away..oh, and again..and again! My kids ate "Trebellina" up! They were mesmerized, amused, and interactive..singing, dancing, vocalizing and repeating the notes and names of instruments. They, immediately, went looking for their own instruments with a renewed fascination. I enjoy the style of it, the animation reminding me of classic old 50s cartoons. The variety of visual and audible stimuli keeps it engaging, too. Honestly, even if I didn't love it (which I do), I would recommend it because my kids had such an enthusiastic response to something that teaches them something valuable and enjoyable!

Our 20-month-old twins have been watching this for about a month now. (I was desperate for something to entertain them that wouldn't rot their brains too badly!) Both of them love it, and one of them will now spontaneously sing the first five notes of the pentatonic scale, in tune. I was astonished. He can also sing some intervals now if I sing them to him. I credit this DVD for that.

My two boys (ages 5 and 7) love this video. I found that this video captured their attention in a way other music videos never did, although I have yet to come across a video that teaches children about music in this way. In fact, the video inspired my 7-year old to take piano lessons. Because of the video, he could already read some musical notes. And now my 5-year old wants in on the action and wants to learn
an instrument as well. A great way to inspire and teach your kids about music!

I have 3 children ages 4, 7 and 10 who all love to watch this video. We have had it for a little over a year and they still love it. My oldest who refuses to take piano lessons, has taught herself to play the piano with the help of Trebellina. My 7 year old is able to play some songs as well. My 4 year old can locate the notes on the piano and can recognize the key if you play it for her. It is a great, fun and entertaining way to introduce music to kids of all ages. The animation is adorable-- it really captures and keeps kids' attention. Not too long--just perfect. It is so nice to see somrthing so different and creative. It seems like every other music video for kids is just a spin off of all the others.

This is our second copy of this DVD. We wore the first one out with our first child. Our second child loves it just as much. She requests it daily and sings along. Absolutely recommend this. Terrific.

This is no Disney production, far from it. You will know what I mean when you first view it through your adult eyes.

But, through my toddler's eyes it is a huge hit. My 20 month old daughter can't get enough of Trebellina and could care less about it production value. She would watch it all day if we would let her. Every morning we come down stairs and she points to the DVD player.

Like most kids she loves music. We purchased this because of her love for music and positive recommendations. However, we didn't buy it for her to learn to read notes. If she does pick reading music up then so be it. If you are expecting your kid to be a child music prodigy then I would not recommend this DVD. If you want a high quality production don't but this DVD. However, if you want your child to be entertained I would recommend it without hesitation.