by Tamsyn

April 15, 2016

little musician

Little Musician Review and Giveaway
Sponsored by BrillKids

Little Musician is one of my absolute favorite music products available, especially for tiny children.  We have been using it almost daily for four years, and purchased the product with our own money.  I reached out to the BrillKids company and asked them if they would be willing to work with me to do a giveaway and they agreed!  I'm so excited to give someone the opportunity to use this software with their child(ren) or class.  BrillKids has provided a 100%-off coupon code to give to the winner.  Enter the giveaway and learn more below.

This post contains affiliate links.  🙂

Flashback Four Years

It was almost four years ago when BrillKids released "Little Musician".  We have loved their company even longer than that as we are lovers of Early Learning and Little Reader has helped our children to learn to read by the time they are two.  I was so excited when they announced that they were making a music curriculum, and even more excited when I got to be part of the BETA testing team.  I got to see Little Musician work out the initial kinks, provide feedback, and see how wonderful the finished product turned out to be.

Here are some of my online friends and others and their experience with Little Musician

How we use Little Musician Now

Ukulele giveaway ends 4/8

Little Musician may be perfect as an introduction for babies, but don't let that stop you if your kids are older.  The curriculum covers a wide base of subjects, from instrument recognition, gaining familiarity with classical music, and learning to sight-read and sing using solfege.  There have been a TON of older kids and parents who have reported that Little Musician taught them to hear and identify chords and improved their ear.

Because of the way the software mixes and matches elements while teaching daily concepts, you can watch the same lesson over and over and never have the exact same lesson.  Likewise, concepts taught will be reviewed frequently while the overall difficulty will increase. Even so, there did come a point where my older kids mastered the materials taught in the curriculum.  We still use it often mostly because I've had more children.  The latest Spackman models have enjoyed the software as much as the older kids did.

One of my favorite aspects of the lessons is that there are 3-4 suggested YouTube clips at the end of each lesson.  The older kids will often come and watch these video clips when I watch Little Musician with the younger ones.  They were well-chosen and have really inspired my older kids to practice more and strive for better musicianship.  Why?  Because whenever possible, they have chosen clips of CHILDREN to teach the basic concepts.  For example, recently one of our lessons introduced the concept of "viola", "cello", "double bass" and the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore (among other things) and the lesson recommended these videos at the end.  As long as you are connected to the internet, you can watch these videos within the Little Musician software.  We don't always watch the videos, and when we do we usually just pick one.  Even so, over time our family has richly blessed by having these clips presented to us so often.

The Back-End Software

BrillKids has built an incredible software that allows teachers to create their own lessons.  Initially the use of the software and the curriculum were only available together in a joint package, now called "Little Musician Basic" (the software our winner will receive).  However, they have since split the software into two giving you the option to just buy the curriculum or the PRO version that allows you to create your own lessons.  Each of these are available for $99.  Many users have really gone to town making their own reading lessons in Little Reader, but the PRO version of Little Musician has been less utilized.  However, if you are a music teacher, this is an incredible tool worth noting.  You can learn more about the features of the Pro version here.

I honestly haven't created much with the Pro version myself.  The Little Musician curriculum has been adequate for my own family's needs.  However, if I was a classroom teacher, I know I would be using it a lot more.  Having said that, I have LOVED having the option of digging into the "Play and Edit" section where I can access the individual aspects of the lessons.  I personally have used it to practice the individual songs with the kids.  After the lesson is over, we will often pick out a song to sing together in solfege.  The video below shows the fruits of that practice.  We were on day 85 and had practiced BrillKid's original "The Solfege Song" off and on.  This day she spontaneously got up and started singing and dancing the song, and didn't mind doing it again for the camera.  Don't mind the mess- it's a snapshot of our real life.

In closing, I suppose my main point would be that yes, Little Musician is still one of our favorites.  Yes, we still use it often.  Yes, I still love it.  I recommend it often.  While they do have an affiliate program and I do participate, gosh, there are lots of products out there that offer an affiliate program, but that doesn't mean that I'm going around gushing about them.  Little Musician is something special and I'm so grateful that my children have been blessed with this resource.

Good luck, everybody!

Because the "Little Musician Basic" software is worth $179, we have decided to let this giveaway run for two weeks.  Giveaway ends April 29th at midnight.

Find out more about the Little Musician on the BrillKids Website.  Giveaway ends Friday at midnight, April 29th.  Winner gets (1) copy of Little Musician Basic.

Get 10% off of any BrillKids' Products with coupon code "BKAFF13180"

Giveaway Rules

About the author 

Tamsyn

My name is Tamsyn and I love music. I got my bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from USU. I spent many years teaching private piano lessons until I had children of my own. I have attended several children workshops on how to teach children music. I really like the Kodaly method, but have adapted a lot of different techniques for my own children.

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  1. My son (3,5 yo) is interested in music. I can’t wait to start learning music with him. This program looks like a great opportunity to learn it from. We have Little Reader and my son loves it. Thank you for this giveaway.

  2. I am crossing my fingers. I’ve been keeping an eye on brill kids for a few years with hopes to join. This would make my dream come true!

  3. This program looks amazing. It goes more in depth than my son’s violin lessons. I would love this for both of my boys but definitely my baby who is 18 months and wants to be like big brother and play the violin.

  4. This program comes highly recommended from Mr. Rob over at Preschool Prodigies! Cannot wait to try this out!!! It seems to go more in depth than my piano lessons! I am totally stoked!!!!

  5. I appreciate your blog! I am looking forward to using your games and teaching aids to help teach my four little ones since I have no music training.

    An under appreciated benefit of teaching music is to improve auditory discrimination. Listening is important for all learning, especially reading. Being able to discriminate the differences in letter sounds, phonemes, syllables and intonation of speech is foundational for reading and learning.

  6. My kids are 5, 4 and 18mos. They love music. I think this would be an excellent teaching tool. Thank you for the opportunity.

  7. Wow what an amazing little musician review. This would be so wonderful to do with my daughter. She loves the piano and with all the extra theory and lessons she would be amazed at what she would learn and be able to play. Would love to win!

  8. my daughter has an interest in singing and in instruments. i would love to see her exercise her curiosity in this area with some expertise. with another child on the way, i could see our family using this for years and years.

  9. I’m loving your website!! And I would love to have the Brill Kids curriculum! What a great way to incorporate music education into my Toddler’s schedule. So simple, yet effective!

  10. This definitely sounds like an amazing program! Thank you for such a great review, I am crossing my fingers that I can win this for my children! 🙂

  11. As a musician, I am excited that there is a program such as this to share with my little ones. My 2 and 4 year old are so interested in music and would appreciate using this software .

  12. Music is so important for the little ones. Time and time again when you study the biographies of successful people you will find that they can almost always play an instrument that they taught themselves on. No joke here, if you want your kids “tuned” to learning better then getting them a start in music is a true benefit.

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