Step by Step Piano Course - Book 1.: Sheet Music: 01 (Step by Step (Hal Leonard))

This book was recommended for my 7 year old granddaughter who has just started learning the piano. It is perfect for her

Excellent for introduction to playing with both hands.

easy to follow..

Fantastic book easy to follow

En inglés , básico, dirigido a niños.

Good

I have been teaching piano for over ten years now. In the beginning, I used lesson books that I grew up on myself, like the John Thompson's series. I continued to try out various lesson books, but I always felt like the lessons were cluttered and not logically ordered for beginning children. I would end up only taking bits and pieces from each lesson book that I felt were actually worthwhile in the piano studio. On the contrary, I use the Step by Step books from start to finish, Books 1-6 with nearly every student. I supplement these with other materials to mix things up from time to time, but even without that, these books can easily stand on their own as a complete manual on how to get started reading and playing piano music. Edna seems to really understand a child's mentality. The book is aptly named as the pieces slowly introduce one fundament at a time in an easily digestible natural order that doesn't overwhelm. It stays on one skill for just the right amount of emphasis before moving on, which is only one of the many ways in which the design is truly sensible. Another intelligent approach is that the pieces are short and to the point. I noticed that a key flaw in many other lesson books is the sudden introduction of a long piece or a complex concept at an inappropriate moment, which only serves to undermine children's notorious short attention spans. This book starts with pieces that only have Middle C and then slowly adds one note/finger at a time to the child's repertoire. The fingers remain in Middle C position for the book's entirety and by the end of the book, they are using all ten fingers. As another reviewer mentioned, this book doesn't waste time having students play pieces that only use numbers, but utilizes actual notes immediately. And when they're through with it, the children especially love being able to fill out the certificate at the back of the book. The only possible drawback to this series is that it's a bit old-timey and seems to represent some kind of 1950s, nuclear family, idealized aesthetic. The children generally like the illustrations, but the scenes can at times seem irrelevant to their modern lives. The drawings lack diversity, only ever showing white children, and there is definitely at least one song in the series that was inspired by Christianity and has to do with going to church. Thankfully however, this kind of morally didactic approach isn't the emphasis here, and on the whole, my students enjoy the songs about animals and benign objects like rocking chairs. Yes, the themes of songs (relayed through title, pictures, and lyrics) can be a little boring sometimes, but my students and I have really only ever hated one song, which doesn't occur until Book 3 ("Sing a Song by the Campfire"). If there is the occasional boring song, it is usually short, and thereby tolerable. So yes, this series could use some minor updating, but RIP Ms. Burnam. Instead, these books will forever be a testament to her own experience as a child learning to play the piano however disparate from our own culture they may become. I find it remarkable that they continue to be fully functional for any child decade after decade. Highly recommended!

Starts students on the grand staff immediately, but introduces concepts gradually and with a good foundation. I also use Leila Fletcher with beginners, but for struggling ones, I just have to go back and put them through this and it works better.

Beau cahier, facilite grandement les apprentissages