Your First Piano Course

[Ledbetter]

Here's mine, used in 1965, published 1939:

 

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af194/mldbttr/image.jpeg

[joegerardi]

Oy...

 

MacFarren Scale and Arpeggio Manual for about 6 months. Then I think I went to the 2-part inventions. All Schirmers.

 

..Joe

[Outkaster]

Oy...

 

MacFarren Scale and Arpeggio Manual for about 6 months. Then I think I went to the 2-part inventions. All Schirmers.

 

..Joe

 

Me too still have them. It's amazing how many people didn't use that manual. It's a great resource.

[DMAC]

John Thompson School of Music, started it in 1960.

 

Cheers

[ElmerJFudd]

John Thompson's Teaching Little Fingers to Play.

[16251]

Deja Vu. I asked this question in a thread about a month ago.

[keyClicker]

http://mlb-s2-p.mlstatic.com/-uma-aventura-musical-na-africa-mario-mascarenhas-vol1-14552-MLB189787408_3885-O.jpg

[Reverend Rhythm]

My first book was red. That's all I remember.

[Bobadohshe]

John Thompson's Teaching Little Fingers to Play.

 

Same here! Middle C and it's near neighbors.

[Reverend Rhythm]

John Thompson's Teaching Little Fingers to Play.

That was it!

[ElmerJFudd]

Yep, and I'm about to start my daughter on it this summer at 5 like her ol' man.

[hazerkeys]

first teacher - Leila Flectcher (iirc)

second teacher - John Thompson

then I heard rock and roll and it took a sharp turn LOL

[CEB]

The David Carr Glover series was a multi textbook series. Each level had several books. 1) Piano Student (the primary textbook) 2)Piano Theory (Theory Workbook) 3) Piano Technic(skill exercises), 4) Piano Repertoire (Classical Pieces).

 

Plus there were other book options within the library. Early American Music, Jazz (later levels), Sacred Music. Every book was assigned to either Primer Level, Level One, Level Two .... etc. upto Level Six.

 

I thought it was a cool teaching series but I am the only guy I know that learned from it.

 

The core repertoire was classical. The seven theory workbooks gave me a good theory background. I held my own in college pretty easily.

 

After the Glover series it was just Classical literture and Czerny or whatever tortures the teacher decided on.

[Muad’Dib]

Took Yamaha Piano Lessons first, playing on those basic Yamaha electric pianos.

 

Then did the John Schaum piano course, and never kept up with it. Hated playing classical music. Never practiced.

 

Sheet music is like Greek too me. Never got the hang of it.

[Ledbetter]

Shoulda mentioned my piano teacher, Ken Barry of San Bernardino, CA. Terrific man and entertainer, much missed.

[cphollis]

Sorry. I had traditional piano teachers at the outset, who used John Thompson, Hanon, et. al. as was proscribed.

 

I completely blew all of it out, and was frustrated as a child. You want me to play the little dots on the page? Sure, no problem, but that wasn't what I wanted.

 

Where was the cool sounding music? Where was the linkage between what I was hearing, and what my fingers could do? Show me how to create sounds that soothe my soul, please.

 

I parted ways with traditional piano teachers at an early age as a result. Maybe I didn't find the right one for me, but I knew what I heard in my head, and all I wanted to do was to lay it down.

 

I learned what I call "headphone therapy". Cue up something you like, and learn how to play along with it. The teacher can coach you on how to do it. but it's all about following your muse.

 

Same is true today.

[allan_evett]

Ada Richter Piano Method, Book 1 - circa 1965; found it a few years back, when cleaning out my parents' basement. Next teacher moved me to the Schaum method: lesson books, the Fingerpower series, Note Spellers, etc..

[marczellm]

In Hungary there are state sponsored music schools in a lot of towns. In the capital there is one for each district. You can go to a regular school and have 1 to 4 music lessons a week in the afternoon. I went to one of these between ages 6-10 and another one at 11-18. Music teachers in these schools are required to have a university degree in musical education. They study musical pedagogy and teaching methodology at the university.

 

The teacher I had in that second school was AMAZING. AWESOME. She could maintain a perfect balance between scale exercises, Czerny etudes, baroque, classical, romantic, modern and the needs and abilities of the student, all the while keeping the piano lessons enjoyable, the student motivated, and the student's abilities exploited to the max. I played "piano four hands" type pieces with another student (who was much more hard working than me), and we also went to student music competitions with good results. The only teacher ever who could motivate me to go to competitions.

[Brad Kaenel]

John Thompson's Teaching Little Fingers to Play.

 

That was mine, too; fall of 1969

[J_tour]

My live-in uncle, at age five, six, or whatever, playing Joplin and his "big tunes," "Charleston Rag" and "Kitten on the Keys."

 

Meh, it's a wash. He wipes his a** with newspaper, and I'm still trying to play Bach after my fancy education, and he can still pick up anything with a string and play "Darktown Strutter's Ball" while singing.