I am thinking of teaching later in the year and want to make sure I am really prepared. I am on grade 7 now but started a couple of years ago on grade 5 after a massive gap so I am not familiar with beginners repertoire. It would be great if anyone has recommendations. I have a few of the piano time books but it would be good to know which collections of pieces are good for pre-grade one stage. I am teaching an adult at the moment. I have used some of the Fanny Waterman book with her but it isn't that exciting, I have gone through it as it covers the fundamentals, but I think she would benefit from having a piece to really work on. Again a collection of pre-grade pieces would be useful, but for adults.

Any, suggestions for grades 2/3 would be useful aswell.

I have been researching and have purchased a great deal of music over the past few years. I am going through them myself to see which ones would appeal to different ages, which ones are good for different techniques etc. I just think I would be good to know of a few books which pupils could buy rather than me copying pieces and them having lots of paper.

Yes, definitely not a good idea to go copying pieces!!

There really is such a wealth of teaching material for pre grade one and it is really worth spending some time in a good music shop browsing. Here are some of my favourite tutor books:

John Schaum series, great for very young beginners
John Thompson, again good for the youngest ones
Michael Aaron series. Very old fashioned but my students love it!
Classic Piano course - Carol Barratt, teenage and adult beginners

I also use the Upgrade series - Pam Wedgewood. Lots of good pre grade one pieces in the first book.

Tutor books are a really good place to start as they form a basis for your teaching and you will know that important areas are covered. In my opinion it is crucial though, when using such approaches, that you also very much use your instinct, being careful not to just plough through the book!

I use tutor books up to grade one, and most of my students have two or three of these, then they play from collections such as Classics to Moderns, Keyboard Anthology and Norton's 'Microjazz' and other single composer collections such as Bartok's 'For Children'. I think it is important to ensure the student has a varied programme to gain experience in playing in all styles as much as possible.

Hope some of this is helpful - good luck!

Lots of good stuff out there like has been said. Personally i use the Kenneth Baker Complete PIano player books and merge theory work and scales in with it. I find it useful to write out basic notes too to get the reading without letter names next to them. By the time this has been mastered they are onto book 2 where the letter names have already vanished from the books. Plus the pieces are quite repetitive and the students seem to know them

My big advice though is avoid the Pauline Hall books. I know there are many who support it but i think it covers too much too quickly without the child (presuming your teaching a child) completely understanding what it is they are doing.

I use Tunes for Ten and More Tunes for Ten a lot with the very beginners but my problem with them is there is not enough work for developing the LH and simple co-ordinating LH with RH. I often resort to turning the books up-side down to create left hand work by reading the notes across the page from right to left. At least the children have a giggle doing that However, I properly resolve the issue by always using another tutor alongside TFT and MTF and often dovetail these two with the Green Schaum Pre A which is a very well balanced tutor book. The Schaum drawback is lack of familiar tunes which is where the TFT books win.

I will say though I have shelved the Piano Time 1, 2, and 3 tutors by Hall since the re-vamp. I have one child on Piano Time 2 at the moment who can do almost anything after a year of playing and can cope with it. I have been swapping others back on to the Red and Blue Schaum books along with some rather wonderful books 'Just for Kids....pre Grade 1 (but some tunes are harder) by someone called Sarah Walker. They are called:

The Magic Piano Book
The Princess Piano Book
The Superhero Piano Book

They are great!! (but again a supplementary 'nuts and bolts' tutor book to go with them like Schaum - and yes I use 'Piano Lesson Book One sometimes too - works really well).

Anyone else used the 'Just for Kids' books?

BB

Anyone else used the 'Just for Kids' books?

I have not come across these, BusyBee, but am off to the music shop today or tomorrow and will keep a look out. Thanks for the heads-up.

Piano Magic (books 1 and 2 - by Jane Sebba) are good at the beginner stage. Book 1 doesn't sit on the few notes next to middle C. I have a couple (one child, one adult) on Piano Time 2 at the moment - it works for some students but for others it's too much of a tome to get through, and I have to say quite a few don't find the material all that appealing. I do still use Oxford PT 1 from time to time, it does work for some - but I tend to pick and choose a bit (co-ordination comes much too soon for many children for example in my opinion).
I would never use all three of the series - pupils do like a change. Book 2 PT pieces (not tutor) is useful.

I find some of the Alfred Fun Books quite good at the post-beginner pre-grade 1 stage.

No tutor book is perfect, and it's up to us to be imaginative, surely, and 'think outside the box' (but I hadn't tried turning the book upside down ! ).

I use the piano time books as a basis and I really like them, as do my students, but I think the ideal solution is to use a variety of other books alongside them. There are so many on the market nowadays that we're spoiled for choice! I haven't heard of the Just for Kids books but will certainly have a look at them. It's so important to keep our students interested and they sound great.

I found them quite by accident in our local music shop. They are published by Faber. Well-known tunes such as Disney favourites - Bibbidy-Bobbidy, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, A Whole New World, Hedwig's Theme, Superman etc and some wonderful newly composed tunes. Also quizzes and games. All in teacher/pupil friendly arrangements that are helpful for technical development if used with another supporting tutor. Lots of practice for 6/8 time too which makes them, in my opinion, a little harder than pre-Grade One.

