Hi all,

Just recently had a query from parent wanting their child to change over from Keyboard to Piano. Pupil has recently completed Grade 1 keyboard - but the usual problem been that the pupil reads only treble clef. Obviously the main goal is to get the left hand as strong as their right hand.

have any of you any experiences in this area. What book have you used or what method/ suggestions would you have.

Hooray! Keyboard to piano! Can only be good...

I've no experience in this matter, but know plenty of people who find LH much harder than RH. Surely you just start from the very beginning. (That's a very good place to start)

There are plenty of methods available but I use the Complete Piano Player by Kenneth Baker as it starts with the left hand straight away Volume 1 has a folding keyboard guide the the bass clef listed out which you put over the piano keys

By volume 2 most of the prompts have been removed and the student can read basic two stave music

I teach electronic keyboard but after a year or so encourage pupils to create their own left hand piano accomps. Hopefully this pupil will have learnt fingered chords. Grade 1 is a good time to explain about root positions/inversions etc. Using an easy piece that they know already, I teach them the LH piano inversions and get them to play the piece, first with held left hand chords, then breaking the chords up. This doesn't solve the challenge of having to read bass clef as they usually do it by ear/counting, but it does mean they learn piano technique without having to go back to the very beginning.