Customer Reviews
Good tutor book but not the best - By: R. Duncan, 03 Oct 2008 
I'm a piano teacher & have used this book with nearly 100 pupils now- it is certainly a lot better than Piano Time & 10 little fingers as it gets started with treble & bass clefs immediately & is therefore nowhere near as confusing as the books mentioned above.
However, following the reviews mentioned below, the presence of so many American tunes isn't great & the actual content of the book isn't at alll different to the original 1955 version.
Book 2 of the same series is ok. The quality of the teaching is good but the material itself isn't of the same standard.
I solely use Chester's Easiest Piano Course now.
A good start - By: Mary, 02 May 2007 I use this with my pupils along with books by John Schaum & Barnaby Byron. My only criticism is that there are loads of American tunes in it that are not relevant to Europeans reallly. It is better than the Shaum books though.
A fairly well structured introduction to the piano. - By: , 22 Jan 2001 My daughter (age 6) reallly liked this book, & the pieces are chosen to introduce a range of basic piano techniques. The "theory" sections are also useful at this stage.
An easy to follow first piano book for children and adults - By: , 28 Apr 1999 This first piano book is colourful, easy to follow & includes teachers accompaniments. The book is primarily aimed at children so includes some well known nursery rhymes to play & cartoon charaters to guide you through. I am an adult beginner & used the book to teach myself & found it preferable to other beginners books that were aimed at adults because of the way John Thompson's book built up my skills step by step & offered opportunities for review & practice before moving on.
My one smalll critiscm would be that some of the peices are (I think) American & having never heard of them & teaching myself I had no idea whether the (ahem) music I was making was right or wrong. If you are a parent trying to guide a child through the book you may also find this a problem. That asside, I would recommend this book for any beginner & have gone on to use the others in the series. If you reach the end of the book a reward awaits you!
