piano lesson books Now it's YOUR turn to be the life and soul of the party!. Click Here 👈 hey guys welcome back to my chan...
piano lesson books
Now it's YOUR turn to be the life and soul of the party!. Click Here 👈
hey guys welcome back to my channel in today's video i want to show you the best piano books for the young beginner ages five to seven don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already done so and make sure to check the notifications bell to never miss a new video so in this video today i want to talk about all the piano method books that you can use for a young beginner a starting beginner who's never had piano lessons before and in this video i'm going to cover the ones that are suitable for ages five to seven in a separate video i'm going to talk about the books for the older beginner and in a separate video i'm going to talk about the books for the adult beginner it would be way too much to cover in one video so i decided to break it down for age groups choosing a piano book for a beginner can be very very tricky since there are so many books out there and until you have tried at least a few of them there's no way to know which one's going to work best however there are a lot of things that you can consider before choosing that first book even if you haven't tried them and the choice is going to depend on your teaching style and also on the child so what i'm going to do is first of all i'm going to give an overview of the books my opinion on the pros and cons in general and what to choose for who and which are my favorite books and then i'm going to break down every single book one by one with the pros and cons there's going to be a timestamp in the description below so if you want to skip to certain books you can do that so the books i'm covering in this um video are going to be piano adventures langlang piano academy the bastian piano method the alfred's basic piano course the john thompson's easiest piano course chester's easiest piano course tunes for 10 fingers me and my piano are for its premier piano course and ho leonard's piano course or piano library i think it's gold so a lot of books now let's start with the overall verdict so based on my research the most popular books in the us are the piano adventures and alfred's basic piano course and in the uk i think the most popular book for young beginners is the joan thompson book and followed by tunes for ten fingers me and my piano and the chest book you'll see that there's a big difference between these books when you compare them to the four big american piano methods when we look at the american piano methods there's one thing common in them and that's the playing by numbers so that basically means that for the first half of the book you don't actually learn where c is where d is you don't learn about notation just rhythms and you play by knowing which finger to put on the piano and this is the the main thing that i think differentiates between the two books because the the books that i use here start on notation from lesson one this is not necessarily a bad thing i think it's just a question of what works best for you in my opinion if i have to get through at least 15 piano lessons to get to the middle of the book and that's the first time that my student is going to identify where middle c is in the staff i feel like that's a very long time without any notation now you might argue that in the first 15 lessons you might just do some finger exercises or play some songs without looking at notation by just thinking about the rhythms and singing along and making it very playful and that's a very valid reason to choose those books but i think it's not absolutely necessary it's more of a choice because in my experience all the kids whatever age they are managed to learn from the books which start on notation and the advantages that by the time you get to the 15th lesson instead of starting to learn about where middle c is you already know both octaves in the left and right hand and you can read rhythms and you can read the notation as well so that's one of my main arguments for why i'm using the more popular books in britain and the second one is the american books the piano adventures alfred's piano course and the whole leonid course they all have many many books and this can be a big pro and a bit con as well so for example if you look at the piano adventures book there is a lesson book and for each level you've got a technique book you've also got a performance book you've got a site reading book and besides that you've got lots of lots of supplementary books like song books disney books pop hits and so on technically the student is supposed to buy all four core books but if you have a 30 minute lesson with a five-year-old it's impossible to to work through four books you're lucky if you can get through one book or if it does fit into half an hour then you you're going to go at such a slow pace that it's going to take years before you get to grade one i think that's the con about having so many piano supplement books for each level but the good thing about that is that you can actually mix and match and tailor it to your own need or to the students need i absolutely adore the supplementary books for these series i always use the disney book i use the pop book i use the christmas book they have so many nice songs for each level and i don't have to spend hours and hours trying to find arrangements which are suitable for level 2 level 3 level 4. so i think the supplementary books are gold another thing to consider is how young the student is because some of these books have very large notation in them and some of them have very small ones and the other thing to consider is the pace of the book of course there are no two kids who have the same abilities and the same preferences and i think that's one of the main reasons why you should not use one single book for all of your students it's never going to fit all of them some of them are going to love it some of them are going to hate it the other main reason why you should never use one book for everybody is because if you're a piano teacher teaching 20 beginners you are going to hear the exact same songs 20 times a week it's just nice for us as well to hear different music so what i normally do is i pick two or three beginner books which i really like but they are not completely the same there's some difference between them so my favorite books when it comes to very young beginners number one is the joan thompson easiest piano course the second one i use most often is me and my piano and the third one is choose for ten fingers the similarity between these two books is they have lots of songs with words so kids who love singing are going to really enjoy these two books the german thompson i found that boys tend to like it more especially boisterous like singing so much because it has less songs with words but it has some very funky tunes so the books are similar in difficulty but they are different in style now having said that let me start on the