Book "You CAN be a Musician" by Hellene Hiner (downloadable)

As a parent of 2 children, I am always seeking ways to make learning any skill engaging and fun for my kids and myself. Hellene's observations and perspective about music and children in general were so helpful. I feel hopeful that my children do not have to dread piano lessons the way that me and my brothers did until we finally quit. Thank you Hellene!

5/5

I have come across SM while doing some research for music lessons for my toddler. Very quickly, I learned that a person named Hellene seemed to be a very active and respected member from studying the posts of another online forum on music. I then learnt that Hellene was the author of this book and the creator of SM. In order to decide my way forward, whether to try SM, another software or find a real music teacher, I decided to read the book first to get more information. With a zero music background, I don't quite understand some jargons used in the book so I just skimmed them, and thus I can read it really fast, though Hellene's book is still perfectly readable and an eye-opener to a person with zero music background like me. I am really skeptical to the idea of universal music literacy, too, until I got the point of Hellene mentioning her daughter playing the Nintendo game. To me who has grown up in an environment while playing hundreds of video games when I was young, I believe I was no less shocked than Hellene used to be. It suddenly occurred to me that anyone could play the piano because in our world, most, if not all, have demonstrated the ability of superb hand-eye coordination while playing video games! If you are in a situation like me with very little knowledge on music education, you should read this book (and it's a quick and interesting read!) to quickly pick up some knowledge for yourself, and it should help you make your decisions later. Whether you end up trying the SM or not is up to you but I do encourage you to check out the SM forum as the community is really great.

5/5

An easy way to explain to small children about music.

5/5

I have downloaded this book about 18 months ago. I postponed reading it as I didnt think my daughter was ready for music. I have read it now, and what an informative book it is. I have learned from why I pearsonaly disliked with passion music classes in school to what I have to do not only to appreciate music, but to get my daughter to appreciate it and to learn about it. Before starting to teach your kid or yourself how to play an instrument you must read this book, even if just the introductory chapters. It teaches why the piano is the instrument to choose as a first instrument. It teaches what not to do while learning to play it and also how to do it. Following the reccomendations you will not only learn music and playing piano, but it will be a pleasure to do it, a hobby if nothing else, for life.

5/5

I like very much the way it’s written, almost “orally”, if I may say so. As I’ve acquainted a little with her English and pronounciation, I can already imagine Hellene speaking while I’m reading. And the illustrations made by Nikolai Krutikov are exceptional, funny, sugestive and placed exactly where they belog. The book, written in an easy accessible language to anyone, is (on my opinion) also an essential manual. I was surprised to find again in her book a similar thinking to Suzuki’s, related to abilities. He stated too that these can be developed. And I like that it tells you what are those connected to music and how to develop them. In my opinion, the entire book, from the beginning to the end, contains exactly what you should know from the start. It clears things up, it gives you courage, explanations and arguments and it’s up to you to choose what to do next. But just by reading it, you’re a winner, as you have started the foundation of your musical education by understanding its components and knowing how to approach it. It is a starting point valuable to us, parents who want to educate our children well, or who want to help them develop their musical inclinations, and for us, the students we were or the students that we want to be and for us those who want to learn to play a musical instrument. It is a work which helps you to form some criteria of selection, to develop discernment. I recommend you read it thoroughly and discover much more that I’ve written here. It sheds light upon known or unknown things about music and helps you to have an idea about the Soft Mozart software package and understand what it stands upon. Last, but not least, you have the opportunity to discover a little about the human behind a successful invention.

5/5