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Favorite books to learn/teach playing the piano? And keyboard question.


Cake and Pi
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I have zero experience with the piano or reading music, but I would like to teach my kids to play. (And I'd like to learn too!)  What have you used and liked?  Anything you'd recommend I steer clear of?  My guys are pre-k, k, and 2nd.

 

Also, we can't fit a piano in our home atm, so I'm looking at keyboards.  They all seem to have a different number of keys, and none with what I think is the actual number on a piano...?  Does it matter how many keys are on the keyboard I buy?

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We are loving Hoffman Academy. He has free YouTube lessons and is very chid friendly and moves at a good pace (which for me means slowly). My girls love him. He does have supplementary materials you can buy and I did but it isn't completely necessary, especially for the first several lessons, if you wanted to try it out without up front cost.

 

You will want an electric piano, not keyboard. I think they have 88 keys and the keys are weighted which makes them feel more like a piano. You could get by with a keyboard if you have to for maybe the first year or two, but after that, it will limit what you can play.

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I recommend Piano Adventures - this is the main spine that my son's piano teacher used and we loved it. It has a lot of supplemental books for each level that touches on different genres of music. Our piano teacher also used John Thompson's books and Alfred's leveled books for supplements. What I liked about Piano Adventures is that each level has pieces in all the books that are related to each other in concept and the Theory book referenced the concepts being taught in the Lesson/Performance book. For your children, you can start with "My First Piano Adventure" and then move to the higher levels. 

http://pianoadventures.com/publications/mainLibraries/pa/myfirst.html

 

 

ETA: regarding keyboards, you will need 88 keys because at some point your kids will need to play scales or exercises that will span all the octaves and it does not make sense to upgrade keyboards at that time - just invest on the right size once and you will be set for a while.

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Something with 88 weighted keys and the ability to plug in a pedal (if it doesn't already have one) is ideal and will provide everything you need for the longest period of time (vs. constantly buying/renting a new keyboard)

 

I would recommend any of the method books by Jennifer Ecklund (www.pianopronto.com); you would probably want to start off with Keyboard Kick-off.  I really like her stuff because she uses real, popular songs that she's done a wonderful job at rearranging.  Also anything by Faber or Alfred would be good.  Bastien is OK; stay away from John Thompson which is best taught with by an experienced teacher.  Also, try to get a series that provides CD's so you can hear how each song is supposed to be played. 

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Thank you for the recommendations for Piano Adventures. Ds started with the primer level and is loving it so far! There is a teacher's guide available free online for that level along with videos for each lesson. It really helps for me to see the range of ability of the children in the videos so I know what to expect (ie. don't expect perfect hand curvature and raised wrists right away).

 

There is also an app available for the Piano Adventures series. You purchase each level separately. It has most of the songs from the three main books and allows the student to play either hand, both hands, or accompanied. You can change the tempo too. The app is what convinced me to buy this series.

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My dd is in 2nd grade and has been taking lessons for over a year. We started with Faber's My First Piano Adventures and with the accompanying CD, I was able to go through that book with her myself. Now that she is in the main Piano Adventures series, she takes lessons with an instructor.

 

Regarding the keyboard, we have a piano for practice here at home. Once a week, she uses a Yamaha Clavinova at her lessons in the music studio. I know its ridiculous to have a piano AND an electric piano at this amateur level but I really wish we had a Clavinova. They are great.

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