books individually so these were my overall views on these books and now i'm going to talk about each book what are the pros and cons and what you can get in the series and then hopefully that should help you to decide which one suits you best so let's start with number one the joan thompson easiest piano course so this is my most popular piano book for young beginners despite a few cons that the book has i think all of my students really loved it and the book features these little monsters all the way through and kids really love looking at the monsters and trying to figure out what they do now as you can see the book has very big print or staves notation which is very good for the young beginner because you've got enough space to put notes in and it also makes it easier for them to read now this series consists i think of eight books but the first four are the most popular ones not many people use five six seven and eight it's a very old piano course it's been here for decades and this is the newer version it's the same songs but more updated graphics and just a nicer layout to be honest i've never used book three and book four when it comes to this i'm only using book one and book two and when i finish book two with the students i usually transfer them to a different piano method which is more engaging because what i find is that the first two books are very good to teach the basics but once you get to book three four five six it becomes extremely dry and very outdated and old-fashioned so then i tend to switch to something like piano time or piano adventures which is one of my favorites for the older beginner what i also like about this book is that it starts with hands together from lesson one and it starts with notation from lesson one and that's going to help children learn notation very quickly and coordinate the two hands in the first book you are going to learn about the basic note values and playing hands together but the disadvantage of this book is that the first book doesn't really touch at all articulation dynamics and expression marks and there is no theory book for it and there is no technique book now you've got some supplementary books which are like pop tunes and christmas tunes and also there are some worksheets inside the book and you've also got a few finger drills the songs also come with lots of very nice accompaniments so even if it's a very simple kind of boring sounding song with the accompaniment is going to sound quite nice and funky let's move on to tunes for 10 fingers this is by oxford if i'm not mistaken and by pauline hall so she has two series one is tunes for ten fingers and the other one is piano time for the older beginner now these books are very pretty inside very nice kind of soft drawings not scary at all how it works is you've got two books one and two and after that there is nothing so you have to transfer your kids to a different piano method and it unfortunately does not have any supplementary books like christmas books or tunes or theory or performance or anything like that so it's only the lesson book the book starts with some basic rhythms and then you start learning a couple of notes with the right hand and a few pages later you start learning a few notes with the left hand and then very soon you're going to be playing hands together all of the songs in this book have words so kids who love singing are going to absolutely adore it not all of the songs are very pretty but most of them are quite singable and it has lots of nursery rhymes and famous tunes as well the book unlike the john thompson introduces quavers articulation and dynamics in the very first book so it gives you a more rounded piano technique in the very first book despite the fact that you play quite a lot separate hands and of course as you could see the book starts with notation from lesson one so you don't play by numbers and you're going to learn to read music from day one now some few disadvantages of this book are that the notation is a little bit smaller than in the john thompson so it's going to be harder to read for very small children it's not impossible but it's a little bit smaller so and the pages as you can see look quite busy so there's a lot of things to distract the attention of the young beginner similarly to the joan thompson book it stays in the five finger position all the way through which i know many people think is a bad thing but it's not necessarily a bad thing because when you're a young beginner it's much easier to focus keeping your hands in the same place i know there is a big group of piano teachers who like going away from the five finger position as soon as possible and others like to stay in it i don't mind whichever system works the biggest disadvantage of this book is that it doesn't have any technical drills and it doesn't have any theory sheets at all so no supplementary books for music theory and no worksheets inside the book the next one on the list is chester's easiest piano course to be honest i haven't used this book too much and the reason is is because it's almost completely identical to the joan thompson book so whichever you use it's kind of the same outcome and the same structure same layout if you look at this book the little monsters are replaced by the frog who is teaching you all the lessons it has the same big notation and it has very similar songs and it starts with notation from lesson one so you're going to play on two staves and you're going to read notes from lesson one so the only reason why i picked up this book now is because it's a new special edition and the special edition combines the lesson book with worksheets and also technique or technical exercises so if you get this version of the chester i think it's definitely better than the um joan thompson but if you don't get the special edition then it's kind of the same thing so whichever you choose is going to be the same results this book doesn't deal with articulation staccato legato it doesn't introduce quavers in the first book however there is some dynamics in the end so you're going to learn about loud quiet and medium loud playing this book stays in the five finger position as well so if that's not something that you want then stay away from the chester easiest piano course and on the plus side it has lots of supplementary books as well there are theory books there are sight reading books technique books and tunes as well pop tunes christmas tunes and so on so lots of song books as well it's a well-rounded approach for the young beginner next one on the list is me and my piano which is again a very popular piano course in the united kingdom and i think in many other places as well and this one is a special edition which combines book one and book two because the series only has two books unfortunately there are no technical books no music theory and no sight reading books to accompany the method you've got some duet books and some super scales and some extra songs in a book but it's very very limited compared to the other methods now what i