Learning Piano books

Sudden · 10 Oct 2020 at 11:12

My mom is learning the piano herself and has been using the Lelia Fletcher books. She's done books 1 and 2 and is starting on 3 now. She asked me to get her books 4 and 5 but they are proving a bit difficult to find in the UK and would prefer not to get them from the US (would need them in the next 2 or so weeks).

The books seem quite old so I assume there must be something equivalent to them in terms of level/progression which is a bit more recent. Would anyone here have any recommendations?

Energize · 11 Oct 2020 at 17:42

I've used Alfred's books in the past. One thing I would also recommend is the piano marvel app as you get real time feedback on your accuracy and timing with exercises in both method and technique and a large repertoire of songs to practice, I think they are also planning on adding dynamics too. Uses a USB connection so no messing around with microphone issues and background noise and you can practice completely silently.

Mason- · 11 Oct 2020 at 17:52

As above the most commonly recommended ones I’ve seen for adult beginners is the Alfred books. I didn’t use them personally but they’re highly recommended on Piano World Forums.

My teacher uses “the joy of first year piano” for her beginners but again I didn’t use that. She then just recommends pieces herself or if they want to do grades starts picking pieces from the latest ABRSM syllabuses.

If your mum knows roughly what grade she is, if you google “RCM syllabus”, there’s loads of pieces in there at various levels. It’s a great resource for finding pieces at your level.

Narj · 11 Oct 2020 at 20:08

It's obviously difficult with the current situation, but when it's possible to do so, she should really get some lessons to avoid picking up bad habits that will take a long time to unlearn.

Blue160 · 12 Oct 2020 at 08:13

Mason- said:
As above the most commonly recommended ones I’ve seen for adult beginners is the Alfred books. I didn’t use them personally but they’re highly recommended on Piano World Forums.

My teacher uses “the joy of first year piano” for her beginners but again I didn’t use that. She then just recommends pieces herself or if they want to do grades starts picking pieces from the latest ABRSM syllabuses.

If your mum knows roughly what grade she is, if you google “RCM syllabus”, there’s loads of pieces in there at various levels. It’s a great resource for finding pieces at your level.

The Alfred books are excellent.

It's ABRSM that do the piano exams not RCM. Link is here: https://gb.abrsm.org/media/65206/piano-2021-2022-syllabus-rev-sep-2020-final.pdf The lists of pieces start on page 19.

As Narj said a good teacher would definitely be a help. It's easier than ever to find one who will do online lessons at the moment for obvious reasons.

Mason- · 12 Oct 2020 at 08:37

Blue160 said:
The Alfred books are excellent.

It's ABRSM that do the piano exams not RCM. Link is here: https://gb.abrsm.org/media/65206/piano-2021-2022-syllabus-rev-sep-2020-final.pdf The lists of pieces start on page 19.

As Narj said a good teacher would definitely be a help. It's easier than ever to find one who will do online lessons at the moment for obvious reasons.

RCM is the big board in Canada + USA. The reason I recommended it, is because their syllabus is much much bigger than the ABRSM one. And so like I said it’s a very good resource for finding lots of pieces at the same level. The ABRSM lists are much smaller.

https://files.rcmusic.com//sites/default/files/files/RCM-Piano-Syllabus-2015.pdf

A rule of thumb to translate ABRSM grade to RCM is.

RCM grade = ABRSM grade + 2

Blue160 · 12 Oct 2020 at 09:07

Mason- said:
RCM is the big board in Canada + USA. The reason I recommended it, is because their syllabus is much much bigger than the ABRSM one. And so like I said it’s a very good resource for finding lots of pieces at the same level. The ABRSM lists are much smaller.

https://files.rcmusic.com//sites/default/files/files/RCM-Piano-Syllabus-2015.pdf

A rule of thumb to translate ABRSM grade to RCM is.

RCM grade = ABRSM grade + 2

Ah, Ok. My confusion was because in my head RCM is Royal College of Music (where I studied). I was aware of the US and Canada exams but I didn't realise the board shared an acronym.

Sudden · 22 Oct 2020 at 21:09

Thanks everyone. This has been really helpful. I'll get Alfred's Book 3. My friend who plays a bit says it seems similar to the Lelia Fletcher book 3 in terms of grade/level, but the Alfred ones don't seem to have a book 4 so I guess 3 is the most for now.

Lessons - She has done in the past, but kind of fell away. I'll suggest it again but a bit tough at the moment. She's also not based in the UK so starting virtual lessons etc. might not be that easy but will suggest.