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Well. I'm just about through book one of fundamental keys. Reading Rachel's blog this morning it looks like book 2 has at least another month to go if not longer. I'm looking for some advice on what to fill in with in the meantime. The options I'm thing about are below.

- Lang lang's piano academy
- Abrsm level one material (scales & theory books)
- piano adventures 1or 2 (regular version)

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

Wow ... I see you finished book 1 in about 2 weeks. It must be going really well.

Good Luck

Don, yeah book 1 is largely very basic preparatory exercises. Even a beginner should be able to move through them relatively quickly.

Spitfire You might also look at the Alfred's Adult All In One method. I think that it would be very complimentary to the fundamental keys method. For example, Alfred's is very chord centric, teaching you how to recognize and play all kinds of chords. On the other hand, the selection of pieces in Alfred's (especially the first volume) doesn't do as much to teach hand independence in playing. I would say that the reverse is true of the Fundamental Keys method (at least the original edition). FK really has a great selection of pieces for developing independence of both hands playing, but does much less about teaching chords. So I think the two methods together give an excellent foundation.

The other benefit of the Alfred's method is that there are a lot of people on this forum who are going through it (or have completed it) and there's an extensive series of threads (a thread for each of the three volumes of the alfred's method). The Alfred's threads are a great place to get questions answered and to get feedback on your playing.

Why not just get her original FK book and keep going with the same method?

ebonykawai,
That's also a reasonable option, though some may balk at paying twice for what is essentially a lesser version of the same material. The method is not that expensive though, so it might be a better way to go if the OP is happy with the method so far. But if they're looking to expand a bit on what's in FK, some other method might be more suitable.

I've actually had it since the begining of march. Not done yet but think I will be in a couple weeks. Although I'm returning to piano I had about 1.5 years 3 years ago. It's comming back a bit faster than I thought it would. Thanks for the encouragement.

In regards to the methods, do you all think anything about the other options I posted other than Alfred's. I have a copy of Alfred's now that I bought a bit after FK but looking through it Im remembering it from before (3 years ago when I played before) and was wanting to try something different as a supplement to FK.

I'd go for the Lang Lang books. It's not strictly a method, but could be used as such. You could start from book 2 or even 3 depending on how impatient and ambitious you are.

When not with a teacher I'd go for a method such as Alfreds. You need the theory to understand what you're playing.

Bach is a great teacher and Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach a great method book

These are free and good.

https://thehappypianomuse.wordpress.com/category/easier/
https://thehappypianomuse.wordpress.com/category/easy/
https://thehappypianomuse.wordpress.com/category/medium/
https://thehappypianomuse.wordpress.com/category/tricky/

@earlofmar, If you go with a book with pieces I'd rather take a collection such as the "Essential Keyboard Repertoire". But it needs a teacher and theory to back it up.