like about this book again is that it starts with notation from day one and it has very nice drawings and it introduces one note at a time now again the notation is slightly smaller than in the chester and joan thompson so might not be the best for a five-year-old or a four-year-old but it's still possible i've done it in the past and the great thing about this book is that all of the songs have words and many of them are really really pretty and children love singing them the book covers dynamics articulation and it also introduces quavers in the very first book so you get quite a lot even in the first book and it's not fast-paced a couple more cons for this book again it stays in the five finger position so if that's a con for you then don't go for it and the second thing that i didn't like so much is that there's too much separate hands playing so the first i think 10 pages is just right hand playing and then another 10 pages it's just a left hand playing and then playing hands together i don't think that's necessary because if the student comes to you for like 10 weeks then are you going to just use the right hand for 10 weeks and then just the left hand for 10 weeks that's not how piano tuition works so what i usually do when i use this book is i play one song from each section and just jump a little bit back and forth until we get to the section where it's hands together and that usually works better and then obviously we can work a little bit on both hands on each lesson the book also has nice accompaniments for the songs not so energetic but nice little accompaniments and there are also some puzzles and worksheets here and there but there's no separate music theory book next one on the list is alfred's basic piano library now i think this is probably the most popular book in the united states and also around the world it has so many things in the series you've got i think six levels and for each level you've got a lesson book you've got sight reading book you've got a theory book you've got a performance book and you've got lots of lots of supplementary books for pop songs and hits classics favorites christmas songs and so on so the choice and the material is abundant you can choose anything you want as i said asking parents to buy four books for each level might be a stretch sometimes especially if parents see that we can't get through the entire book so what i would do with these books is just pick the most important two books maybe music theory and the lesson book and then give them some extra technical work every now and then when you have the time in that 30 minute lesson if you have a longer lesson one hour lesson then you can definitely go for all four books if the parents don't mind it this book starts with a lot of playing by numbers which as i said in the intro is not a bad thing but it's not something that i enjoy doing with the kids if you do enjoy that then it's it's a lot of fun because you can play a lot of songs in the first few lessons without learning any notation at all but the accompaniments make the songs very fun and the drawings are quite cute as well the book is a little bit old-fashioned it hasn't been refreshed in a very long time it's been here for decades as well and from the middle of the book you start playing from notation and then the songs start coming and they all have words as well the first book doesn't introduce quavers but it does introduce articulation and dynamics so again it gives you a more um rounded piano knowledge even in the first primary book this book also encourages interval reading so you'll see in many of the songs in the first half of the book you are going to read the the music by looking at intervals a second third so there is a song which is full of seconds then another song which is full of thirds fourths and so on i think that's amazing because many kids try to work out each note separately when you can just follow the intervals and fix a couple of notes in the score some clue notes so i really love the interval reading approach in this book this one stays in the five finger position as well so if that's not your thing then this book is not yours again next one is going to be alfred's premier piano course which is technically the same as the other one in a very modern um and it also has a couple of improvements to the method so as i said this moves away from the five finger position you are going to move your hand and it also teaches um by intervals as you can see this book starts with playing by numbers as well and just practicing rhythms on their own and from the second half of the book you start playing from notation the drawings are quite cute and the accompaniments are really great the songs are fun and it's nicely laid out you've got quite a lot of space around there's not too much distraction for the young beginner you've got lots of lots of material for these books these are the supplementary books that you can get so for each level just like in the standard course you've got theory you've got performance you've got technique and artistry and sight reading and then you've got all the song books i think this one goes up to level 6 which is around grade 3 standard what i didn't like so much about this book besides the lots of playing by numbers is that the songs i don't find them very singable and fun they are not the traditional tunes that you are used to from other books and i know some teachers might find it a relief not to listen to those songs over and over again but when you make up random songs that don't really sound like songs you just try to put words to random notes like jumping fifths then i don't think the kids will enjoy it as much when i played through this book and tried to sing along i didn't like them so much either the songs get much better in the second and third book but i think for a very first book for a primer book for a young beginner the john thompson or me and my piano have much nicer songs than the alfred's course next one is the bastian piano method it's almost identical in structure to the alfred and the alfred premier course it has lots of lots of books for each level you've got technique you've got performance site reading and music theory and you also have a lot of supplementary books so the same kind of idea structure-wise however when you look at the book it has more of an old-school look this one hasn't been refreshed a lot in the past decades either but it's a very very popular piano method and this is actually level one it has a primer level and the songs in this one are quite nice now the primary book again starts with lots of playing by numbers and you've got one primer for the for the six seven year olds and if somebody's very young like four or five year old the primer can be broken down into two primers primer a primer b which is a lot slower paced the primer book introduces articulation dynamics and accidentals as well so it gives you quite a lot in the first book it has nice tunes nice accompaniment but it stays again in the five finger position there are no accompaniments