Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Has anyone used Leila Fletcher method?

One of my daughters has been using Leila Fletcher method with her piano teacher. She progressed very well the first 2-3 years but I'm afraid the last 1-2 years have been slow to make a lot of progress. The books take forever to finish.

I don't see Fletcher mentioned on this forum and was wondering what peoples thoughts are on this method (pros and/or cons). I am sensing it may be outdated and is not one of the top methods people recommend anymore these days?

All methods depend for their success on how they are taught. I have used Leila Fletcher Book One and Book Two. I use many of the pieces in Book One and 50% of the pieces in Book Two. It is not outdated and continues to sell. I find the tunes very musical and memorable. However, you need other books in addition to Leila Fletcher to get a balanced approach. And the teacher needs to know the purpose of each piece and how to achieve the maximum from each piece.

You might speak to your teacher about her progress.

The Fletcher books are collection of pieces from different composers at different difficulty levels, nothing wrong with that.

As Candywoman already said, I'd check with your teacher about this apparent slowing down and double check your daughter practice, as you move forward in learning the piano, the time spent at the piano need to increase too... an absolute beginner might get away with 15/20 minutes every day... but as you progress 1 to 2 hours become more common.

Again, check with the teacher.

Thanks for your input CandyWoman and Ataru074. It's good to know some people still use Fletcher and its not necessarily outdated. (Her teacher did use a fair amount of supplemental material too).

My daughter is currently early on in book 3. However it looks like this book only has classical pieces and does not seem to have much "lesson" side-blurbs. Also the last pieces in this book don't really look any more difficult than the first pieces. So that's why I wasn't sure about this book and was thinking of either switching her to another method or even just start repertoire instead at this point.

Also, as some background info, we could not continue with the current teacher we liked this year because the only 2 days she teaches are not suitable for our schedule. So I am thinking about taking over her teaching for a while until we can find another teacher, and just wanted to double check that we start off with the right material.

I don't like structured books even if I understand parents to like them because they think they have a sort of "reference". This is where you might be confused between the order of the pieces. but in the fletcher, the Chopin piece at the end of book 3 is quite harder than the beginning piece.
The lesson "side blurbs" to me has to be integrated by the teacher depending about the development of the pupil. Age matters and interest matters too... That is a level where the most important thing, for me, is to play as much as possible... theory can be integrated sooner or later but there is still time for it.

On a personal note, I think that teaching to our children or relatives is a very bad idea if goes for more than few weeks.

I have used the first two books of the Leila Fletcher series almost exclusively for ALL my students ... children as well as adults for over thirty years. I have never found better books to introduce a student to the piano. I explain to my adults that although the illustrations and titles are aimed towards children, the progression from each piece to the next is excellent. And for the most part, the music is melodic and well written ... something I do not find in the Bastien series.

BUT ... and this is an important caveat .... I use only the first two books ... with the third as a option Because I do not teach to an "exam" program such as those available in Canada and the UK ... I move my students as quickly as possible to the simple classics. I would not recommend the later books ... I do not like "arrangements" and I am not impressed with modern "dissonant" compositions which aim to "appeal" to the student. Dissonance is an acquired taste and beginners do NOT like sour notes.

For decades I have conducted my own little experiment which each new student. As soon as they are able to play the simpler Mozart or Bach pieces, I offer them a choice ... and I play a modern "trendy" piece and one of the classics. I do NOT tell them the name of the composers. The classics win by over 90% ... and I haven't seen that statistic vary in forty years.

After three years your daughter should be playing the simpler Bach or Mozart pieces. ... many of the early classics should be withint her grasp. After four or five years, she should easily handle the Clementi Sonatinas and such popular pieces as Fur Elise or even the Two Part Bach Inventions. I would not subject her to any more of the graded books. Unfortunately many teachers rely much too heavily on these graded books and do not tailor their lessons to the individual student. It's easy for the teacher and satisfies the parents that their child is progressing. But I feel it is not the best way to develop the interest and talent of each child to the maximum. For me teaching is a mission ... and the goal is to enjoy the lessons, the learning and the music.

My advice is to scrap the Leila Fletcher and ask for individual pieces which your daughter enjoys.

So I would recommend those first two or three Leila Fletcher books very highly. Then it's time for Mozart. I have some pieces available for free download on the HappyPianoMuse .... they are written specifically for that gap between the early primers and those classics. She can listen to a clip and decide if she likes it. And there are no sour notes.

my teacher back then used books 2 up to 4 with me. fond memories, good arrangements...

I have not seen this series at all, and I evaluate hundreds of piano students every year. Perhaps in Southern California this series has gone out of favor?

I had a student transfer to me who was using this series, so I continued with it for him. I found it better than some other methods, but I'm still partial to the one I use (Music Pathways). He came to me a strong reader for his age, though, so maybe the method had something to do with it?

Thanks all. Your responses were very useful to me. It sounds like Leila Fletcher can definitely be a good method to follow, especially for the first 2 books.

