Customer Reviews

Michael Aaron Piano Course: Lessons Grade 1

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

 

 

I'm an adult piano student, who started learning with some basic knowledge already under my belt (How to read some notes, how to count time, what sharps and flats are). I found this book the perfect beginning point. Each song challenges me and teaches me new principles. After playing the songs in this book, I find the songs in other lesson books easy to play from sight. Students might also want to pick up an easier book to play for fun and relaxation, as every song in this book will challenge your abilities.

A few notes:
* I would not recommend this book to someone who is starting with no knowledge whatsoever. The Michael Aaron Primer might be more appropriate, though I haven't tried it.

* I would not recommend this book to someone trying to teach themselves. The book is intended for use with a teacher who can explain some of the techniques. (You should be learning from a teacher anyway. I don't recommend teaching yourself piano; you'll learn to do many things wrong.)

* Anyone using this book should also be using the Performance, Technic, and Theory books for your grade level.

Finally, I have deducted one star for the following reasons:
* Some of the fingerings they recommend are funky. My teacher has had to recommend better fingerings several times, with great results.

* The layout and graphics are very outdated, including a potentially offensive drawing to go with the song "Chopstick Revels".

The Michael Aaron Lessons Book 1 has been my go-to method book for years. I call it the "smart" book. Great for attentive pre-teens and for most serious teens and adult beginners, it is easily assimilated and not too childish or silly. For adults, it only takes a couple of lessons to be able to proceed to "Sandman's Lullaby" on page 15, which is usually the first challenging piece for them. Not too heavy for those who want to play for fun, and not too light for those who really want to learn something. Middle C position with all nine notes introduced by page 10. Slight change in hand position by page 13. Skips and mixed rhythm values from page 14, on. Contrary and parallel motion page 17. By page 20, sharps and flats, legato technique and slurs. An effective, rewarding and enlightening transposition exercise on page 28 that I usually expand into other keys to help adults with ear training and improvisation. For adults and those who learn fast and might become bored easily, it might be best to incorporate some fun popular material or other material of interest after a few lessons.

This method of teaching is good because they use simple notes that are large and then write the name of the note within it.
The songs are cute and simple offering information in a fun way.
I like this book. I use it to teach children under 10.

I took piano lessons when I was 12. My teacher used this book and after my first year of lesson I stopped.

15 years after I took piano lessons again. I showed my new teacher this old book and he told me it is a piece of crap.

Now I can see why I dropped my piano lessons when I was a kid: this book is too easy! Each score has full numbering for the fingers, so instead of reading the score I was reading the numbers! Moreover, the last scores have no difficulty at all.