piano/keyboard teachers could you recommend something?

[ZZZen]

dd (8) is currently learning violin but she has had a keyboard for a couple of years without really doing much on it. However for some time she has started tinkering about with it. She takes her violin pieces and plays them on the keyboard etc but doesn't know which fingers go where, etc. (neither do I unfortunately)

She wants to teach herself with a book and I wondered if anyone could recommend a gradually paced, nice book for beginning children that she could progress through more or less on her own for a bit, so she gets the basics. If she seems to want to perservere, she can have proper piano lessons but right now I don't see how we could fit that and all the practice into her weekly schedule.

[ZZZen]

for example I saw Chester's piano course on amazon. Would that be any good or do I need to get something specifically for the keyboard?

[stillenacht]

I use Chesters with my pupils

Also anything by Fanny Waterman (the old uns are the best)

[ZZZen]

oh thanks very much. Do you think she could make some headway with those on her own to get herself started or do you think she'll need guidance.

Fanny Waterman eh? Will go off and have another google for that.

Stille, can I just take a piano book for keyboard do you think?

[ZZZen]

I found "Me and My Piano" (48 pages) and "Piano Playtime" Books 1 and 2 (24 pages each).

[stillenacht]

yes i would encourage your daughter to learn piano techique and not keyboard tbh (I teach both but am piano trained).

Chesters old book (I still use the one i learnt from with my pupils - unfortunately i have left it in school and need it at another school tomoro - can't remember name exactly - damn it!) is vg imo. She should be fine - it goes very gently. Some of my pupils (aged 8/9/10 and even year 7/8 at secondary) run through the book quite quickly.

[ZZZen]

OK that's great, I'll see what I can from those Thanks for your advice.

[maggiethecat]

zzzen, I've been following your threads bcos my dd is also doing violin (10mths now)and while I attend her lessons and try to follow so that I can help her I admit to not being very musical and never studied it. So advice about theory books etc is very useful. I've also noticed that she is starting to fool around with other instruments more now - keyboard which she's had since a baby and xylophone. She hasn't quite worked it out yet but I can hear her trying to 'convert' some pieces. She'll be 6 in a few months but I'd be interested to see if books will be useful to her - I'll have a look.

[ZZZen]

Maggie those books by Lina Ng which marialuisa suggested are lovely. I think your dd would happily work through them. Have a look on Amazon or someplace like that. We did "Theory Made Easy for Little Children", books one and two and I just left out the exercises on notes on the bass clef (it's not much in those two books but since they don't need that for the violin and the notes they do have include notes on the higher end in the same positions as those used with the bass clef but obviously they have other names etc, I thought it would be too confusing just yet). Too confusing for me anyway.

There were a few pages with exercises showing a few keys on a keyboard and asking the dc to name them. If you know where C and F are on a keyboard (any C and F), they can do that, i.e. C is one white key to the left of where you have two black keys together

If she spends more time on the keyboard, I thought we could go back at some stage and do the bass clef. Those books are really not at all intimidating and the page with sticker exercises went down really well. They practice names of notes, lengths of notes, time signatures like 2/4, 3/4 and pause lengths. I think that was about it for books 1 and 2. IMO they straightened some things out for dd which she in theory knows but in reality was not that sure on, I'd 6 is just right age-wise for those books. They're pretty cheap too.

I ordered that CHester's Easiest Piano Course book 1 I mentioned on this thread for piano / keyboard which is also on Amazon and I'll let you know when I get it if dd (well if I really) could cope with it!

[ZZZen]

If you find any other good books Maggie, please let me know!

[maggiethecat]

thanks ZZZ, will do.

thought I'd share this with you - searched youtube for ode to joy - violin bcos dd has just started to play this and came across girl, ellie choi, playing paganini at age 5 -it was unreal!!

there was a previous thread when faqingly (i think is her name, whose son is doing violin ) said her son was jaw droppingly amazed to see menhudin playing paganini on youtube - i think my jaw went through the floor at what this 5 yr old did.

[ZZZen]

Hi there Maggie, haven't been online for a while (travelling).

How sweet your little 6 year old playing Ode to Joy on one of those tiny little violins. Does she have an 1/8?

