Piano Lesson Book: Complete Level 1, for the Later Beginner Paperback – August 1, 1983

Love it

I have been a piano teacher for about 30 years. I am familiar with John W. Schaum as that is what I had grown up with, along with John Thompson. When I first started teaching, I used the Bastein series, but was unimpressed with the songs. Another piano teacher turned me on to the Alfred's series, and I have used it ever since. I loved it and more importantly, my students love it. They go home from their very first lesson, able to play a couple of songs. It starts them off on the black keys to get them use to looking at the sets of 2 and 3 black keys. This helps them later when they begin learning to locate the different white keys. They always return the next week very excited. Parents are always impressed by our end-of-the-year recital by the songs they hear the kids playing from the beginners to the advanced students.I was curious as to why some people rated this book/series 3 stars and below. Someone thought that you could learn everything from just this book, and you could, but you don't get enough practice with the new concepts that are being taught. We use all 4 books: Lesson, Technic, Theory, Recital. When they say "complete" what they mean is that it has combined level 1a and 1b into one book. For young children, ages 5-7 you would want to use these books. Some thought the words to the songs were silly, but I have never heard my students complain about that in all the years that I have taught. Students who have come to me from other teachers, using other methods, are thrilled when I switched them over to this series. They said that they actually enjoyed practicing. The songs are fun, lively, and pages colorful. Level two gets even better as well as each level that they will progress through. This series teaches about intervals, half-steps/whole steps, the chromatic scale, chords, long/short rhythms, different keys (first book they begin in key of c, then move to key of G) and so much more. Alfred's have filled in the gaps that other methods leave out, and has a good, logical order.I cannot say enough good about this series! I highly recommend the entire series!

I’m an adult who had four years of piano lessons as a kid, but have forgotten almost everything, and want to play again. This book is exactly what I was looking for—I don’t feel it was too childish or too advanced; I might need a few supplemental lessons with a teacher though, for a brain boost. Although it’s helpful if you’ve had some musical experience in the past, I feel you can definitely teach yourself to play and this book is a great starting point. Just ordered the second book. It’s never too late to start again!

I bought this for my musically inclined 11 year old + an inexpensive keyboard off Amazon. She's had guitar lessons for two years, taught herself to play the ukulele and just wants to play all the instruments. I still planned to get her into piano lessons someday, but thought she could work in a book until then. I am AMAZED at how she is progressing, playing with both hands, not just plucking out a song with one hand, but chords and reading those notes on the top and bottom. I don't know if this is a typical result of the book or if I should be investing more money in my future Taylor Swift, but I think this is a great book regardless.

I grew up learning from these books, and now that I teach it's been exactly the right level for my 9yo beginning student! It starts very basic and then picks up, so he whizzed through the first 15-20 pages with some prior knowledge of music, and new topics are introduced at the perfect pace for him. This would be suitable for most elementary beginning students.

I use Alfred series as a piano teacher first of all for the songs. The lyrics are clever and reinforce the lesson it is teaching. The tunes themselves are original and catchy. The method is simple and in a logical order.This particular book in the series progresses quickly thru the pre-notereading stage and gives more practice on c & g position songs. It is designed to lead to book 2. However, I find that this book equips my student to get right into Alfred's Masterworks Classics series level 1-2 which features "real" classical songs.

Relearning piano as an adult and this book has a lot of fun songs that makes practicing so much fun.

My daughter has taken an interest in piano. I didn’t want to have her take lessons unless I knew she was serious about sticking with it.We did a few introductory lessons, but she’s been taking the book out to teach herself songs! The songs are lovely and she hums them as she draws or plays outside. Well made, thoughtful, very useful lesson book!Once everything opens back up, we will be having her take lessons!