Evaluation of Alfred Piano Method Books, John Thompsons Modern Piano Course and Suzuki Piano Method

The three piano method books which will be explored and evaluated are the John Thompsons Modern Piano Course, Alfreds Basic Piano Method Books as well as the Suzuki Piano Method. All three methods have varying degrees of positive engagement towards an average piano students education as well as limitations which could conversely impede progress. John Thompsons Modern Piano Course is the most dated out of the other piano method books and was first published back in 1936 by John Thompson who was an American concert pianist and composer. This method uses the quintessential middle C approach with almost all the basic musical elements covered in the first main book. Even from the early books Thompson had carefully annotated musical expression and clear instructions on certain basic technique alongside the repertoire. This is a positive attempt to foster the childs musicality at an early age through thinking and feeling the music. The main focal point for this method focuses on teaching all musical elements through repertoire of ascending difficulty and variety. The repertoire in these books is compiled from selections of classical music that Thompson has chosen as well as his own arrangements of famous compositions with works such as Liszts Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in the Third Grade book. A positive aspect of this is that children can be exposed to these famous classical compositions quite early on in their education. From the First Grade to the Fifth Grade Thompson places emphasis on rhythm, melody, harmony as well as finger-patterns. The first book mainly stays in the fivefinger positions of C, G and F major with different musical patterns and rhythms coordinated with these positions. Extensions of fingers are also introduced one step at a time through the repertoire. In the preface of the First Grade book Thompson mentions his view of the purpose of this book to lay a clear, correct and complete foundation for piano study so that the student can THINK and FEEL musically. This is a really positive point about teaching music as it really encompasses in the end what music is really all about. Limitations of this method mostly arise from the fact that it begins students with the Middle C approach which is now largely outdated as it is an unnatural, contorted position for the hands to start with which could lead to later problems for an unknowing student. The early books in this series are also solely designed to teach a child note-reading and musical skills such as rhythm, pitch and aural and skills are therefore somewhat neglected, leaving a gap in the childs education for the teacher to fill. More complicated elements of theory are also not covered, needing the teacher

to also supplement the student with outside material. This could prove difficult for the young, inexperienced teacher. The repertoire could be seen as having a rather narrow range as ideally in this day and age there would be inclusion of more genres such as jazz or modern and popular melodies. However there is no denying the sheer longevity of John Thompsons Piano Course which many generations of young beginners have started piano from. The Alfred Basic Piano course was first published around the 1950s and has gone through several revisions. The books are co-authored by Willard A. Palmer, Morton Manus and Amanda Vick Lethco. This method is innovative in that it was one of the first to correlate the core Lesson books with other main books such as Ear Training, Recital, Technic and Theory books. This allows a much well-rounded approach to teaching as it attempts to cover most of the facets in musical education. This in turn would quite helpful for inexperienced teachers as there are clear guidelines as well as experienced teachers who can pick and choose what material they want to use. On the Alfred website they express this innovatory way of using musical materials as overlapping where they seek to introduce a musical concept and then consolidate it through similar material. Presentation is relatively appealing to the young learners eye with coloured pictures matching the subject matter of each piece. More recent updates also include a CD for the child who could essentially use it at home to listen and/or play to. The first book in the series Book 1A is unique in that it begins the student on the two groups of black notes with fingers 2-3 and then 2-3-4. There are diagrams of how to sit at the piano as well as the correct position of the hands i.e. holding a ball. By page 16 the student is able to play Old McDonalds on the black keys alongside a hearty teachers accompaniment. This is a positive aspect as it allows the student to play tunes in the early stage which they know and can sing to with the accompaniment providing an extra boost to their confidence. Book 1A deals mainly with the C and G positions with five fingers. Repertoire is mainly chosen from popular music, i.e. nursery songs or well-known melodies with a sprinkling of early classical repertoire interspersed. Each musical element has a title page of sorts and is introduced gradually. The technic books supplement the main lesson books quite well with exercises that reinforce different areas in the repertoire. Theory books take a rather traditional approach with emphasis on harmonies and chords-tonic and dominant as well as implementing a vocabulary of Italian terms and musical symbols. Limitations of this method include the fact that it has a strong emphasis on position playing as well the rather late introduction of major classical composers. The position playing can limit the students ability to develop strong reading skills due to the fivefinger limitation and create difficulty when the piece moves out of this range. The late

introduction of major composers works means that children are restricted to a narrow variety of repertoire which constricts their musical understanding. Consequently this method is probably best supplemented with other repertoire by the teacher and used more as a guideline rather than an every step of the way method for the student. The Suzuki Method originated in Japan and was conceived by Japanese violinist and pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki (1898-1998) dating from the mid-20th century. Therefore this teaching method for music actually began as a violin teaching method which branched out to other instruments such as piano. Suzuki based this method on the correlation between a childs natural language acquisition and the ability to attain a high level of musical achievement. This means that unlike other methods Suzuki begins musical education with listening/learning by ear which is then translated to the piano which is then followed by learning to read music notation. This also allows children from very young ages to join in which unlike other methods requires strong parental participation and supervision. From Book 1 melodies are taught with sol-fa rather than CDEFG. Musical phrases are taught through singing and the sol-fa method certainly encourages more musical shapes to the phrases of melodies. This method can essentially develop strong musical skills such as listening, pitch and rhythm which can be rather obsolete in the other methods mentioned. The piano Suzuki method is comprised of seven volumes. The first book begins with Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star as with the violin books and includes many folk songs and contemporary songs. As the student progresses to the second book there are early inclusions of repertoire by classical and baroque composers such as Beethoven and Bach. This is positive in introducing certain important works to students at an early stage as well as providing gratification with melodies that are pleasing to the ear. CDs can also be brought with the books to provide a demonstration of their repertoire of which students are encouraged to play along or listen to. Limitations of this method can include compromised sight-reading skills since reading skills are taught rather late and some students may become altogether too accustomed to playing by ear. This could also result in a lack of development in technique. There is also a tendency towards rote-learning in this method which could result in the student learning a great amount of repertoire that they arent emotionally ready for or arent technically capable of mastering. Overall these methods all contain varying ways of going about musical education and they all start beginners off in different ways, whether through reading or through learning by ear. There are many positive aspects which can be used to engage the student through the choices of repertoire, correlating material and presentation. However they all contain limitations which would become very apparent if the student was allowed to stay on one single method for an extended period of time. This calls

for teachers to perhaps supplement these methods with outside material or even mix them together to create a more well-rounded approach which addresses all the faculties of musical learning, whether its musical notation, pitch, rhythm and theory.