The piano course I ordered still hasn't arrived so can't comment on that and neither have the theory books 1-3 so we have not been doing that much what with travelling etc and anyway I am shying away from tackling the bass clef.

Yes, you can spend TOO much time on youtube I know. I watched Chariots of Fire the other week and then I watched it again. Dd loves, absolutely loves Maxim Vengerov. I'm not sure why exactly but I think because he has a kind of verve when he plays which is her kind of style, he leans way back and is quite energetic. He is also quite sweet when you watch his master classes on youtube.

My dd is half-Russian and I think you see it when she plays the violin. Mind you I am not saying she plays great or anything but it is soemthing about the WAY she does it which strikes me as quite unenglish. I don't see that side of her much in everyday life but I see it when she does music lessons or gambols about in weird dance moves (disclaimer I don't believe this is a Russian habit btw but there is soemthing very foreign looking about her when she does her weird prancing about).

[maggiethecat]

ZZZen hope you had good time away.

I have not got around to ordering books yet. I think I may be a bit reluctant at the moment bcos dd does not really listen to advice I give her about music (perhaps rightly so!) and will only take instruction from her teacher.

I've noticed for example that she's holding her bow a few inches from the end (she seems to be progressing down the length) but she will not change her hold and I mean to mention this to her teacher as she'll soon be in the middle!

She's on a 1/10th at the moment - she started on a 1/16 I believe and she is producing decent sound - I can actually recognise Ode to Joy.

It's funny to watch her too sometimes as she'll go into this wild frenzy of playing made up madness and then smilingly end with a flourish!

[ZZZen]

Is she learning Suzuki style Maggie or with notes?

I am getting slightly more confident that I recognise when things like bow hold and posture are right or not but I never really know for sure. If I think sómething isn't looking right, I do ask the teacher, is it alright for her to be leaning her head like that? I've asked her a couple of times and she has said "Oh no, no she shouldn't do that, it has to be like this" etc but I'm wondering if it was so bad, why she didn't pick up on it herself in the first place. I suppose she was thinking about fingering or something else at teh time.

I did find one book on amazon specially for the violin, just black and white and quite plain. It looked ok Music Theory for VIolin or soemthing like that but the reviews I read said it moves very slowly. That might be good though, just practising reading and writing the notes over and over and over very slowly. Dd liked the colours and the stickers in the other books though. Suppose she could put a colourful sticker in every 5 pages or so and that might motivate her to work through the book.

We will stick with those ones from Nina Lg since we ordered them. We are not back yet, arrive on Friday so I'll see if anything I ordered arrived.

How's the Ode to Joy coming along. I have been humming that to myself since you mentioned it!

[mistlethrush]

(Maggie - bow position - I wouldn't worry too much at the moment in terms of position, but you tend to end up with the RH thumb just beyond the black part of the bow that joins the wood to the hair... and its really good if you can encourage her to have her thumb slightly bent rather than straight - will be much more relaxed and will help with bow changes. What is really good though, is to get them to try to do their bowing straight. The bow naturally will try to follow the line the arm naturally goes ie round the body - so if you look when she is at the tip of the bow it might not look parallel to the bridge (rightangles to the violin) but slewed back away from her left arm. Its amazing how you really need to push the frog of the bow away from your body as you play towards the point of the bow)

[maggiethecat]

arggh!! posted last night only to find that the link was broken!

Mistle, she holds her bow about an inch away (toward the middle) from where you describe she should be holding.
This is all a learning experience for me and the one thing that is oft mentioned is the importance of posture and hold.
I attended a Suzuki class with dd when she was 2yrs on the recommendation of her nursery music teacher and I was struck by what appeared to be the ritual of positioning the violin and bow hold by the very young children. Although dd was attentive and interested throughout the session we never did pursue Suzuki bcos we could not give the commitment of parental attendance.

It may have been you Mistle who advised on another thread about the desired objective of bowing requiring minimal work as greater natural resonance of the string is achieved (my interpretation). I am beginning to have an idea of what this is about.

ZZZen, she plays by notes. Her teacher will ask her to identify random notes of a piece before she plays it, they'll then clap the rhythm and perhaps sing the song and then dd will play.