[quote name='BusyBee' date='Jun 12 2008, 08:49 AM' post='708208']
[quote name='maggiemay' post='708192' date='Jun 12 2008, 08:17 AM']
Anyone else used the 'Just for Kids' books?

[quote name='jenny' post='708196' date='Jun 12 2008, 08:34 AM']
I haven't heard of the Just for Kids books but will certainly have a look at them. It's so important to keep our students interested and they sound great.
[/quote]

I found them quite by accident in our local music shop. They are published by Faber. Well-known tunes such as Disney favourites - Bibbidy-Bobbidy, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, A Whole New World, Hedwig's Theme, Superman etc and some wonderful newly composed tunes. Also quizzes and games. All in teacher/pupil friendly arrangements that are helpful for technical development if used with another supporting tutor. Lots of practice for 6/8 time too which makes them, in my opinion, a little harder than pre-Grade One.
[/quote]

Have just found them at musicroom and have ordered the Superhero, (should be great for the boys) Magic and Princess books. Thanks for the recommendation!

I like the Piano Discoveries series mostly for the supplementary books though I have used the tutors too.
The children usually like the tunes in these and the Solos 'n' Stickers books have some nice stickers.
These provide me with lots of sideways learning material when it's needed. The trouble is I sometimes find it easier to order from the USA than to get them here but I generally get a few at a time for stock when I do this.
They are not known tunes but I often find that alleged well know tunes books have more in them that my students don't know or like than ones that they do. And of course any 'popular' music is out of date by the time it appears in a playable collection for beginners.

I would not avoid the Pauline Hall books - they are very good, and any tutor has its good and bad points. The whole thing about being a teacher is being able to know when to supplement. I usually lend out my old books as 'library' books if I feel a pupil needs to play something else before moving on to the next page in their own tutor book. No tutor book can possibly tick all the boxes........and a tutor which works for one pupil may not work for another. I use a number of different tutor books (Pauline Hall among them - the newer editions are better than the old). The only books I tend to avoid these days are the Alfred and the Bastien - maybe it was just me at the time, but I found the pupils relied too heavily on "hand positions" ie, if I asked them what a note was, they would say "Is it in C or G position?" and then they would put their hands on the keyboard and work out what the note was from that. I think the Faber books are better as they avoid putting certain fingers on certain notes, but then again, this worked for one of my pupils, and not for another, who got a bit confused at her fingers not having a 'home'. (She played the clarinet, so was used to certain fingerings always being certain notes.....so maybe that was why - don't really know - I'm just trying to guess.....)

I don't think we should advise other teachers to avoid certain books. As you say, what works for one student doesn't work for another and although I personally don't like the Bastien and Schaum books, I have used them when I thought they would suit the needs of a student.

Not sure that it's just playing the clarinet that is causing this problem.
I'm using Piano Adventures for the first time and the boy I'm using it with is managing ok.

On the other hand I'm teaching a girl who I think would have struggled with using different fingers for the same notes at the start. It has been an issue that she would work out notes by fingers but we are getting past that slowly.

Wow, lots of really helpful suggestions, thanks. I have the piano time books and have been recommended upgrade, but I really wanted some other ideas so I can use different material with different pupils. I know the pupils will differ in the ways in which they learn and what they are interested so I wanted a good range.

For pupils who are coming to the end of the second "Tunes for 10 Fingers" book, and who really need a bit of extra practice with notes, I find the Chester Piano Solos book really quite useful, because it goes from being hands separately to easy hands together and is just about the right level.

I can certainly relate to this, clarinet being my first instrument and having only just started piano. I feel "all at sea" with not having a home. I presume I'll get used to it one day but at the moment it's very disorientating. I suspect I've got to overcome the ingrained notion that it's "wrong" to look at your fingers as you're playing, which of course you don't do on clarinet. At the moment I'm trying to play the piano (and moving fingers up and down the keyboard) without looking at the keys, just doing it by "feel". Is it normal to look at your hands when playing piano - sorry if this is a really silly question but at the moment I feel as if I'm "cheating" to look at my hands but I don't see how else you know where you are when you haven't got a home

I would say it's important to look at your hands from time to time - the knack, of course, is to be able to look at the music and your hands during playing!

There are times when you do need a quick look but this is mostly if you have a big jump rather than just moving around to get to the next note(s).
The thing with this is to gradually introduce moving out of a 5 finger position so that you learn the feel of where the notes are and also the various 'tricks' for moving your hands to a new position.
So though it's sometimes necessary to look I do discourage it in the early stages.
The trick with piano playing is reading by interval so you know where each note is because of the relationship to the one you just played.

I think I'm getting better at reading by interval on piano, but if I have to start in the middle of a phrase, it completely throws me because the relationship has been interrupted.

Yes, you have to take time to remind yourself where you are when that happens.
Sometimes it takes me a few seconds to work out the notes when I do that.....