My brother and wife live 400 miles from us and have always home-schooled their three children. They were very fortunate to have recently been given a piano. My 11-year-old nephew is very excited to learn to play and has been diligently spending time each day attempting to teach himself since unfortunately, they don't have money for lessons. I know there are limits to self-teaching, but it's the only option he has available for now. Can anyone recommend a method series we could purchase for him that would be best under these circumstances? He cannot yet read music but is bright and very self-directed.

-- Linda Friede (Lfriede2@aol.com), November 30, 2002

Answers

There is a CD series called Piano Discovery by Jump Music. They have a Piano Discovery for Kids version. I believe you need an electric keyboard connected to your PC .

-- (no_name_poster@yahoo.com), December 04, 2002.

Linda,

I play like a 12 year old (I'm 48) so this may be something I can help you with. I took lessons for a year but stopped when I was 12 because we didn't have a piano...I would get to school early and stay late to practice...two years ago I bought a piano and am re-teaching myself to a point, but I know I will eventually need a human teacher.

I like the Alfred series,,,they have several levels,,,early, late beginner--- www.alfredpub.com...www.halleonard.com...you can also order music from encoremusic.com...allegromusiconline.com...amazon.com...go to yahoo's music directory...google also may have one

Also, do they live near a high school with a music dept./band or a college with a music program? There may be a student willing to teach your nephew the basics for a small fee or even in exchange for something your nephew could do for them like wash a car, etc.

Encourage him all you can, if he wants to play, he will succeed...

-- Trischa Franklin (teefrank@email,msn.com), December 05, 2002.

You could try Keyboard Capers sold by www.elijahco.com which is a homeschool curriculum company. I've not used it but it claims you can teach piano without a teacher and it's less than twenty bucks.

Linda

-- Linda McCausland (noname_poster@yahoo.com), April 29, 2003.

Well, even better than Alfred's Basic Piano Course is Piano Adventures by Faber and Faber. The reason for this is that the "Technique and Artistry" book cover so many GREAT technical and artistic skills that are essential to good playing to not only ease but for good posture, hand shape (critical for not hurting yourself in the long run) etc. It is by FAR the BEST series I've found (And I've taught A LOT) that works for every age group...there is an adult course but use the primer level first...even if it's a bit jeuvenile in the beginning...it will really lay out a good, solid foundation for him.

Good luck.

-- Grace Ferguson (g_ferguson@sympatico.ca), May 28, 2003.