The Music Tree: A Plan for Musical Growth at the Piano : Time to Begin (Frances Clark Library for Piano Students) (Paperback)

by Frances Clark (Author), Louise Goss (Author) "Play all pieces in this unit on groups of 2 black keys..." (more)
Key Phrases: strong rhythmic pulse, three different octaves, keyboard cover, Take Off, Intervals Mark, Pumpkin Eater (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Time To Begin, the cornerstone of the Music Tree series, is a unique and highly effective approach to beginning piano instruction. Starting with off-staff notation, it leads the student to reading direction and intervals, and climaxes with the discovery o

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Summy - Birchard Inc.; Revised edition (December 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874876850
• ISBN-13: 978-0874876857
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 8.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #95,358 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ok if you can play really, really fast, January 15, 2007

By	J. Grayson Marpes (Greer, SC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Music Tree: Time To Begin: A Plan for Musical Growth at the Piano, Revised (Audio CD)

I got this cd to help my 7 year old with his practice. I was surprised at how fast the pieces were played. The accompaniment had a fun sound, but went much faster than he can play. Most songs on the cd are only about 5 seconds.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best way to learn piano, February 15, 2009

By	C. Vetter - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a music teacher, I am constantly trying to find different piano books and series. The Music Tree books are the series that I return to each time I try something new.

This book requires diligent teaching and learning. It is not the simplest piano method, but it is definitely the best. The kids learn notes, rhythms, and how to move on the piano from the very beginning.

It is an outstanding way to begin to learn piano. My piano professor, the head of the music and fine arts department at the college, highly recommends this series and uses it for his young students.

"There is no other series that better teaches kids how to move on the piano."

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Step by step but can be confusing, September 20, 2007

By	Bethany (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

I had this recommended to me as a good tool to teach beginning note-reading and I've found the book is indeed step-by-step, i.e. it spends a lot of time teaching higher and lower, and then steps and skips on the staff.

What I don't like is that it introduces an incomplete staff to start, and students are expected to read only steps and skips, going up and down. For a long time students are reading notes on one, two, or three lines, before the entire 5-line staff is shown. There is no correlation to the treble or bass clefs, the beginning note is indicated afresh for each song. I've found this to be confusing for some beginners. What is more, the actual music in this book sounds chintzy and simplistic because it revolves so much around two and three notes.

I prefer the Hal Leonard series for teaching note-reading; in presenting the clef at once it is actually simpler to read, their pages are colorful but less distracting, and Hal Leonard does a great job of using good-quality music. I think having children play a good-sounding tune is inspiring for them and keeps them more motivated than playing ditties revolving around two or three notes, as they feel they are playing actual music.