Materials & Recommended Reading

 
 

Basic Materials

There are certain materials every student learning piano will need. They include the following:

  • A manuscript paper notebook: I am picky about assignment books because they are the most important item in our lesson each week by far, so was very distraught to learn that D’Addario discontinued their line of archival staff paper, which has been my first choice for years. I will mourn the loss of their high quality 6-stave notebooks to the end, but here are some alternatives:

    • Passantino offers a very good 6-stave substitute. They also have 12 stave options for older students.

    • This listing also looks good, but only offers 10-stave so might be better for older students.

  • A metronome, preferrably mechanical: For very young students, this is not as crucial, so does not have to be an immediate buy, but for students age 8 and older, we will inevitably need a metronome at home to help the student practice playing in time. I prefer mechanical metronomes as opposed to digital. Wittner Taktell makes a good one that I use.

  • Music flashcards: Once we start reading music on the staff, flashcards will be a valuable tool for promoting fast recognition.

  • Sticker album: For younger children, having a place to hold the material reminders of their hard work in lessons and at home practicing piano is very important. Otherwise, their stickers get lost or end up in their assignment notebooks, taking up space needed for writing assignments.

Lesson Books

Method books help structure our lessons, as well as provide sight reading practice, technique and theory exercises.

  • Faber and Faber Piano Adventures: Of all the method books out there, I have found this one to be consistently excellent at adapting to most learning styles and paces. It adopts a progressive pedagogical style that doesn’t “leave out” those who struggle slightly more with reading, as some other method books do. I only utilize their Lesson Books.

  • Bastien Piano Basics - Another method, but it moves much more quickly than the Faber and has more emphasis on the staff.

  • Suzuki Piano School: Though I am not a trained Suzuki teacher, I use this method to some extent with all my students to develop the skill of learning music by ear, which is an essential and lifelong sill.

The Royal Conservatory

The United States, unfortunately, does not have a nationwide music education organization or committee which develops, oversees, and releases pedagogical resources and curriculum, but other countries certainly do. Nearby in Canada, there is The Royal Conservatory (not to be confused with The Royal School of Music in England), whose “Celebrate” book series I have found holistic and wonderful.

  • TRC Celebrate Theory Books: These are the theory books I utilize to supplement our lessons, they range from Prep Level to Level 9, covering everything from note-reading to harmonic analysis, early composition, and music history.

  • TRC Celebration Series Piano Repertoire Books: I supplement our lesson book music with repertoire from these books, because they are high quality, interesting, inclusive of many cultures, and filled with so much character that children love.

Supplemental Sight Reading Books

Usually, our work in the lesson book provides good opportunities for sight-reading. But if a student needs a little extra practice, I have had success with the book Reading Between the Lines: Building a Foundation for Strong Sight Reading.

Scale & Technical Books

I have my own methods of teaching practical and technical scales and chords, but here are two books I use to help supplement:

Recommended Reading

  • How Musical Is Man? by John Blacking

  • Nurtured by Love by Shinichi Suzuki

  • Musicking by Christopher Small — Have you ever considered all the elements involved in a single musical performance? In this book, New Zealand-born musicologist Christopher Small argues that music is not a noun, but rather, an activity which neither begins nor ends with the first note of a performance. Small makes a Marxist critique of the experience of attending a symphony orchestra, incorporating in his definition the many laborers involved which seem to have nothing to do with music at all (even the work performed by the audience!). In doing so, he lays bare some really insightful (sometimes uncomfortable) truths! Trust me when I say you’ve never read anything quite like it. An important read for getting at the heart of what it is we are experiencing when we play and hear music (in the Western classical tradition, especially) performed live.

  • Music Learning Theory for Newborn and Young Children by Edwin Gordon

  • Learning Sequences in Music by Edwin Gordon

  • The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori

  • Practicing the Piano: How Students, Parents and Teachers Can Make Practicing More Effective by Nancy Breth

  • Capturing Music: The Story of Notation by Thomas Forrest Kelly — As a piano teacher, I spend a lot of time teaching children how to read music. Understanding where this system came from should be required for every teacher of music. Why exactly did we end up with the system we use today? You’ll find the answer in this book, which reveals the gradual progression towards the linear charted system of music notation formalized in the medieval era, with all of its many strengths, as well as its many weaknesses. It’s not a perfect system, which is part of why it can be so infuriatingly difficult to learn for some, and understanding the history helps us see, and actually appreciate, its oddities.

  • The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body by Stephen Mithen

  • The Roadmap to Literacy by Janet Langley and Jennifer Militzer-Kopperl

  • The Recovery of Man in Childhood: A Study in the Educational Work of Rudolf Steiner by A.C. Harwood