Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Experiences of HG, EG, PG children learning music

So, DD8 decided she'd like to tackle composing an original song for a school project (she could choose any media, so naturally she chooses the most difficult), which put me in the market for some software. I see Garageband mentioned frequently here, but it's only for iOS and Mac, and since we're not an Apple family, that wasn't an option.

Aquinas recommended Reason software. It's $450 after the trial period. No thanks.

I found something called Mixcraft, and downloaded it for trial. The license is only $80. So far, I can already see ways it could have been better, but it gets the job done. I crafted 8 measures of music with two tracks (a melody and a chord progression), set it on loop, and DD was pretty excited by the result.

I found out that DS was gifted after I enrolled him for group piano lessons at 4. He is very musical and has had music around him all his life. He was in a group piano class where it became obvious that his abilities were standing out. They had to go at a slower pace and repeat more often for all the kids to catch up while he got a concepyt on the first attempt and memorized a song after playing it once or twice. I stayed on for a year in that group because of the group dynamics, excellent teacher and the "fun" aspect of it. But it was too slow and I reluctantly switched to private lessons when he was 5. What a difference it has been - moving at his own pace is so liberating for him and he is learning at an accelerated pace. He enjoys his lessons a lot and the opposite of what we feared has happened - he sits still with his teacher for 45 minutes and focuses through the entire time. He also retains all of it!
As the OP said, my child has perfectionism meltdowns when practicing songs for the first time. We are still working on it, but I have been able to convince him to stop hitting his head when he does not get a note correct on the first attempt. It has been very hard to convince him to slow down when learning new pieces and play only one hand at a time for tricky segments to get them right. He expects things to come easily and he is baffled when he has to try so hard at anything. I am not sure if he will continue piano or switch instruments, but he will stay with piano as long as he enjoys it.
It is a good learning experience for our whole family. And no, we never mention his giftedness to anyone - some teachers figure it out themselves when they interact with him. Some other teachers (like in his PS) think that he is not gifted because he gets bored easily and tunes out.

DS 4 has been taking piano lessons for about 6 months. It has been good for him. He struggles with perfectionism and he is learning that practice makes perfect. His teacher says that he progresses quickly and plays as well as some of her 7-8 year olds, although I personally have nothing to compare him against. One issue that has come up that was unexpected is that it seems that he has perfect pitch and that has some how kept him from learning to read music very well. So now we are having to go back and practice just the theory of which note is what on the staff.

Dude-- DD has used Finale Notepad. It's fairly versatile.

One of DW's aunts give us a pretty decent upright piano - apparently nobody wants one these days and you are actually doing the giver a favour by accepting one. Who'd have thunk that? Anyhow...

Dd is teaching herself to read music and play on that piano using the scores of old folk songs etc that the aunt also gave us. I have the musical aptitude of a potato so she must get it from her mother. She appears to find it absorbing and will just keep plugging away with surprising tenacity until she gets a song down pat. We haven't pushed lessons because I don't want to kill the Love. Having heard her learning I have to say that good music teachers must have the patience of an angel and a saint combined because it must be excruciating to their ears at times.

No, I don't tell anyone anything about DS giftedness unless it's somehow relevant. It rarely is. He started piano at 6. Piano teacher told us that he has perfect pitch. He learns at lightning speed. He wishes so badly that his fingers could keep up! Practicing is hard for him because of the desire to go super fast.

Looks good. The only issue I see is that it's all in musical notation or tablatures, and DD8 is still intimidated by that. The things she's capable of playing are more complex than those which she can read/write. Mixcraft has an alternative view where she's basically hitting keys on a keyboard, which is a lot more intuitive and accessible for her at this stage.

It might come in handy with this particular project, though... I might be able to convert her completed Mixcraft project into a MIDI file, then import that to Finale Notepad to produce a printable score.