Piano Adventures: Lesson Book Primer Level (Piano Adventures Library) [Paperback] Review

I've been teaching for over 12 years and I use the Faber Piano Adventure series, starting with Primer level for young students, usually 5-7 years old.For younger students, (preK/K), see Music for Little Mozarts by Alfred.For more information see piano and voice teacher drives 2 you web site.

The primer level starts slowly, but shows overall good use of the keyboard, even before the student starts learning the note names.Working on the black keys for a few weeks gives young fingers the opportunity to play sooner, and gain coordination.These books come in a system that you can self select, definitely start with the Lesson book.I always recommend the recital book for extra songs (no one wants to play or hear the same four to eight measure song over and over again for a week between lessons, too much repetition leads to boredom).I love the Popular Repertoire series in all the levels of the books.Just look at the covers for names of the songs.They are all well known tunes the students love.These have come and gone out of print, but have recently come back into print.

I use the Faber books as a bridge with another series called Alfred Basic Piano library.If students find Alfred's pace challenging, Faber helps fill in the gaps.It also teaches "Middle C position" where both thumbs are on middle C (the singing range of most young children), on the staff earlier in the primer level.This allows use of the fabulous set of Faber books in the Pre-time (primer), Playtime (level 1 five finger melodies), Showtime (level 2A-just outside the comfort zone), Chordtime (2B-wait for fingers to mature to play 3 note chord progressions-but are really the best in the series), Funtime (3-more challenging) and Big Time (usually used around level 4-5).These come in a variety of genres like Classical, Popular, Jazz, Ragtime, Rock, Children's Favorites, Hymns, (Hebrew Favorites only in Chordtime),I like to use as many as possible in the early years and then focus in on what student shows an interest in for later study.

Later versions of the Faber books teach higher notes on the treble staff that Alfred misses.But the Alfred books are very good at teaching intervals sight reading.My feeling about these books is that you want more books that keep the pace nice and even, if there are a few songs that seem too similar, and the student is ready to move on, move on, but more often than not, the extra songs give a student many opportunities for sight reading, which is really what I try to teach.Try starting 5 min per year old for the lesson and 1 song per year old per week, and see how it goes.A five year old can sit and play for 1/2 hour on about 5 short pieces, with some singing, clapping, and other activities.Whereas a nine year old can sit for about 45 minutes, and has no problem with 9-10 songs a week.

Give your child the gift of reading music as you would reading books.

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Product Description:
Piano AdventuresPrimer Level orients the student to the piano through black-key pieces that explore the range of the keyboard. This is followed by off-the-staff note reading, which teaches the keyboard letter names and basic rhythms.Contents include:All My Friends; Allegro; Alouette; Balloons; Bells of Great Britain; Best Friends; The Bugle Boys; C-D-E-F-G March; C Position Warm-Up; C Song; Come See the Parade!; Copy Cat; The Dance Band; Elephant Ride; The Escalator; Frogs on Logs; Gorilla in the Tree; Grandmother; Hey, Hey, Look at Me!; Hey, Mr. Half Note Dot!; Honking Cars; I Hear the Echo; The I Like Song; Into the Cave; Lemonade Stand; Let's Play Ball!; March on D-E-F; Men from Mars; Merrily We Roll Along; Middle C March; Mister Bluebird; My Invention; Ode to Joy; The Old Clock; Old MacDonald Had a Song; Once There Was a Princess; Our Team; Partners at C; Petite Minuet; Rodeo; Russian Sailor Dance; A Ten-Second Song; Three Little Kittens; Two Black Ants; Two Blackbirds; Two Questions; The Walking Song; Yankee Doodle.

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