I just saw this, and to the extent that I took piano lessons at all as a kid, I "grew up" on the Piano Discovery System by Jump Music. It was a computer program that taught piano lessons using a keyboard that attached to the computer via the 15-pin game port. I would 100% love to use it with many of my piano students, but sadly Jump Music went out of business years ago and their method was never published in book form (though IMO it should've been!). Although I majored in music for two years at the community-college level, my first experience teaching students was actually as an online on-demand physics tutor. Because of this, I ended up feeling more comfortable explaining things "off the top of my head," drawing upon my prior knowledge of a topic, instead of teaching strictly from a book. The consequence is that I like to "take the offramp" from method books to repertoire-book-based study (e.g. teaching straight out of the Festival Collection or Jazz, Rags, and Blues with no method book for "backup"). As for the beginner method book I use, I tend to like the Leila Fletcher Piano Course because it introduces a few notes at a time (which doesn't feel as glacial for most students as learning "the C song" or "the D song"--a method that not only is boring for a lot of students, but doesn't give them a lot with which to compare their first note; you don't know what to look for when you see your first Middle C unless there's a D next to it so you can compare them and see what's different). I also like how it includes the grand staff from the beginning and teaches starting from middle C in both directions fairly early, before the student 1) has a chance to start thinking of one clef as the "easy" clef and the other one as the "hard" clef, or 2) starts to perceive the two clefs as completely separate and independent systems for writing notes rather than as extensions of each other. I'd say the biggest drawback I've found is that this series just isn't suitable for most kids under the age of 9 or 10; I'm guessing that an approach that's rote-centric would be a good way to start for the kids I've taught who have struggled with this. I'm not a fan of off-the-staff note reading, since I've had students struggle to see one note as being clearly above or below another (those notes can look like they're _just about_ at the same height if you don't have lines to use as a reference!).
As we wind down the Bastien primer A, my 5yo is ramping up with the Leila Fletcher book 1. I feel like it's so far a pretty seamless transition! Though I still plan to go on to the Bastien Primer B and theory & technique books. I think at a certain point we will be through the primer B, but the Leila Fletcher book will still be getting harder, but we'll see how it goes! It looks like a great method!
@@sp1704 Thanks for the suggestion of Bastien Primer A! I will have to look into it for students who are too young to jump straight into Leila Fletcher 1.
@@philipmcniel4908 Awesome! We used the Theory & Technique book for Primer A as well to practice drawing the notes etc, but by the end, we are actually using it much more (than the lesson book) because it has "warmups" she has adopted into her routine, and exercises that says to be repeated 2-3 times a day. She enjoys playing those exercises, but we have kind of extracted most of the juice out of the pieces already. When it introduces Mary's Lamb, which she was already playing by ear, I took that opportunity to play hands together in unison, which the book does not ask for. I've also added phrasing to songs like Rocking Horse to encourage movement and legato, and encourage her to think more musically about what she's playing, rather than just note note note, which can happen with exercises or pieces that aren't super meaningful. She likes Jack Be Nimble (staccato) for whatever reason, and we skipped over a couple songs (Autumn Leaves, Thanksgiving Song) just because the titles were out of season and I felt she was practicing the same concepts in the exercises. We may just play them a couple times through before we call it a wrap, for the sake of showing her how much she's learned! Good luck!
I started on the Bastien books in the 80s. It seemed like Alfred Basic and Bastien ruled the piano world in the US. But I remember in the early 90s when I saw a Piano Adventures book for the first time thinking, "What is this modern looking book?" Hard to believe that was 30 years ago. Thank you for sharing!
I still love Bastien! I'm going through the primers with my 5yo now, but we are bringing in supplemental materials as well. She is always asking me funny questions about the pictures. 😅
With the Bastien series, the Primer A and Primer B books are excellent. Especially for kids who start at a really young age. The rest of the series I actually don't like as much. With Alfred, it's the opposite. I don't particularly like the Level 1A book but the rest of the series is great. I use those with kids who are a bit older or progress quickly. Piano Adventures is great from beginning to end for any age.
I like your assessments. It's clear when a teacher has really taken the time to dive into a series before making a quick judgement. And yay for Piano Adventures 🎉
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I just saw this, and to the extent that I took piano lessons at all as a kid, I "grew up" on the Piano Discovery System by Jump Music. It was a computer program that taught piano lessons using a keyboard that attached to the computer via the 15-pin game port. I would 100% love to use it with many of my piano students, but sadly Jump Music went out of business years ago and their method was never published in book form (though IMO it should've been!).
