Starting two months ago, 5-year-old Diana learned several simple songs using the modified 1^st music presentation of the Gentle Piano computer program. Now, she is starting to learn how to read the standard music notation.

1. The songs for reading practice must be much easier than the songs the student is currently learning. Usually, the teacher chooses a song with a simple melody in one or both hands. It is a good idea to select a song the student never played before or, at least, never learned. Because the main goal of reading practice is to recognize the musical notes and find corresponding piano keys, the teacher should not pay much attention to fingering and playing technique.

2. The teacher switches Gentle Piano to the 2^nd music presentation. The musical notes of this presentation have no name symbols, so the student has to rely only on the position of a note on the vertical musical staff. The teacher explains the connection between staff lines and piano keys. The child reads and plays the melody.

3. If the student made a lot of mistakes while reading a song, she can use the Gentle Piano program to pre-listen to the song. She gets the notion about the melody and activates her musical ear and memory to support her reading practice.

4. The student plays the song again on the same presentation. If the teacher sees that the student experiences difficulties in reading music in the current presentation, this presentation will be the highest presentation for the reading practice for the next few lessons or even months.

5. If the student reads comfortably on the current presentation, the teacher can switch the program to the next music presentation. Diana made only few mistakes while reading and playing on the 2^nd presentation, so she is switched to the 4^th music presentation with horizontal musical staves.

6. The next step is reading in the 5^th music presentation. This presentation shows the standard symbols of the musical notes and staves, though the musical notes are still moving. After this presentation, more advanced students read music on the 6^th presentation showing the standard music score.