Piano Lessons - Book 1 | Piano Learning Book for Kids with Structured Lessons and Piano Sheets | Hal Leonard Student Piano Library

I like this book because of its gradual approach to teaching note reading. I also love the duets from the beginning which allows the student to be creative and hear a great piece at the same time.

I've been teaching kids music for over 10 years. This is my go-to. It starts with finger numbers, gives the younger students a chance to play, make music, and feel confident without being overwhelmed by a thousand new concepts. It introduces concepts at a decent pace and gets to the musical staff about halfway through the book. Certainly some of the songs can be dull but no one can afford paying royalties to make every tune a famous, relevant pop song. I think this is the best children's beginner book out there. If anyone has something better please let me know!

I've been teaching piano for years and have found a common theme among kids - they will not continue lessons if they aren't fun. While the teacher is ultimately responsible, the book plays a big part. This book comes with a CD, brings in "real notes" slowly but surely, starts on the black keys (why didn't I think of that? great for small hands) and is just plain more clever than every other book I've tried. And for $8? I tried it despite an unfavorable review, and I'm glad I did. This is a book today's kids can relate to. Five Stars.V Dublino, Virginia, USA

I'm a piano teacher and use these books for most of my young students. They learn so well from having to listen to the CD and then learning to play along with the CD. Not getting too many good comments on the new way Hal Leonard has of giving each book owner a code to get on-line because most people do not have a computer next to their piano. Nor do they want their kids using their laptops. Not a real smart idea on someone's part at Hal Leonard, but the CD's really do work well, as long as we can still have CD players.

I've always used Alfred for my beginning students but wanted to try out something new. I still prefer how Alfred presents the material but for some reason my 9 yo (who I attempted to teach from Alfred a few years ago but then stopped after a few months) has claimed thus book and is teaching herself to play from it. So I guess that is a vote for the intuitiveness of the book.

My son's piano teacher used this and it worked very well for him. I was able to learn as well. The audio portion was easy to connect to and it made it more enjoyable for my son. His teacher didn't think the technique book in the same series was necessary.

I am a piano teacher for more than 20 years and this is my favorite book to use to start someone under 13 in piano. Lots of easy songs to play and be successful with, so they can easily feel confident that they can do this! If someone wants to they can actually figure out how to play many pieces on their own with the CD or sound tracks available as well. Such a great Book!!

My son is new to piano and is easily frustrated. This set of piano books along with a good teacher got him off to a great start. They moved slowly and the pacing was very manageable. The CD accompaniment is also good, and easy to use.

The media could not be loaded.  Kids seem to like learning with this book

Ben fatto

We are using this with our 6 year old. This is a really good way for learning and at the same time picking up music theory at a gentle pace.Pieces are varied and although some need to be practiced a few times before getting the melody, which is a part of the learning process, they help to learn the coordination of both hands.Would recommend this with the other books at this level to help get a good foundation for enjoying learning the piano. We use a keyboard at the moment and it is sufficient for applying the different exercises using dynamics (forte-loud, piano-quiet, etc.) in songs, which are by the way nicely written.

This is a basic ground zero book for piano key intro and notation intro.Was a little surprised to see the cost on higher side but after going through, I'm convinced.I'm definitely going for the next.Please note that book or video is never a replacement for a teacher.

As a piano teacher of 20 years I have recently come across this book and it is without doubt the best I have found! My pupils absolutely love it and so do I!It breaks away from the usual initial learning of CDEFG right hand and then the left hand CBAGFThe clever thing is how it introduces improvisation at the same time as learning to read music. I find that doling improvisation and playing by ear alongside teaching my pupils to read music, often results in them loosing interest in practising from their piano books because why play very basic tunes when you can play more rewarding ones by ear!. This book manages to incorporate both at the same time whilst keeping the written tunes inspiring! The tunes are also far nicer than other books All the little tunes are very clearly presented, have a teacher accompaniment and a CD to use at home and the second player arrangements of the tunes are SO good. They have harmonic and rhythmic interest that I haven't seen in other books and often have an element of jazz and also some of the black note pieces are atmospheric and use the whole tone scale.Instead of the usual way of first teaching where a note is written on a stave and going through C, D, E tunes etc it introduces lots of other parameters before that which is such a good idea. The book starts with pieces on the black notes which teaches you the groupings of two and three black notes and then you get to improvise on the black notes which will always sound nice because it's the pentatonic scale. Then the book teaches you to recognise what the notes on the keyboard are, then what number each finger is, then using both hands in one piece, then some basic rhythm and simple rests and it isn't until half way through the book that the pitched notes on the stave are introduced.By this stage, a lot of the other things are learnt and so there is more brain power to learn and remember what note is what on the stave which I find is the hardest part for most people. So, therefore my pupils are learning' to read the notes much quicker than average and are whizzing through the pieces, are getting less frustrated, everything seems easier than with other books. They also love going over the old pieces because they sound so nice and are rewarding to play!i highly recommend this book and look forward to trying the next book up in the series!