Customer Reviews

Bastien Piano Basics: Piano Primer Level (Primer Level, WP 200)

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

 

 

This is one of many books in a series for the 7-11 year old beginner. My daughter just started lessons, and her teacher required us to buy all the books in the series. There are 5 levels; this is one from the first level to be used along with Theory WP205, Performance WP210, and Technic WP 215. These books are half size, this one being 63 pages of very basic kid songs(such as Skip To My Lou). The advantage that I see to these particular books is that thay are very self explanatory, along with pictures of how to hold the hands, etc. and would enable a parent to teach piano and reading music, etc. without prior knowledge or without the expensive piano teacher. The disadvantages that I see are that these books are not particularly creative( is it possible to be creative at this stage of learning the basics?) and that it looks like we will be through this 1st series within a month. With 4 to 5 new books in each series this could be a tidy little financial investment. Also, much as I love Amazon, the books were the same price at my local music store minus the special order fee, because they were already in stock. By the way, my 9 year old says she likes the books a lot.

My 4 year old started this book 3 weeks ago and LOVES it. She wants to practice throughout the day with no prompting from me, and wants to try ALL the pieces. The progression from basic fingering (starting with the black keys) up to sight reading on a staff is really well done. I must say, the illustrations are silly, but perfect for little kids who are overwhelmed by the starkness of a Suzuki book! I don't play the piano myself, but have been able to keep up with my daughter just fine as we learn together. I highly recommend this book!

The books in these series are the best on the market. After taking piano lessons for 8 years from these books and now teaching piano students from these books as well, there isn't any series of piano techniques book that comes close to this series. Concepts are logically introduced and age appropriate, excersices are fun and a great review of learned skills and the illustrations really keep the little bitties interest (in what could be a very boring lesson!). Also if you are helping your child and have never played piano before you can follow along at home, unlike some other piano books they are easy to follow no matter what skill level. I HIGHLY recommend the entire series!

I recently found my Technic book, from way back in 1989 when I was just a beginning piano player. I have been teaching my 8 year old and 4 year old daughters from these books, and they are still as easy to teach with and learn from, as they ever where. I highly recommend this series.

My son is taking Piano lessons and this is his starting book to follow. Easy to understand. Makes sense. We love it.

Pages 31 - 34 were missing in this book which happened to be pretty crucial pages in regard to the proper sequence of skills needed to be learned by my son. This was a disappointment and not easily rectified without losing time and money.