and also the pages looked a little bit too crowded for me just like in some of the previous books i think for a very young beginner it's important that the page looks kind of clean because the more things there are to distract the attention the harder is going to be to keep them focused on the songs next one is the world famous piano adventures now i have to admit this is the only one from the american series that i use on a daily basis and that i absolutely love so it follows the same idea but in a very new modern kind of packaging so this comes in many many levels from primer all the way to level five and for each level you've got again lesson book theory performance and sight reading and you've got hundreds of song books for each level and i absolutely love the songs in those books and even if i don't teach somebody from the piano adventures lesson book i still use the supplementary books to give them songs for christmas or give them some pop tunes or other classical favorites so if you don't want to use this book definitely have a look at the supplementary books because the songs are so pretty when it comes to piano adventures what i find is that the primer book again spends way too much time on playing by numbers which i just feel like sometimes it's a waste of time because you don't get to notation until you get to like lesson 15 or less than 20. if you have a very young beginner like four or five year old they have an option where you can break down the primer book into three levels primer a b and c and that's going to be very very slow paced but if you just want to play games with small children musical games then those books are perfect for that the graphics in these books are very cute and the songs most of them are quite pretty the accompaniments are very enjoyable and this book moves away from the five finger position so even in the primer and the first book you're not going to just play in the c major five finger position you're going to move away which encourages looking at intervals and looking at notes not just finger numbers having said that i have never used the primer book with any kids because um i prefer the joan thompson and me and my piano i think the primer book songs are not very interesting compared to the songs that come in level one two three four and five um i probably is because there's less notes to work with in the primus primer book but also as i said it spends way too much time on uh playing by numbers and what i usually do is i start my students on the joan thompson or me and my piano and when they finish the second book of those series i'm going to transfer them on to piano adventures 2 or piano adventures 1b so whichever fits their abilities better so i love these books and i use them every day for the higher levels but i wouldn't use it for the primer level one more from the traditional uh series this is the whole leonard piano library from america again and this is almost completely identical in structure to the other ones the alfred and the bastion it has the same kind of book structure lesson book theory book artistry book site reading book technique book and supplementary books for songs so lots of material to choose from and it goes from book one until i think book book five and the first primer book again starts with a lot of playing by numbers but as you can see the book is laid out really well it's very big notation and not very busy pages and the kids can easily put notes into the into the notation and there's not many things that could distract them from the songs comparing it to the other american methods i think this one is a little bit slower in the primer book you don't get anything in articulation you don't get wavers you don't get dynamics and the songs are a lot easier than in the alfred or the bastion book personally i've never used this series with anybody but i did have a look at all the books i played through the songs but it just didn't seem like a good choice for me when you've got so many other great books the last one i want to talk about is the langlang piano academy now this one is probably the least popular on all platforms in the united states and in the uk as well i really wanted to have a look at this book because even the cover is just so nice the graphics in this book are amazing it's so modern and i think it really appeals to kids who like these cartoons because it's not silly drawings it's not the kind of 70s looking drawings it's animation drawings and i think kids nowadays after watching so much youtube and all these modern cartoons would prefer to see drawings like this one now the problem with this book is that i wouldn't call this a piano method this one looks like a technique book to me that i would use as a supplementary book for a beginner but if you look at this book on the very first lesson it starts with that so technical exercises very small notation no introduction whatsoever what the notes are how to play the piano or anything like that and this is the book all the way to the end so lots of lots of drills none of the songs have any words at all so you can't sing along there are a couple of um worksheets and a couple of sight reading exercises but it's definitely not a piano method for a beginner um in the sense that the other books are so you can't use this book on its own you need to get something else however the exercises in it are very good for techniques so if you use them as a supplementary book then it's going to give you very valuable skills but i wouldn't use this book in the very first few lessons of a very young beginner because it's a bit too difficult for them and it's very very dense but i really wanted to mention this book as well because it's out there and it has valuable material in it but it's just not a method book as such so that was the end of my review of piano books for young beginners i think it was very dense and i tried to say as much information about these books as i could and as you can see some of the things that are occurring to me might not necessarily be a con to you and some of the things that are an advantage to me or some of the things that i liked about these books you might not like so much my last advice again is to get at least two three methods if you have lots of beginners to make sure that you don't listen to the same songs all the time and to match the books to the students abilities and the students and personality if you have any questions about these books or things that i forgot to talk about leave them in the comments and i try to answer them and update this video in the next one i'm going to talk about the beginner books for the older beginner so 8 to 12 year olds and then i'm going to do another video which is going to be for the adult beginner because those books are very different and there is a big difficulty when choosing books for adults because there are so many on amazon now and you don't know what to go for thank you very much for watching and as always subscribe for more ...
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