Piano Programs?

[SproutMamaK]

I can play piano, but not quite at the level that I could teach on my own kids with no direction. I'm looking for a solid, basic piano program, preferably visually oriented. Piano Academy would be great if it weren't for the minor $500 cost. :001_huh: Any suggestions?

[Aludlam]

We will be starting Pianimals this school year.

[HollyinNNV]

I can play piano, but not quite at the level that I could teach on my own kids with no direction. I'm looking for a solid, basic piano program, preferably visually oriented. Piano Academy would be great if it weren't for the minor $500 cost. :001_huh: Any suggestions?

 

Love Little Mozarts!

[BatmansWife]

My top picks:

 

Pianimals

We've had this for years and years. Flo, one of the creators of it, is just great (she often throws in extras for us. Not sayin' she will for everyone).

http://pianimals.com/

 

KinderBach

Pricey, but nice. I have the whole set....but we don't use it much (I really better take it out more). It seems almost more work for me to pop the DVD in and print off the pages, I don't know why (I'd much prefer if they had an actual music book instead of having to print pages).

http://kinderbach.com/

[Dmmetler]

I'll second Little Mozarts. It's a little expensive if you get all the books, but it's much more than just piano-with the discovery book, CD, and Workbook, it's a complete music curriculum and is a LOT of fun for little ones.

[Satori]

We bought the Pianimals program. Here's hoping I can get to it this year!

[SproutMamaK]

Little Mozarts looks good, but I can't find too much info about it - is it quite hands-on? And would one of the deluxe starter kits be able to be used by two kids simultaneously?

[sarawatsonim]

We use MusIQ Homeschool for my dd5 and she loves it. It is set up so that you can have several different kids using the same program.

[Dmmetler]

Music for Little Mozarts has several components. The discovery book/CD is music listening, movement, and singing. It's helpful to have some small percussion instruments and the like (or kitchen containers) for this. The workbook is theory and written practice (color all the Cs, trace the quarter notes...) The lesson book is the actual piano method. It's all woven together into a story about various animal characters, each named after a famous composer (Except for Nina Ballerina, who introduces Tchaikovsky). The dry-erase/magnet staff board is great.

 

The Deluxe starter set would work for 2 children, but you might need to make copies of some of the discovery and workbook pages or get two of those books. Once you get past book 1, you'd buy just the books and CDs.

 

There are a lot of supplement books available, too. My DD's favorites have been the "Little Mozarts go to Church", but there's also pop songs, Christmas, Halloween, character songs for each character, a Nutcracker one for levels 3 and 4. and probably more I'm forgetting, since I don't have all of them.

[Jeanne in MN]

Another vote for Pianimals!

[Aurelia]

We used Kinderbach to start with and now use Bastien.

[Mabelen]

My 13 yo dd is using My First Piano Adventure by Faber to teach my 6 yo dd and they are both loving it! The components are the Writing Book (theory) and the Lesson Book, which has the lessons as such and comes with a CD. The Fabers have a website with a video lesson guide.