Little Piano Book: Fun, Easy, Step-By-Step, Teach-Yourself Song and Beginner Piano Guide (Book & Streaming Videos)

I have been a guitar/music teacher for at least 8 years now, and have taught students of varying age groups and skill levels. When I am teaching a beginner, I tend to use method books, such as ones by Mel Bay and Hal Leonard, which all have the student reading music right away. This is not a bad approach by any means, because plenty of students learn their instrument just fine this way. However, I find that certain students become easily overwhelmed by this approach, so much so that it impedes their desire to learn their instrument. Eventually, for those students, I have to get away from the book and just teach them how to play songs using more practical ways, such as tab, pictures, or just plain showing them how. This is why I appreciate a book like Damon Ferrante’s. Instead of thrusting the reader into the world of music notation, he begins by simply teaching the keys and finger numbers without any notation in the beginning chapters. This may seem like the cheap way out to some, but it actually proves most effective when one suspends their preconceived notions and progresses through the book. Though he does not start with reading music, he progressively leads to it by first allowing the student to establish a basic knowledge and feel for the instrument so they have something tangible with which to learn music notation. The book’s easy-to-read layout proves to be most effective as each lesson is only a page long and gets straight to the point. There are eight chapters altogether with several lessons per chapter focusing first on each hand separately, then eventually combining the two. For instance, the first chapter teaches the right hand, the number of its fingers, and where it should be placed in relation to middle C. The second chapter then delves into the left hand with practically all the same lessons as for the right hand, leading into chapter 3, which finally combines the two. As the student progresses through the book, he is slowly introduced to certain concepts in music notation, such as meter, time signature, and the clefs: first the treble clef (the right hand), then the bass clef (the left hand), and finally the grand staff (both hands). The exercises attached to each lesson prove challenging without overloading the student. Unlike most method books, the exercises don’t stretch out to two or three more pages per lesson, but are just enough to capture the idea of each lesson while also realizing that students don’t often require several pages worth of exercises. By chapter 8, the student will have a reasonable amount learned in preparation for the next phase of their musical journey. They will have a working knowledge of how to play with both the right and left hands as well as be able to effectively sight read at a beginner level. I would highly recommend this book, especially if you are the type of person that needs a slower progression as far as music reading goes, or you just want to learn how to play first. It is truly a book that makes it easy for anyone to learn piano, and leaves no room for excuses. The only thing holding the student back from progress as a pianist/musician is his/her own discipline to continue in the book.-Jonathan

I think this book was very helpful in learning some new things about playing the piano. As a kid, I had a few lessons, but I never really got the hang of playing the piano. Now that I'm older, one thing I regret is not sticking with it! This book built an awesome foundation for me to play piano again, and it taught me things that i didn't learn the first time around.The chapter on bass clef was the most helpful for me. I had the hardest time learning how to use my left hand and also how to read music in bass clef, but this book had some really great ways to remember the note names and positions. I found that this chapter (and the chapter on chords) in particular, took a natural, easy-to-follow spin on a subject that was very hard for me to grasp without the Little Piano Book. It also covered a lot of material, so whichever subject may be hard for you (or whoever is using the Little Piano Book) there will be a full lesson - or maybe chapter - devoted to that particular subject.The lessons progressed at a moderate pace, and I never felt overwhelmed while learning even the harder stuff - and when I did reach some of the stuff that I couldn't perform correctly on my own, the YouTube videos were really helpful with practicing the tough stuff. I also liked that the Little Piano Book had songs to keep things interesting and fun. One of the great parts of this book, too, is that at the end of each chapter, he gives a few suggestions of artists and songs that feature piano music at its best. From The Fray to Lady Gaga to Adele to Bach, there is plenty of inspiration to keep on playing the piano and learning new things. I think the Little Piano Book was a great book for instruction as well as inspiration. It helped me learn many new things, and I definitely will recommend the Little Piano Book to anyone trying to learn the piano - young or old!

This book is just amazing. It simplifies the music reading process and fingering of keys so that I can understand it, and I'm a brand new beginner!This book is teaching me everything I've ever had questions about with its easy lessons. Everything from positioning of fingers, posture, the names and notes of keys, how to remember the notes of keys, how to play chords, and how to learn using my hands to play chords. You wouldn't think it off the top of your head, but it's hard to know how to position your fingers properly when you first start playing!The color codes and hints throughout the lessons have really helped me while starting out memorizing things. I always had a hard time remembering how to read music, but I've found that following the lessons in this book are helping me with remembering key and finger placement with more ease than trying to just remember A, E, B, etc, I've started using their methods for association to help me remember!So not only is this book full of great images, samples of songs, ways to play them that are easy to read, etc, but Damon has also created 10 videos to correspond to this guide. I'm a seeing helps me learn type person so seeing him actually perform the placement like in the chapters really makes it easier and helps it stick into my memory.All in all, this book is so much easier than sitting down with a regular sheet of music and trying to pound it into your head what each note is on the page. Learning is so much simpler when you can understand what you're looking at and not have to guess. That's what this whole lesson does - video and books - takes the guesswork our of learning.Thank you!!!

Based on the reviews I was expecting a lot more content. There really isn't much in this. It would a good introduction in some bigger book but never gets past single note melody lines with very very little left hand movement. And as usual songs like "Michael Row the boar ashore" Quite expensive for a very short kindle book with not much content.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book - but I was impressed within the first few pages!The explanations are concise and easy to follow. The author uses a great mixture of visual guides and bite-sized lessons.It's amazing how much info is crammed into these pages.

As a self-taught guitar player I found this book very easy to read. I've always been interested in learning to play piano, but was never able to get in to it because so many books seems to overcomplicate things.This book was really easy to get into, and it was a smooth transition for me as a guitar player. I also found the videos as a great supplement to help with learning process as they are easy to follow along and understand. If you have trouble with learning to play piano then I suggest you to try this book.

really easy to follow this and no fears if you can't read music cas it goes through that too! some songs you'll know and some you won't but just as good as teaching can get without the teacher

As a complete novice , I find this book very easy to understand, give it a try, its not complicated like some are.