Hi everyone,

I was just interested to find out how far people go with regards to tutor books before grade 1? I use Chester's Easiest piano course and occasionally the John Thompson series and usually move on to grade 1 between books 2 and 3 (depending on how the student is progressing).

Does anybody go through the first 4 books or do you discuss dotted rhythms, semiquavers etc. as and when they arise in pieces?

This crosses over very much with a 'do you use tutor books' thread in the teachers section.

And, yes, I stop tutor books before G1 as a systematic tool, and then dip in and out of ones that I lend out (I've got a big collection) in order to introduce or reinforce new concepts.

It depends largely on the pupil and his or her response. I don't have a set way of doing things.

I don't like either of those methods and have changed tutor books to the Hal leonard series for teaching piano. The material is more interesting.
Creativity is encouraged as well as accurate reproduction of notes.
Theory is incorporated from the very start
Because of the use of backing CDs/ teacher accompaniments the idea of playing with somebody else rather than viewing the piano as a solitary occupation is introduced from the word go.
The supporting repertoire is varied and is graded to introduce the idea of teaching through repertoire from the word go.

This allows a teacher to support their piano pupils with general musicianship skills and music theory skills whilst teaching the piano. The concept of the heart-beat pulse as advocated by Zoltan Kodaly amongst others is used throught the books. The all-round pedagogical thinking that has gone into this programme and that of Randall and Nancy Faber is extremely sound and has lots of similarities to ideas that Kodaly advocated, in particular the idea that the instrumental teacher is training a musician first and foremost and a technician second. As Cyrilla will point out there is no Kodaly method, but a toolkit based on his ideas and pedagogy which again is extremely sound.

I'm all for insuring that when we as music teachers start to teach we find a method that suits our own personality, and can be tailored to each pupil, the the thinking behind it needs to be well though out. Chesters and John Thompson are not that well thought through, yet both Hal Leonard,and the Piano Adventures Series is based on sound thinking, as is the material that members of the BKA are producing.

I tried Chester and John Thompson's first piano books with a couple of 5-6 year olds but felt they progressed too fast. Like Jod I now use Hal Leonard and seem to get much better results, for a lot of the reasons Jod has already stated.