Although I majored in music for two years at the community-college level, my first experience teaching students was actually as an online on-demand physics tutor. Because of this, I ended up feeling more comfortable explaining things "off the top of my head," drawing upon my prior knowledge of a topic, instead of teaching strictly from a book. The consequence is that I like to "take the offramp" from method books to repertoire-book-based study (e.g. teaching straight out of the Festival Collection or Jazz, Rags, and Blues with no method book for "backup").
As for the beginner method book I use, I tend to like the Leila Fletcher Piano Course because it introduces a few notes at a time (which doesn't feel as glacial for most students as learning "the C song" or "the D song"--a method that not only is boring for a lot of students, but doesn't give them a lot with which to compare their first note; you don't know what to look for when you see your first Middle C unless there's a D next to it so you can compare them and see what's different). I also like how it includes the grand staff from the beginning and teaches starting from middle C in both directions fairly early, before the student 1) has a chance to start thinking of one clef as the "easy" clef and the other one as the "hard" clef, or 2) starts to perceive the two clefs as completely separate and independent systems for writing notes rather than as extensions of each other. I'd say the biggest drawback I've found is that this series just isn't suitable for most kids under the age of 9 or 10; I'm guessing that an approach that's rote-centric would be a good way to start for the kids I've taught who have struggled with this.
I'm not a fan of off-the-staff note reading, since I've had students struggle to see one note as being clearly above or below another (those notes can look like they're _just about_ at the same height if you don't have lines to use as a reference!).
Thank you for sharing your experience and input. I've never heard of Jump Music! Learn something new every day 😄
As we wind down the Bastien primer A, my 5yo is ramping up with the Leila Fletcher book 1. I feel like it's so far a pretty seamless transition! Though I still plan to go on to the Bastien Primer B and theory & technique books. I think at a certain point we will be through the primer B, but the Leila Fletcher book will still be getting harder, but we'll see how it goes! It looks like a great method!
@@sp1704 Thanks for the suggestion of Bastien Primer A! I will have to look into it for students who are too young to jump straight into Leila Fletcher 1.
@@philipmcniel4908 Awesome! We used the Theory & Technique book for Primer A as well to practice drawing the notes etc, but by the end, we are actually using it much more (than the lesson book) because it has "warmups" she has adopted into her routine, and exercises that says to be repeated 2-3 times a day. She enjoys playing those exercises, but we have kind of extracted most of the juice out of the pieces already.
When it introduces Mary's Lamb, which she was already playing by ear, I took that opportunity to play hands together in unison, which the book does not ask for. I've also added phrasing to songs like Rocking Horse to encourage movement and legato, and encourage her to think more musically about what she's playing, rather than just note note note, which can happen with exercises or pieces that aren't super meaningful.
She likes Jack Be Nimble (staccato) for whatever reason, and we skipped over a couple songs (Autumn Leaves, Thanksgiving Song) just because the titles were out of season and I felt she was practicing the same concepts in the exercises. We may just play them a couple times through before we call it a wrap, for the sake of showing her how much she's learned! Good luck!
In 1960s/to 70s very little choice.. but I used different books.. I liked the Alfred series
Bastein.. Fanny Waterman
Pauline Hall
I started on the Bastien books in the 80s. It seemed like Alfred Basic and Bastien ruled the piano world in the US. But I remember in the early 90s when I saw a Piano Adventures book for the first time thinking, "What is this modern looking book?" Hard to believe that was 30 years ago.
Thank you for sharing!
I grew up on the Bastien series. It was the "new" series on the block in the '80s 😅 Now I use mostly Faber Piano Adventures with my students
I love it. I remember when Faber was the new series on the block in the 90s!
I still love Bastien! I'm going through the primers with my 5yo now, but we are bringing in supplemental materials as well. She is always asking me funny questions about the pictures. 😅
With the Bastien series, the Primer A and Primer B books are excellent. Especially for kids who start at a really young age. The rest of the series I actually don't like as much. With Alfred, it's the opposite. I don't particularly like the Level 1A book but the rest of the series is great. I use those with kids who are a bit older or progress quickly. Piano Adventures is great from beginning to end for any age.
I like your assessments. It's clear when a teacher has really taken the time to dive into a series before making a quick judgement. And yay for Piano Adventures 🎉
Amazing video !
Thank you so much!