Starter piano lessons

[bry's-gal]

We are being given a piano but we don't have extra money in the budget right now for lessons. I was thinking I could start to teach the basics at home. Does anyone know of a good book to do this with?

[Aurelia]

We used Kinderbach at age 4. It's not a book, but you can order different "bundles" if you can't afford the program up front, but if the children progress through 1 lesson a week, it should take 60 weeks to finish. If you want to teach yourself, Rocket Piano or Learn and Play Piano are very good courses, but you will need a different book to actually teach them. You will need to know the correct technique, because it can be very hard to remediate if they go farther along and have been playing incorrectly.

[flobee76]

Are you familiar with piano? I learned and taught from Alfred Publishing. They have some great books. I started my students with their "Level 1A", orange books.

 

and what an AWESOME blessing, to be given a PIANO!!! WOW!!! Don't forget to get it properly tuned. ;)

[bry's-gal]

I took a semester of piano in college and I have NO ear for music. I'm pretty sure I could teach basics with a good book- finger position, name of keys, name of notes and a few very simple songs. After that, I know I will have to find someone else. I also need to ask around church- I might be able to find someone who could give lessons for cheap!

 

How much do you guys pay for lessons?

[Kipling]

We bought Bastien Piano Basics for our daughter. It was recommended to us by a piano teacher - it's what he uses to teach his younger students. It goes through finger position, names of keys and notes, and has a lot of songs. They have primer books for 5-7 year olds and primer books for 7-11 year olds, depending on how old your kids are when you start them. We bought the books at a regular music store, but they can be ordered from Amazon, and they're pretty cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Young-Beginner-Primer-Bastien/dp/0849793173/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277295333&sr=1-5

[AngieW in Texas]

I'm using Alfred's Adult Piano Basics All-in-One for my 12yo and 14yo. We just started a few weeks ago.

 

My 12yo enjoys it a lot. She has been taking guitar lessons since February and asked me to start teaching her piano over the summer. I can't afford to pay for two different music lessons every week, so I'm doing the piano myself. The level 1 book that I'm using to teach her now is about as far as I learned myself.

 

My 14yo chose piano over music appreciation or art appreciation for her fine arts elective. She was sure that she wouldn't like it, but so far she has actually enjoyed it. I'm keeping it very low-key for her. Surprisingly, she has an easier time playing the left-hand portions than right-hand, despite being right-handed. We're working together for 20 minutes daily. She spends about 10 minutes practicing and then we move on to new material for about 10 minutes.