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Hey there, I was wondering: are there any good piano methods that don't teach by hand position?

Just to clarify what I mean: many methods, like Alfred and Faber, start with the 'C position', then move on to the 'G position', etc. While I can understand that this gives the student some more structure to work with, I tend to start associating certain notes on the page with certain fingers. One of the things I love about books like Die Russische Klavierschule and The Piano Handbook is that they change it up all the time, even within pieces - this keeps me sharp and it keeps me actively reading, which makes my practice more useful. I just wish these books had more practice pieces..

Any suggestions for piano methods (or even practice material) with that approach are very welcome!

The link below is to s post on the Teachers forum which includes a method series that might be what you are looking for

http://forum.pianoworld.com//ubbthr...ed-children-of-your-own.html#Post3117156

Thanks dogperson, I'll take a look at that; not sure which of these books are actually the method books, but I guess it's the 'Piano Discoveries' books.

Any other suggestions are welcome

Post by Brinestone ‘musical pathways’

Yeah, I meant to say there seem to be many books in that series, of which 'Piano Discoveries' seems to be the actual method

Edit: unfortunately it doesn't seem available here in the Netherlands..

If you're in the Netherlands you may want to try The European Piano Method
by Fritz Emonts published by Schott. My teacher used this method when I was beginning and it is excellent. There are lots of pieces and exercises that build up skills gradually and they avoid having fixed positions. It's geared mostly towards classical music but has some jazz too.

Heumann also makes you change your hand positions a lot in his "The classical piano method" books. This is a pretty modern piano method which I enjoy very much, there is also quite some accompanying material available. https://en.schott-music.com/shop/the-classical-piano-method-no442048.html

I like Heumann as well. It targets classical much more than, say, Alfred, or Faber, and concentrates on finger independence much more than on chords.

It starts at middle C, but adds small shifts in lesson 9 as far as I remember, and introduces octave transposition in lesson 10 of his first book.
To get a better understanding of this method dynamics: Twinkle, Twinke is in his Lesson 6, and accidentals begin from Lesson 7.

Keep in mind that it is preferred to either use it with teacher, be able to find answers to your theory/notation questions somewhere else, or have some prior music knowledge, because while his core material is great IMHO, his explanations and theory notes are very rudimentary and are far from complete.
IMHO, presentation of material by Faber is hard to beat.

Also, if you are going the Heumann route, then his Finger Fitness and Repertoire books are great, if not must, add-ons to his Method. Personally, I loved to play through everything presented in his Method, Finger Fitness, and Repertoire books.

You can buy it as print with CD everywhere or as PDF with mp3 (at schott-music.com).

I’ve heard the claim that Piano Safari isn’t as limited on position playing as many of the popular methods. I did buy their first book (the older student one) but haven’t figured out how to use it without a teacher. For now, making progress with Faber.

**Heumann also makes you change your hand positions a lot **
I vouch for Heuman too. I have a gamy finger and his method books kept me at the piano.

It's not a method, more of a album of pieces, but Tomas Svoboda's "Children's Treasure Box" is VERY good! Tonnes of variety in terms of texture and hand positions, etc. and the quality of the music is excellent. 60 pieces in 4 volumes but quite reasonably priced.

Boosey & Hawkes' "Russian School of Piano Playing" also has a tonne of music to play and is quite varied. The music is quite good too.

I have also written I somewhat large collection of pieces (192 in total) aimed at adult learners that aren't limited to certain hand positions. The score and audio for all of them are available on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLo2-SsN80EwCuJN1H1cP1eZ0Mc3ZrNCiG
If you like, you can read more about them here: https://klavieronin.com/music/first-piano-book/

I like this very much. Not any full pieces but very diverse: https://www.bachscholar.com/the-art-of-sight-reading
it's full of small exercises with few bars of Bach

I've checked almost all of your pieces and I'm impressed by the quality of your work. I like the idea of simplifying everything to the extreme, making the full first part with just whole notes. It gets a bit monotonous at the beginning, of course it must not be easy writing with a lot of a variety with such a big self-imposed limitation, but as things get a bit more complex they also get quite interesting.

Very much enjoyed your video on scales, chords and arpeggios as well, especially the last part: you came up with some quite excellent chords etudes! They remind me a bit of an harmonically simple version of blumenfeld's etude de concert op 24.

Thanks very much. Yes, the earlier pieces can get a bit monotonous to listen to but they aren't really meant to be listened to as a set. They are meant more for students to pick their favourite few and learn those, then move on to the next set. (Or used for sight reading practise.)

I wish my chord etudes sounded like Blumenfeld's! He is a rather underrated composer in my opinion. Thanks for the compliment though.

I also listened to your Starry Night improvisation. That is really beautiful! Love some of those harmony changes. Well done. I'll have to check out some more of your channel.

Speaking about methods focusing on classical, The Russian School of Piano Playing (Nikolaev) does not start from middle C position, or from any position.

If you like Die Russische Klavierschule, you will certainly like Boris Milich! There are seven progressive books.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Pianoworks method books from Janet and Alan Bullard. You can find a good review here: https://pianodao.com/reviews/pianoworks/ . I use them and now just finished book 1 and collection 1 and really enjoyed it.

Great review—- looks great!