A trip down amnesia lane..., What tutor books did YOU first learn from? Options

[maggiemay]

Also a Joan Last book, the name of which I couldn't recall late last night, but which I think was Facts and Fancies.
Had some things in I really liked.

[music margaret]

Piano - Musical Gateway! (70s)

And the schaum B the Blue book etc.

[Louise H]

For piano I grew up on a diet of Joan Last and Walter Carroll judging by the collection of books I still have! Alongside this, an AB book of preparatory exercises. I also have "The Hundred book of Czerny exercises" - book 1 which probably came in a bit later since it's full of semiquavers! I definitely remember doing some Bartok Mikrokosmos 1, thinking it sounded rather weird! Still have this book too although it has seen better days.

[muzikalbadger]

For Piano Jibbidy F and ACE, and The Joy of First Year Piano

For Violin, All for Strings I think?

Both early 90's (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[muffinmonster]

The Alfred E. Roland Pianoforte Tutor. Blue cover. I can still remember every note of the first piece, which took up a whole page, including the very tricky left-hand minims in bars 9 and 10 (the rest of the left hand was semibreves).

[CJB]

Tune a Day for clarinet

School recorder book for recorder.

[Susie]

Early 1960s - I was VERY small - Mr Very First Step, followed by My Next Step!

Then history mists over, but I still have a collection of my piano books, and I think I went on to series which had a red cover - there were 3 of them. Looking back, I must have been a very assiduous practiser because I have a lot of material and the pieces all have dates and ticks on them.

[swimmyfishy]

I started piano in 1976 and was taught by my strict pre school teacher, she had striking orange hair. She used Chesters piano Course (I still have a fondness for frogs), then Hours with the Masters. (An excellent selection of baroque and classical piano music.)

[lorraineliyanage]

Early books I remember as I still have them in my library:

Two At The Piano
8 Duets (Jessie Blake)
Dozen a Day
Ministeps

And for cello, Tetratunes!

[dolce@piano]

Tune a Day for clarinet.

Can't remember the name for the piano tutor book but it was old-fashioned, soft-covered (and so got tatty very quickly) and whizzed you through in about 20 pages from learning 3 notes to playing grade 1 pieces and then finished up at about grade 2. I loved it!!!!

My mum used to buy tons of jumble sale piano music books (I owe my pretty good sight-reading skills to these books and my mother).
I remember Eleanor Franklin Pike being my favourite - the Easiest tune book of waltzes and of national airs got a lot of playing, and the easiest tune book of incidental music was a real favourite.

[mel2]

The Alfred E. Roland Pianoforte Tutor. Blue cover. I can still remember every note of the first piece, which took up a whole page, including the very tricky left-hand minims in bars 9 and 10 (the rest of the left hand was semibreves).

I started with this, too; in about 1966. I seem to recollect it was very good and I was using it for years (interspersed with other material, of course.) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif)

I think it was still available relatively recently but admit I haven't seen it for a while - probably a bit old fashioned now.

Can't remember if it had a blue cover because my teacher got me to cover it with wallpaper - something that happened to most of my school books, too.

I remember Eleanor Franklin Pike being my favourite - the Easiest tune book of waltzes and of national airs got a lot of playing, and the easiest tune book of incidental music was a real favourite.

I think I had these, too but was never sure what 'incidental music' was.

[LizzieT]

John Thompson's Teaching Little Fingers to Play

I think I used this as I remember the title but I don't remember anything about it. The other book was Invitation to the Piano (a modern tutor) by Anthony Howard, which I still have. I started in the mid 60s.

[jpiano]

John Thompson's Teaching Little Fingers to Play

I think I used this as I remember the title but I don't remember anything about it. The other book was Invitation to the Piano (a modern tutor) by Anthony Howard, which I still have. I started in the mid 60s.

I used the Howard one as well, this was 1973. Loved it and still have it.

[RoseRodent]

Recorder: Abracadabra Recorder - only odd numbered books for some reason, 1, 3 and 5.

Violin: Eta Cohen books 1 & 2 then changed to Stringsongs with grade pieces and Neil McKay's third position book. Then changed to viola where I picked up with the Suzuki book 4 as I was sharing a lesson with someone who came from Suzuki. I also owned Violin Star and Right from the Start, but then I'm a sheet music junkie even from childhood, so I owned everything - and I still have it all. My copy of Eta Cohen is coverless and curled, but I still use it for teaching today.

Piano: Everything my mum could haul home from a charity shop. In fact most of my stuff was for home organ so it had the tune and guitar tab on it, so I learned from early on to harmonise to a tune. Also had all the Eleanor Franklin Pike stuff.

[Alder]

The first 3 Schaum books (green, red, blue!) in the early 80s. Then a gap without lessons, and me going back through them by myself, and working through the next 2 until I went to hight school and started lessons again at about 12.