Ok, I was briefly comparing a few piano methods, Alfred's music for little mozarts, John Thompson's modern course for the piano "teaching little fingers to play" and the suzuki method. I wasn't able to come up with much for the suzuki method at the store as far as teacher resources or instructional material except for 'book 1' 'book 2' etc. which didn't give me very much information on how those pieces were supposed to be taught.

The book from Alfred looks like it requires a lot more parental involvement, but could be fun for younger beginners, and they'd still learn.

The John Thompson series also looked interesting, and was going in the direction I was strongly considering starting my student (3 years old) in with the first three lessons being taught by rote. From what I recall it still required parental involvement (which I definitely want, however I do not want the child completely dependent on the parent during practice times)

Do any of you have direct experience with these methods, and if so, what would you advise a beginning teacher to use with a beginning student and why?

It is my understanding that one must become a Suzuki teacher through taking training courses, so you won't find out otherwise.

I would steer clear of the John Thompson series, and personally I don't care for Alfred in general. I'm not fond of the 5 finger position methods to start.

I highly recommend My First Piano Adventures by Faber & Faber, although this is intended for children around the age of 4-6, I believe.

I normally don't teach piano at this young of an age, but there's a lot of music you can do with them, as long as you make it multisensory and not a lot of time on the bench. However, since you are not familiar with methods to teach at this age, I would be hesitant to take a student until you have figured out what developmental stages children of this age are going through and make a thorough examination of the available methods, as well as creating your own. I know you have to start somewhere with everything, but you'll really have to do your homework and have a distinct plan of what you will teach them, when, and how. Children of this age will generally not sit still for long.

At 3y/o, you do not necessary need a book. I would even venture to say, most 3y/o would not benefit from using a book if a parent is not there to hand-hold. I typically start out with having my students at that age copy easy tunes that I play (Twinkle Twinkle, Mary Had a Little Lamb, etc) and clapping beats. Depending on the pace, I then start diving into books and supplement with my own teachings.

I ADORE Teaching Little Fingers and highly recommended it. Most people I know who had used this book also fondly remember playing the pieces within the book. The rest of the JT books are not as "fun" but other method books do not teach the extra concepts that can be found in the JT books IMO. In my experience, my students also learn much faster and more solidly with the JT books. However, each piece takes longer and if a student/parent is concerned about the rate of "passing" a piece, this would not be the series to use.

From my extremely unscientific observation from my students and transfer students I've had (please don't flame me =P):
Faber & Faber is used by or creates "childish" students without a solid foundation
Alfred is used by or creates "average" students and the ones any less quit
JT/Suzuki is used by or creates serious students and the others quit from "too much work"

With pre-schoolers let them do their own drawings of music symbols and staffs and clefs.

Writing letters and numbers and reading method books is almost not possible. And it takes too long.

Be creative with them. Their minds will store what you say and do. So demonstrate concepts in aural, visual, and tactile modes to assure that everyone gets what you are teaching.

You want to store their lessons in their brains where they will remain and be retrieved as needed.

Be colorful, color coding for specific things helps.

You can give drumming and finger tapping tasks for putting things into place for the future.

You can do co-ordination excercises for Left/Right/Together combinations - simply L R T on the page.


Black key fingering (preparing for scales later - and setting up the prescribed fingering)

234 23 234 23 (RH)
UUU UU UUU UU
432 32 432 32 (LH)

|__|__|__|__| (4 white keys have 3 black keys)


|__|__|__| (3 white keys have 2 black keys)

Etc....

Betty

Since looking at the john thompson's book, I thought of a few exercises and I wanted to see what you guys think about use with a 3 year old.

One is a bit more simple, and doesn't require any props except the piano. The first lesson in the book is called "stepping up" and I was going to have her learn to sing the song first, then as the exercise to give her the tactile experience at the keyboard would be to have her hand on the keys, and instruct her to press the keys that mine do while I have one hand on top of hers or an octave apart.

The other is the same except that the tactile experience has her going from one note to another on a large drawn keyboard on the floor as the note changes, taking a step with each new note, which I think would work since there aren't really going to be any skips.

Of course in practice these will each be more complex than explained here, but what do you think of the basic ideas of teaching a song by rote to a younger beginner? I have other ideas in mind but I figured these are a little more developed (though I haven't explained them in detail). Anyway, what are some exercises you do with your younger students?

What??????!!!!!!!

My best transfer student ever used Faber/Faber. I used it for a while before I stopped taking really young students. From what I have seen and read, Faber/Faber know what they are talking about. I just attended their workshop at our teachers' convention today, and it was fascinating to watch video clips of how Nancy Faber interacts with her students!! And I can't stop praising its Gold Star Performance books (Primer, A, 2A, and 2B).

There is a local music school that relies on Alfred, and it has been breeding hordes of uninterested students. But I can't blame the method alone; the teacher is to blame, also.

No, no, I'm not flaming you. Just sharing some personal experience.

I also love and highly recommend the Faber and Faber My First Piano Adventures series. The little ones just love it! Great mix of pieces with play-along accompaniments and activities; very nice pacing of concept introduction with lots of reinforcement.

I think you'd probably want to have your hand on top or have the student copy exactly what you are doing. Playing an octave apart can be very confusing. I also have my students look at different pieces and tell me if the notes goes "up" or down." Gage how your student responds and activities you use for students a little older may even work. I do not believe there is anything wrong with teaching a piece by rote as long as the student knows that this isn't going keep happening forever, that they would eventually need to learn XYZ.

I do not stay away from any particular method. Every method can work if the teacher is willing to work with it and bring in extra materials. Those just happen to be my extremely unscientific observations with the students I've had =).

On a side note, I just heard from a student, whose former teacher used a mixture of methods and exercises, that she didn't understand half the "markings" in a piece she was learning. Huh? "Oh, we just ignored those things." Couldn't stop laughing...