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What do you use to teach piano?


kristinannie
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I am wanting to start teaching my kids piano.  I thought about outsourcing it, but we already spend too much time out of the house with gymnastics and team sports.  I bought the first Suzuki book, but honestly I feel like I would need to train too much to teach Suzuki.  I'd like something that teaches a little bit of music theory along with the proper fingerings.  I'd also like something that will not be stressful for me!  I am planning on teaching my 8 and 6 year olds.  Thanks!

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Start off with the Lesson, Technique and Theory. Add performance if you want or need more review. The regular primer (purple) is good for ages about 5-10. With a older student I'd use the Later Beginner set. You can add in any supplementary books you want, but stick with those three or four core books for your main focus.

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Also, ask around. We found a piano teacher that is willing to travel to our house as we are out of school time. It is nice as she works with each for 30 minutes, which gives me 30 minutes of uninterrupted time with the other.

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We also use Faber, "My Firt Piano Adventures" -- I started the first book myself, and now we have a teacher who comes to our home. He, and a professional musician friend, who initially recommended it to me, both use the same series for other students.

 

The in-home lessons work well, each kid currently gets 20 min, so he's here for a full hour and since we can have our lessons in the morning, we're not trying to squeeze into his after-school schedule. The only downside is that we have an electric keyboard instead of a real piano (it's a good one, but still not the same), so I make sure they get some practice time on a piano at our church too.

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My dc learning piano are ds9 and dd7, and we started with Faber (all 3 books) for levels 1-4, then switched to Suzuki for the pure pleasure of the classical pieces.  I have zero Suzuki training but listening to the CDs included with the books have really helped us to be able to do Suzuki at home.  The kids still do Faber theory.  The kids each had their own separate books for lesson, technique and theory, but you could get by with sharing a lesson book, IMO.  Best prices for music books that I've found is www.sheetmusicplus, better than Amazon.

 

 

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Also, ask around. We found a piano teacher that is willing to travel to our house as we are out of school time. It is nice as she works with each for 30 minutes, which gives me 30 minutes of uninterrupted time with the other.

This. I started off trying to teach dd. I got Teaching Little Fingers to Play, the primer for John Thompson's piano course. I finally acknowledged that I just wasn't being consistent enough, so we went looking for a piano teacher and found a great one. For homeschoolers who live within a certain radius of her, she travels to their homes for lessons. It's so nice! I don't have to wrangle my two younger kids or make it a "thing" that takes us away from home. Piano teacher just shows up at the door, teaches dd a 30-minute lesson, and then we continue on with our day. Oh, and this lady is a FAR better piano teacher than I will ever be. She has been teaching for ages and TONS of students. She just knows what she's doing. Dd is having a great time!

 

*Our teacher also uses Faber's Piano Adventures. I like it much better than John Thompson's.

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Also, ask around. We found a piano teacher that is willing to travel to our house as we are out of school time. It is nice as she works with each for 30 minutes, which gives me 30 minutes of uninterrupted time with the other.

This. I started off trying to teach dd. I got Teaching Little Fingers to Play, the primer for John Thompson's piano course. I finally acknowledged that I just wasn't being consistent enough, so we went looking for a piano teacher and found a great one. For homeschoolers who live within a certain radius of her, she travels to their homes for lessons. It's so nice! I don't have to wrangle my two younger kids or make it a "thing" that takes us away from home. Piano teacher just shows up at the door, teaches dd a 30-minute lesson, and then we continue on with our day. Oh, and this lady is a FAR better piano teacher than I will ever be. She has been teaching for ages and TONS of students. She just knows what she's doing. Dd is having a great time!

 

*Our teacher also uses Faber's Piano Adventures. I like it much better than John Thompson's.

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Do you play?  I do and use Alfred's. It's what I learned on, and it's working well.  May not work if you don't play.  She did have a good understanding of some basic concepts before starting.  We're currently using the lesson and theory books.  We'll add more as needed.

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I would choose Alfred Premier over Faber because the music is better, although the Faber performance books are pretty good.  I use both methods in my studio, and  the methodology they use to teach is the same.  I like to include the performance books for my students because more practice before moving on makes a much better sight reader.  

