TRIAL LESSONUncategorized
John Thompson Vs. Bastien Piano Method Books
Apr
When you have decided to start playing the piano, it is essential to have the suitable materials to grasp the basic foundation.
You will need to start finding a piano teacher and a set of good piano books for beginners. Piano method books are an essential tool for piano teachers to work with students to improve their techniques and approaches during the lesson. By 1925, the pianos rose to fame as many piano makers allowed middle-class families to buy it. At the same time, piano method books were born. The method books are a guide to help people of all skill levels to learn the piano.
Whether you are taught by a teacher, taught online, or self-taught, you will always need a method book. The book contains lesson plans to help you reach your piano playing goals. There are books on different methods from different editions, all of which have different information. Still, they are all adjacent to lessons such as piano basics, techniques, learning exercises, and music theory. It also allows you to learn more personally and at an individual pace. With a piano method book, it doesn’t cost much or time. Method books facilitate teaching to teachers, but students can track the learning process.
There are many types of books that have been published throughout the years. With so many options in the market, finding the best piano book for beginners is not always easy. Here are the two examples of the top-rated book:
Easiest Piano Course by John Thompson
This is probably one of the best books known to teach music reading for beginners.
Many beginner piano courses leave music reading as a complementary concept and will not introduce it until the student has a solid understanding of the other basic concepts. The problem is that students are learning finger positions rather than staves. This does not encourage long-term musical development and sometimes can be confusing.
At the same time, this particular book by John Thompson focuses on connecting keyboard notes to staff notes from the beginning of the book. It introduces each note one at a time, both in Treble clef and Bass Clef and supports the lessons with bright coloured illustrations and funny characters.
The book’s presentation is colourful, providing a visually engaging experience for the student. The book features little monsters through were young beginners love looking at them. There are fewer songs with lyrics in this book; however, on the other side, the songs also come with a lot of great accompaniments, so even if the song is simple, with the accompaniment, it will come out nice.
It also has big notations for everyone to read easily. However, this book does not focus on articulation, dynamics and expression marks. Also, it does not touch on other aspects of piano playing, such as piano technique and theory, though it has a few writing and reading assignments. The emphasis is on getting the students to play pieces, but it can be a bit repetitious sometimes.
James Bastien Piano Basic books
This famous book consists of many book series such as technique, performance, sight-reading, and music theory. This book is an excellent book written for students from a total beginner level. Although this book may look older than John Thompson’s book, it has an excellent presentation with colourful images that attract young students. It has no accompaniment for this method book but it has nice songs with lyrics. Introduction to stay in the five finger position and having fingerings written in all the notes throughout the books may not be very good in the long run as they may be confused when the hand positions are changed. However, it is also a good and straightforward approach for beginners to take in.
The second chapter introduces articulation, dynamics, and accidentals, which gives a lot of new information to absorb from the first book. The pace set in this book is neither too fast nor too slow, which means students will be able to take in every information while keeping track of their progress. This is very important to keep their interest while appreciating the learning process.
Conclusion
If you are looking for something to start for young beginners, one of the above mentioned methods will be the perfect good option. When looking for beginner piano method books, also remember that every child is different so are their needs and skills. You may also ask a piano teacher to recommend one. All method books have their pros and cons, and there will be no so-called ‘best method books’.