John W. Schaum Piano Course: Pre-A : The Green Book

I have taught piano to children and adults for over 60 years. This is the only book I will use for starting beginners. Even when I taught adult classes for piano, this book brought about consistent success. Why? The notes are large. The pages are uncluttered with "talk." The exercises move from page to page in logical steps, not too big, not too fast. And most of all, the student can master the right hand alone and the left hand alone before the confusion of combining hands. This also means reading treble clef alone and bass clef alone before reading both clefs. Another solid feature of this book is that the answers are often at the top of the page where the student is shown what keys to use. Near the back of the book, exercises start to use two hands. Then there are six songs at the end for two hands that serve as recital type pieces. They are interesting, very melodic, and boost confidence. This book is so well constructed that a person can almost teach themselves. When my students go on vacation or miss lessons, I tell them to go back to the beginning and work their way up to the page they were playing on. This is a great review and works within minutes to put the student back on course. There are fancier beginner books and prettier piano books. But this book is an old reliable standard in which I have about 95 to 98% success with training young and old. From this they go into a book requiring two hands at once.

Delivered gently,the books were in perfect condition.

Purchased to begin piano lessons with my 5th child (age 5, recently learned to read words). Have used John Thompson's beginner books previously. (The one with the little monsters on them - books 1 and 2). Bought this because at the end of Thompson 1st grade book with other children, the jump to 2nd grade book seemed rather high, so I use Schaum's Blue book (B) for some of my kids and Thompson 2nd grade for others, depending on skill/preference. Decided to start the 5th child with both Schaum and Thompson books from the start. Great beginning lessons. Begins with learning finger numbers and 6 short melodies (copied from teacher's example playing). Learns the melodies without staff or note names. Note names added next, then staff added last. These melodies use all 5 fingers in each hand, but hands are played separately. Next song after this repetitive 6 mini-songs uses some of 5 fingers (notes middle C through E in right hand) and progresses back up. So far, we like it a lot and seemed easier to begin than Thompson, but the Thompson does a better transition of slowly explaining note values (whole, half, quarter) and position on staff. (one note value at a time, then one note at a time). Will be using both together, but this could totally be used by itself also.

Outstanding

Good

Wonderful lesson book for young beginners

I am teaching with this for the first time coupled with Teaching Little Fingers to Play with a boy for whom none of my favourite primer books was working. They work well together, and since there are fewer fingering marks, I often use it after or along with a similar lesson in the Thompson book. I am following the suggestion of a colleague who uses these two books together regularly to build good reading skills. I'm not big on the middle C approach as a rule, so no five stars, but I think it's a great fit for certain students. I think that, like math, there is no one primer book that is perfect for every beginner regardless of a teacher's abilities and since I am very big on getting kids to read music well I always look for something that helps each student succeed.

Thank you for your fast service! Item is exactly what is found in the music stores. You just saved me from going out shopping this time!

Kaliteli ve kullanışlı bir ürün

A mi me gusta este método y este libro para empezar a estudiar piano es muy bonito y entretenido. Las melodias son muy simples pero bonitas. Trabaja aspectos técnicos básicos... Están en inglés las letras de las canciones.

Great for learning the piano.

Yo no aprendí a tocar con éste método pero mi peke si. Está x terminarlo y me parece genial! Es bastante intuitivo por lo q usa muy pocas señales del número de dedo a utilizar en cada nota. Sirve para que aprendas a leer las notas, no los números. Me pareció excelente y mi peke ha mejorado mucho.

Bon cahier d'exercice, merci.