Books for keyboard beginners Options

[CWC7]

Hi, could I please have some suggestions for electronic keyboard books for beginners - younger children, teenagers and also adults.

So far, by researching online, I've found the Progressive Method, which seems geared towards youngsters but I'm not sure there are stockists selling all the electric keyboard methods in the series.

Kenneth Baker's books seem the most popular for older beginners.

Has anyone any other suggestions or can anyone recommend the above books too from using them in their own teaching practice?

All replies appreciated.

Thanks

[hammer action]

For older beginners i've used the Complete Keyboard Player series for years and found them to be fine. For young kids though, there's really not much choice. I don't like the Progressive Method books at all, and having used them with three of my young keyboard learners in the past, neither have they! I've ended up writing out tunes for them and teaching them that way which has worked. The drawings in the Prog books have put kids off, and although they look colourful and fun etc, i find them very old-fashioned and boring. It's time something new was published.

[ExpressYourself]

I've used Complete Keyboard Player with adults and teenagers. The pieces get onto three chords fairly quickly and then the right hand gets pretty advanced before any further chords are introduced. What put me off was when I had my first exam wannabe. I got the Trinity Initial book and it demands a much larger number of chords. So I guess they're expecting single fingers but I'd been teaching fingered chords. Who knows. Anyway it made me look for alternative books which would lead into the exam system more smoothly.

I haven't taken anyone new on for Keyboard for some time now so these reviews are based on looking at the books but not using them.

LCM Key Tutor is slow and steady and seems well thought out. It leads onto the LCM exams but I think I prefer the repertoire in the Trinity syllabus.

Keyed Up (Nancy Litten) - I bought this because Trinity use some of her pieces as alternative pieces. I bought the teacher book which is quite cluttered. I guess the student one is clearer. But there's a lot of time at the start playing just middle C (although in duets and ensembles to make it more fun). I get the impression it's aimed at group lessons. I may be wrong.

I think if I were to start a new student on the keyboard now I would use a piano primer. The RH skills are the same for piano and keyboard so the best piano book would be great. I use the Piano Adventures and it encourages two handed playing early on with the tune passing between the hands. Whether this is a good idea or not I don't know. Clearly it's not required for Keyboard but it might be a worthwhile preparatory exercise. Plus you're keeping the student's options open regarding progression to keyboard or piano.

But parallel to the primer you could start some chord work (as you would with pentascales) and possibly even use them to harmonise the pieces in the piano book. Then when you move to Keyboard both hands are functioning well.

Also you could use rhythms on the keyboard in the same way you might use a metronome. Because I think playing in time with the rhythm is one of the hardest keyboard skills. And not one a pianist would necessarily be developing.

Finally, another option for keyboard is to check out the Trinity Sight Reading book. It starts with just RH only with no rhythm. But you could then introduce them with rhythm. Then they suggest SF chords with rhythm or fingered chords without. But you could do any combination of the above just as you would to learn songs in the first place. It would just go much slower than CKP for example. The main problem with this is that there aren't enough examples to keep a student entertained unless they were picking it up really well.

I'll be interested to see what other teachers have found useful.

[Louise H]

I've used the Progressive for Young Beginners with Y2s at school but supplemented with quite a lot of other pieces - the Progressive just introduces too many skips/intervals too quickly which young children can't get their fingers round. I used 5 note scales/exercises as well as other songs which have more next door notes and the odd skip. I tried an alternative approach with year 2 beginners a couple of years ago and used my own material, simple songs and exercises which worked reasonably well but I found it quite hard to keep finding new material. They went on to the red Keyed Up book by Nancy Litten.

The Nancy Litten Keyed Up books are, I think, designed to be used either with groups or individuals but the first book (blue one) particularly is much more group focused and the pupil is expected to play a lot of middle C parts accompanying the teacher play the tune! I tried this with a young beginner who actually did quite well with it and I chose which pieces were more appropriate to work with for that pupil - unfortunately he only had a term of lessons so I haven't used it since. I've had more success with the next (red) book but have generally skipped the ensemble pieces as I have used it with individual pupils and there is only one keyboard at the school. The ensemble pieces rely on the teacher having their own keyboard.

I've found Andrew Eales Keyquest books quite good for 10 yr olds + and used it most recently with a 13 year old until he decided to switch to piano. I haven't got past the first 2 books in the series though.

Another teacher recommended the Christopher Norton "Keyboards from Scratch" which I tried out with a year 5 boy (10 year old) for two terms. It didn't suit him because it went far too fast but I think with some supplementary pieces to consolidate the book, it's not bad for late primary age/teenagers and probably adults too. It comes with a CD. I would try this again.

I have used the LCM Key Tutor with one pupil who was struggling to read notes and the early exercises are very good and logical. It was the right level for the pupil concerned although she didn't progress very quickly as she didn't do much practice!

I do think the TG exam books - Initial/Grade 1 - expect knowledge of a wide range of chords which are not included in the early tutor books so the early exam repertoire is quite a step up from the tutor book repertoire.

I don't very often get older pupils through school - by that I mean Year 4+ beginners. I'm always getting Y2 beginners for keyboard and sadly they often stop lessons after a couple of years or so. I don't know what I do to them!! My piano pupils at school have tended to last longer....

[Pianotime]

I mainly teach piano but for my few teenage keyboard pupils I use Sarah Walker's Electronic Keyboard Basics which I find really popular.

[Louise H]

I mainly teach piano but for my few teenage keyboard pupils I use Sarah Walker's Electronic Keyboard Basics which I find really popular.

I've used these too but more as a supplement to other things.

[funkiepiano]

I do a lot of keyboard teaching in schools, with age groups 6 to GCSE, and am DESPERATE for someone to write a new book! I use the Progressive series (both young beginner and the big white book), LCM Key Tutor, Complete keyboard player and my own arrangements of chart songs using MuseScore free software. None of them are ideal, when there's such a wealth of piano material out there, but I don't want to just teach piano on the keyboard. Please someone write a new book! Also if anyone else does keyboard arrangements I'd be really interested if you could PM me to exchange ideas.

[keyquest]

I've found Andrew Eales Keyquest books quite good for 10 yr olds + and used it most recently with a 13 year old until he decided to switch to piano. I haven't got past the first 2 books in the series though.

Hi everyone...

If any of you are interested in the Keyquest books, which are suitable for keyboard Music Medals, group teaching, "A Common Approach", etc... you can not only find out more about them here:

http://www.keyquestmusic.com/listen.html

...but also you can listen to and freely download MP3 recordings of every piece from all four books. So you can get a very good idea about what to expect musically from the series. And your pupils can use these MP3 downloads too, as an aid to their learning.

Any questions, let me know, and I hope this helps :-)