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One more Faber question: which books could kids share and which books would they need their own?

.

 

They can share everything but the theory book. If I were doing this, actually, I'd use the lesson and technique for everybody (you could maybe pick a specific colored pencil for each child to use to mark who is on what). I'd get each child their own theory workbook, and then pick out several of the supplementary books (fun time, classical melodies, I can't remember the names of all of them) so that each child could have one book that was just for them.

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We are doing Hoffman Academy online right now.  I put our tablet right on the piano and the kids love it.  And they do it while I'm cooking dinner.  Otherwise, it's not a subject that would get touched around here.

 

Do you purchase the lesson downloads?!

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We used Faber when we did lessons at home, but when we switched to a teacher she started the kids on Alfred's. 

 

I REALLY, REALLY like the theory books in Alfred's series more than Faber's. It feels more like music theory than playing worksheet games. It's the notespeller series: 

http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Piano-Prep-Course/dp/0739008498

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Well I am sitting with literally piles of piano books and sheet music all around me as I sort through all my resources -- I needed a break and hopped on the boards here and here was this thread on the front page. What timing! lol

 

I too like the Faber Piano Adventures series. Lesson, T&A for sure, plus I really like the new(er) sightreading books they have that go with the Primer, 1, 2A, and 2B levels. The sightreading books are set up to have 5 "days" of short little songs that correlate to many of the songs in the lesson book. The premise is that they learn to look at a piece before playing, looking for starting positions, patterns, dynamics, etc., then they play it through once, repeat, done. They don't go back to it.

 

All 3 of those Faber books (lesson, t&a, sightreading) are all non-consumable. I actually rarely write in the books -- only if absolutely necessary to get them over a tough spot with timing or something, I do use little post-its though sometimes to draw attention to something, or as a reminder for the song in general. 

 

As for Faber theory, those are good too. I actually usually use a stand alone theory book after the primer or Level 1 book -- no pretty pictures, but solid theory. However, having the theory directly correlate to the lessons is certainly nice, and if the "prettiness" of Faber helps the student get it done, so much the better! lol  Of course theory books are consumable since they typically depend upon a student writing in them. 

 

Extras: there is something about sheet music that all my students LOVE! I don't know why...although I was the same way growing up. ;)  I think it just feels special. Books of music are more economical, of course, but working in some special sheet music once in a while can be very motivating. Although I will say that if you're not fairly into the piano to begin with it can be hard to "judge" what sheet music will be a good choice. But there are some sites that have one page excerpts...sometimes on the publisher sites, sometimes on music store websites...I've used that quite often with a little laptop screen set up within view so I can get a feel for the song before I buy it, see if the level is what I'm looking for (because that publisher interpretation of levels can vary between publishers), etc. 

 

One thing to keep in mind with more than one child in a family learning the same instrument.... Depending on circumstances and personality, you may need to consider using 2 different series. For example, in my family I had to do this because when the younger sibling got to a "new" song in her lesson book, she could remember what the song was supposed to sound like from hearing the older sib practicing that same piece ...so younger sib could play songs by ear without having to build up her note-reading skills as much. Playing by ear is a great thing, to be sure, but this was not what I wanted for her lesson books. I ended up bumping older sib into a different series that I thought would be a good fit for her, and kept younger sib in Faber. SO much better this way! Anyway, it's not always an issue, and spacing (of both age and ability) certainly play a role in that, but thought I'd mention it in case you notice that becoming a problem. 

 

Oh wait, one more thing! (sorry.)  I also just love the Dozen-a-Day books for warm-ups. Such a great series! There are two books before Book One though -  "mini" and "preparatory" -- if you decide to look into those. 

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I started my oldest in Bastien, and then she moved to Piano Adventures when I handed her over to a piano teacher. I also teach two brothers piano. One is in Bastien and the other Piano Adventures. I greatly prefer Piano Adventures and the way it has them moving around the keyboard more and changing positions. The only thing I don't like about it is that in the early levels, the pages look really "busy." Bastien is much easier on the eyes....at least my eyes! That's probably because Bastien doesn't move out of position in the early levels, so there's no need to add small print telling you what to do.

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