Preschoolers playing piano? (a giveaway)

You better believe it, baby! Around here we only raise musical geniuses that are concert pianists by the time they are two and writing symphonies by three. With two musical parents how can you expect anything less?

Okay, okay, so maybe every single one of my babies cried even harder when I tried to sing lullabies. That doesn't mean I'm going to give up on music! My 8 year old is coming along well. He can play the piano a little and is a good singer. And tonight he even played the marimba at a talent show. But I've been trying for a couple of years now to find a good program for teaching my preschooler piano. I've read up on the Orff and Kodaly methods but it's easier for me to do piano, since that's what we've got!

And today I am SO EXCITED to tell you about a program I discovered called Piano for Preschoolers.
And know what's awesome? One of you will win their program! First off, a little more about them:
Piano for Preschoolers is an effective piano teaching method that uses color-coded notes written on a traditional music staff to teach beginner piano lessons to children. A durable color strip sits behind the keys and guides the child to the correct key for each note. This method of teaching preschool music allows children to begin playing piano as soon as they know their colors.

For the last few years I've been working with Roo on his colors and singing lots of songs which meant he picked up on playing these songs with little to no effort on my part! It was so cool! He sat right down and started playing the key that coordinated with the note color and soon he recognized the song and started playing the right tune!

I have tried teaching a few younger kids piano with success, but with very, very slow success. With this program they are playing a real song on day one! Another thing I love is that it encourages singing. I have all of my preschoolers start singing and matching pitch on day one. I think many parents would be surprised what good singers their children are or can be at a very young age.

Another great thing? Parents with little or no music talent can teach their preschoolers piano with their easy to follow instruction book. Don't have a piano? They have a great package that includes a very fair priced keyboard designed just for little hands! One of my piano students was struggling and I started her on this program and now she's loving learning and feeling good about her progress.


There are many things I love about this program but there are a couple of things I would change. At first I was really impressed that the notes on the page were actually the right notes, just color coordinated. Until I realized that only some of them were right. I say either all right or all not. And I do wish this had more general music to it. Like teaching music terms like dynamics, note names, rests, things like that. Even if it was later in the book. That is something I will supplement with my own children and students. Other than that, I love it!!

Okay, so I know you want to know how you can win, don't you? Here is what the winner will get:

• Beginning piano book containing 17 familiar kids piano songs written in color-coded notes on a traditional musical staff
• 17 Track CD with voice-over "count aloud" for each song in the music book
• Durable coordinating color strip that sits behind the keys of your piano or keyboard to guide your preschooler to the correct key
• A second durable color strip to fit securely on most quality electronic keyboards with mini-keys
• Parent/Teacher Guide that includes step-by-step instructions for teaching each of the 19 music lessons

Here's how you win:

(Required for initial entry) I really want to get some traffic to them because I really believe in this product so please go to Piano for Preschoolers and tell me something you learned that you didn't learn from me!

For extra entries after the initial entry above (please leave a separate comment for each one):

• BEFORE YOU DO THESE MAKE SURE YOU'VE SUBMITTED YOUR INITIAL ENTRY!
• Tell me if you have a piano, a preschooler, and if you won who this would be for!
• Email 3 people you think might be interested in this and cc me so I know you did!
  
• Subscribe to my totally awesome blog!
• Put my adorable button on your blog. (oh, you know it is!)
• Follow my blog! (top left)
• Follow me on Twitter
• Tweet about this contest!
• And seriously, if you want to do anything else like blog or stumble or whatever you just do it and let me know and I'll count it. Sound good?
• And make sure you leave a separate comment for each one!!

This contest will end Wednesday, April 29 at 11:59 pm and I will announce the winner the next day. Please leave your email address or make sure your blogger profile is public so I can find you. Good luck!