Customer Reviews

All-in-One Course for Children: Lesson, Theory, Solo, Book 1 (Alfred's Basic Piano Library)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We bought this for my 7 year old daughter to begin learning piano basics at home. It is a good introductory book to expose her to the basics of theory. It has lesson pages to build on the theory presented and exercises to increase the comfort level with white and black keys and counting. It introduces these concepts before introducing letter names of the keys (on page 22). The lessons work with both hands from the beginning.
My mother, who has played piano for over 50 years, and taught piano lessons, did a study of piano lesson books for a music theory class, and recommended the Alfred books. This one puts it all together in one book in a logical sequence so we aren't juggled multiple books. It is also less expensive than buying three books (lesson, theory, and solo).

I bought this book attempting to find a good all-in-one book. I should have gone to a music store to preview it first. When I received it, I knew I didn't like it's approach and was skeptical of it. But I thought I would branch out and try my best to see if it worked for a beginner student. For me, it failed miserable. The book approaches reading music by playing only on the black keys at first and by using finger numbers to signify which note is to be played. It starts first with fingers 2,3, and 4. It also attempts to show pitch change by visual movement up and down on the page (as normal staff music does also). However, there is a lot of text to read and understand, instructing the student which hand to play with since the music is not separated onto different staves. Slowly, it transitions students to reading notes by their letters and finally finishes the book by introducing treble and bass clef.

The whole approach was extremely unintuitive for the student, who simply struggled week after week. I tried by best to teach how the book was introducing concepts, but perhaps a teacher who is used to this method can have more success. Ultimately, though, it went against much of what I believe about learning to read and play music. I switched the student to my normal method of beginning with John Schaum's Pre-A book (The Green Book)and the student began to excel within the first week of switching. He is progressing along now.

My experience is that students learn best and easiest when they are introduced to piano music as it is--notes in the treble and bass clefs, starting with the white keys with tonality centered on C (middle C). I have never had students who could not easily learn to read simple music right from the staves, and my students' joy in reading actual piano music is very visible to me.

There's the personal experience and thoughts of one teacher and musician. I give it two stars only because I know my opinion and approach are not infallible and there are probably worse music courses out there.

great book to get for a beginning student who isn't sure about continuing with piano. it includes the theory lessons and pieces to play right away so that children feel successful.

This book is a nice all-in-one. Good for an introduction and easy to teach from. Great price as well.

I am an elementary music teacher and I have just started teaching piano after school. I really like this series because it has music and theory in one book. The parents like that they only have to buy one book at a time. It's very easy to use and I think that the children enjoy it.

This is a very good beginning theory book, but there is very little actual piano for beginning students. Nearly half of the beginning of the book teaches tunes using only the black keys. The student is not exposed to the full keyboard until halfway through the book. It would have been more rewarding for the beginner if he or she could play a recognizeable melody using all the keys sooner.

Didn't really like this book. There's too much going on; it jumps from theory to music with no explanation or organization. I and my daughter's teacher abandoned it for another series. To confusing for little kids to follow.

I bought it for my daughter and I find it very helpful who is just started piano lesson, her piano teacher also find it as very perfect book.

I found this book very helpful in teaching beginning piano students! I began piano lessons on the white keys only, and I still struggle when playing songs with lots of sharps. This technique starts the students off with the black keys, so they are not intimidated by them. I have enjoyed these books, and my piano students have, too! I strongly recommend these books!

I haven't used it, it's for my niece who's teaching herself how to play. This series comes highly recommended from several friends who play and have taught piano. My niece says it's easy, I'd use it from what I see and I've only learned to play a few simple notes by ear, not reading, so it looks to be a great teaching book, either by yourself or as a supplement to teaching!