My main concern was it took my daughter almost 3 years to finish the 2nd book which seemed like a very long time. But now that I think about it, it may not have been due to the method book itself being long or slow or anything (and I don't think it has anything to do with my daughter either).

I think one reason might have been because the teacher used almost as much supplemental material, now that I think about it. In the case of using a LOT of supplementary material, maybe the teacher probably should have compensated and skipped several pieces in the method book to keep progress going faster. I don't know if this is something other teachers run into and adjust accordingly? Maybe this is part of the reason why I've heard some teachers here say that just blindly following a method is not always the most optimal way to teach.

The 2nd reason progress might have slowed down I think is because of the teachers style. The teacher was very relaxed and therefore great for beginners because they feel no pressure and not rushed. However I think the teacher is not as great at making the transition to increase the pace after a couple years to help get students going though the intermediate level.

Or maybe this is all B.S. and I am just theorizing.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback on the method itself. I always find discussions about the different methods very interesting.

My clueless opinion is that your daughter must have a solid foundation now, which sounds good. It was the right time to move on? Maybe.

I've read through the comments and an grateful for the insights.
I have played most of my life and returned the last four years now after about a 25yr break- My piano guru does take on young students but his calendar has an 18 month waiting list and I have 6 and 8 yr old granddaughters who want to play. He suggested I take them through the Liela fletcher books in the meantime. With his guidance am going ahead. They are thrilled and come running up to the front door every day after school to play piano with Grammie. It is so gratifying that they are so enthusiastic and it makes me very apprehensive that I give them good direction!
I've no experience of teaching piano just know what to watch out for. Their very different personalities are very evident and I understand it is very important to respect that. The 8 yrs old is very methodical and aims at perfection overtime - and achieves it! The longer one is all over the place with little sense of time as yet, and 'mirrors' her playing of the right and left hand ( I wonder if that's a dyslexic tendency or something that will right itself as she plays more)
I do not push them at all - just occasionally turn the page for something new if it seems right, and I let them play their favourites endlessly which I'm sure only a Grandmother would have the patience for!
I have the Red book for the older one and she is up to the one where they play two hands together for the first time, with staccato and rests..... and her sister is in the Yellow book and 'stuck' on Yankie Doodle! I gave them different books because they are so competitive and told them they would take at least a year to finish them. I would say we have had the equivalent of about 2 months now with a long break over Xmas and the holidays.
I don't have the mp3's referred to and they don't get to use the computer yet. I see reference to a companion book that suggests other pieces they can play once they've played a piece in the main book, and wonder if it's something I should get for them.
I'm glad to know that others have had success using these primers!

Hi Palmpirate Glad you are having fun with your granddaughters. Your setup sounds pretty good actually, not quite as good as lessons with the "guru" but you're under the supervision of the guru and they'll get to him within a year or two it sounds like.

Don't confuse the 8-year-old's developmental advantages for superior ability. 8-year-olds are much better with reading, and 2-hand coordination, and taking in information. 6-year-olds are slower at those things, but they are often better at paying attention to differences in sound quality, and most can easily be taught to hear that an ugly tone or an articulation error is as much of an error as a wrong note, whereas older students tend to focus on note correctness and are not as demanding with themselves regarding tone and articulation. Let the 6-year-old take her time "moving through" material, and help her play her current and old material as beautifully as she can. Use hands-apart practice a lot, not "because you can't do it hands together," but "because we want to make the melody sound as beautiful as we can." Those foundations will help her sound better when in a couple of years she's ready to zoom through new information faster.

Thank you hreichgott for your insights.
I do recognize my 8 yr old focused on 'correctness' but we have an easy going way of having her hear what the differences is when I play something she has done back to here. Asking my 6 yrs old to 'make it sound a beautiful as she can' might be a way to get through to her.
She is such a fire-fly and very quickly catches on to ideas. She even figured out that the two hands were in a contrary pattern and played them together just for fun....and conducts herself with one hand while she plays the other. A very entertaining lesson all round!
they don't have a sense of 'practice' on their own really. They come round to me everyday and I just gauge when it's time for a new snippet of info and tell them about simple theory aspects. Lille Fletcher is great at indicating when to introduce this.
My boys did a bit of Sazuki method in the beginning and I still have those books around somewhere.they went on to other things later but one of them carried on to do a music major.
I am impressed that you are doing a Partita - I listened to James Enhes play that on CBC yesterday - Incredible! Must be quite something on piano. Loved the Beethoven no 27 - I recently - 6m or more ago now, started no14 and hope to play it by the time I'm 70 which give me a good 4 yrs to go, but perhaps I can be more hopeful than that even thought the grey cells are slowing down! And that Harizanos is amazing! Good luck with you recordings.

I think the Fletcher books are very good, and I used to use them with beginners all the time. But I use them much as Happypianomuse does, not as a structured method but as a supplement to a broad range of rep.

Thanks Laguna_greg, I checked back to Happypianomuse and found her information very interesting. Happily I expect I am only filling in for a while until my grandkids can get a spot with my teacher and he can do the more formal teaching. I will be more than happy to be their 'practice coach' for as long as that lasts!