John Thompson's Easiest Piano Course Part 1 Author: Visit Amazon's John Thompson Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0877180121 | Format: PDF
John Thompson's Easiest Piano Course Part 1 Description
- Paperback: 40 pages
- Publisher: Willis Music (November 1, 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0877180121
- ISBN-13: 978-0877180128
- Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 10.9 x 0.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I'm a piano teacher, and I love this book! I find that students as young as 5 or 6 can understand it, and my 3 and 4 year olds are usually ready for this book after a few months of preparatory "games." I use this for all my beginners who are teenagers or younger (teenagers usually don't appreciate the "monster" characters, but they get over it). I'm also thinking about starting all new adult beginners with this book, since I haven't found an adult book I like as well. Many other books start with "pre-reading" songs, which use note symbols combined with finger numbers, then move to note symbols with letter names, then finally to notes on a staff. This book uses the "begin the way you intend to continue" theory, and starts students off reading notes on the staff right away instead of confusing them by making them learn 3 different systems of notation. Other books also teach "position playing," where students may learn to read notes in C position, then notes in G position, then F position, and so on. The danger of position playing is that students just learn to recognize patterns, and some of my transfer students who had used this method can't play anything unless they are first told where to put their hands. Part One of this John Thompson series stays in one position, but right away in Part Two they have to start learning new notes and moving their hands around, so if they can't read the notes they can't play the song. I love how Part One introduces one note at a time, and simplifies the first song that uses a new note or concept, so students truly learn all of the notes and concepts but aren't overwhelmed. There are a few things I don't like about this series.
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