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Teachers,

I am looking for opinions. Has anyone experimented with the new Faber "My First Piano Adventure" with 5-6 year old beginners? If so, how would you say it compares to Alfred's Music For Little Mozarts? I have not yet tried the new Faber, but have had great success with 4-6 year olds in Alfred's MLM. When comparing the books: Is the presentation pedagogically sound? Why?
Is the "look" of the book appealing to youngsters? (i.e. characters, storyline)
Is the content of music appealing to youngsters?
What do parents think?

many thanks.

I purchased a copy of the Faber one you mentioned and tested it out on my own 5 yr. old daughter who just turned 5 a couple months ago. We only had one lesson with it. I think it is pedagogically sound. I like the fact that it discusses good technique and includes fun, age appropriate exercises for good movement with pictures and descriptions that age would relate to easily.

I haven't gotten far enough into it to comment a lot on it. The one thing I did have trouble with is there is a lot of explanations that I had to read through on each page to see what it was we were to do for that page vs. some books that I can just look at the page or song and know what to do and how to explain it without reading the directions. All the directions and teachers accompaniement parts make the pages look a little too "busy" not because of the pictures but again because of the amount of directions and things on the page outside of the parts the child needs to be looking at. At first glance at some of the pages, I see so much on the page, my initial inclination is to say, "ok, to sort this all out". Perhaps a separate teachers/parents guide with the directions for each page would keep each page looking more simple and "uncluttered".

As a teacher, I think I would have to really familiarize myself more with what each page is requesting the student to do before I could teach from it otherwise I'd be sitting there reading directions while the child sits and starts getting distracted by other things as opposed to many books I can just look at a glance even if not familiar with the book and explain it immediately.

I'm not familiar with the Alfred's Little Mozart for that age but have heard other teachers say they have had success as well with it. Just based on having taught the standard beginning series of Alfred's for several years (I've only taught ages 7 and up outside of my own kids), I think the Faber and Faber books whether it's this one you mentioned or the others in the Faber and Faber lesson books cover sound technique with good descriptions and fun exercises on technique more than any other traditional method I've looked at.

I think the reason there's a lot more info for the teachers in the new Faber series is that this series is designed for younger students and younger students need something different than the traditional approach you might use with a 7 year old. You should check out the Fabers' site. They recently posted some very informational video about the new series, with lectures by Randall Faber and a video tour & lesson guides:

http://pianoteaching.com/myfirst/

I also think the songs are better than the Alfred method. However, I think overall the Piano Adventures method is MUCH better (more pedagogically sound, VERY appealing music) than the Alfred method. The duet arrangements are awesome and the CDs and floppy disks are fun.

Thanks for the link. I will read about it. I do very much like the book overall and like the Faber and Faber series and have been impressed by it and glad to see their coming out with a book just for the preschool age group. More like this is really needed. I just wish the pages looked a little simpler, cleaner, less cluttered from the child's point of view. I do agree that kids under 7 need something different and I agree and think it's wonderful to have the information and directions well-written out for teachers and parents. I think it is great as many teachers do not know how to approach the preschool age group and teach them as you can see it is asked on the forums freqently: "How do I teach a 4 yr. old?" My only comment was that although the directions are needed and useful for parents and teachers, trying to look at it from a 5 yr. old perspective, would all the extra writing on the page at first glance to the child make them think "this looks way too hard" just because they see all that. All the writing is needed for the teacher or parent, but not for the student, of course!

Again, I really have no business judging it as I've not taught from it except the first 20 pages to my own 5 yr. old and my 2 kids are the only kids I've taught in the preschool age group. I was merely talking from first inclinations of what first came to mind at a glance and first attempt trying to teach from it. At a glance, my first thoughts were 1. great emphasis on technique and explained in a fun way for preschoolers with a fun way to practice it for that age, 2. great colorful pages and pictures 3. nice to be broken up with several motion and singing activities 4. well layed out directions for teachers/parents. The only thing I didn't like from first glance was all the directions make the page look too "cluttered". Just personal preference, but maybe preschool age kids wouldn't even be bothered by it.

Thank you both. I'll be checking out that link as well!

My younger brother used Faber and my younger sister used Alfred because she stated a little bit later. And I used neither.

I think it depends on the learning style. Not really sure though, but that's just my opinion.