| Most beginning children's piano books are overly | | | | scope, we teach the child how to move around via the |
| concerned with finger position. For this reason, they | | | | five notes on the page. The steps are solidly |
| start with "songs" made of entirely original musical | | | | constructed, but there is one huge problem: |
| material designed to show the child how easy it is to | | | | Your child will fall asleep before they ever have a |
| keep their five fingers in a row. The result is uniformly | | | | chance to get excited about piano. |
| boring music, which never excites the child in any aural | | | | There are many problems with this methodology as it's |
| or musical way. The only reaction they have is to your | | | | applied today. |
| praise if they succeed in playing it correctly. | | | | First, if your child takes one of the hypothetical steps |
| This is an exceedingly poor choice of material | | | | above, one a week for four weeks, they will be so |
| because children have much more positive responses | | | | bored with piano that it will be a miracle if they don't |
| when the first songs they play are familiar to them. | | | | quit. And that curriculum is exactly what you'll get from |
| Their reaction becomes one of amazement and pride | | | | the average piano teacher. |
| as they hear a familiar tune from the piano. | | | | Second, the child will have no aural joy in playing |
| Let's take the first "song" in most conventional piano | | | | something they recognize. There is a subtle rise in |
| books. It almost always consists of the first three to | | | | self-esteem when a child feels they have controlled |
| five white keys, in a row, going up. It's the same, more | | | | the piano and played a song they know and like. |
| or less, in Bastien, Schaum, Thompson, Alfred and any | | | | Third, the method above does nothing to give the child |
| other conventional piano method you might name. | | | | a pleasurable, purely physical experience of the piano, |
| To step back a moment, the strategy behind all these | | | | just plunking happily away at a series of keys with no |
| worthy methods is solid, but the material they choose | | | | reference at all to a page or notes. Call it the Joy of |
| to illustrate is poor. | | | | Piano. |
| Here is the strategy of all beginning piano books: | | | | This is the essence of what a real pianist does, simply |
| First, play all five ascending notes on the white keys | | | | playing the music without CURRENT reference to the |
| starting with Middle C. | | | | page. You should show them this first, before you do |
| Second, do the same as above but have one note | | | | anything else. |
| change direction to teach the child to pay attention to | | | | As to the four steps of the conventional lesson above, |
| the direction of the notes (up or down.) In other words, | | | | here are better ideas. |
| throw in a little monkey wrench, in terms of linear | | | | First, play I'm A Little Teapot to learn the first five |
| direction, and see if they can catch it. | | | | adjacent white keys. |
| Third, do more or less the same, starting on a note | | | | Second, play Alouette to throw a little twist into it. |
| OTHER than good old Middle C. | | | | Third, play Mary Had a Little Lamb to show how to |
| Fourth, do the same but with a skip between notes. | | | | start on a note other than Middle C. |
| Previously, all note movements have been the | | | | Fourth, play Jingle Bells to learn how to skip over notes. |
| adjacent white key to prevent confusion. | | | | Now you have a first lesson that teaches the same |
| You can see the progression of events like a chess | | | | concepts as conventional methods and in addition |
| game: we're teaching the child to move on the | | | | gives your child four songs they know and like, which |
| keyboard in terms of the printed page only. It's like a | | | | they can proudly play. |
| board game with five squares. Within that limited | | | | |