Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Lesson Book, Bk B: For the Young Beginner (Alfred's Basic Piano Library, Bk B)

I would call myself a beginner piano teacher, as I play the piano myself but have had no instruction as to how to teach others to play. I now have four beginner students, whom I have been teaching for a little over a year. I love the Alfred method. The four books: technic, lesson, solo/recital, and theory all seem to really work well together. The songs coordinate with each other, so for each new concept taught in the lesson books, the student has a warm-up, a solo piece, and some theory work to back it up. I find this to be very effective. It gives the students a chance to see several examples of each concept, and practice each new concept in different ways until they achieve perfection with it. It also really walks the teacher through each concept very clearly, giving definitions for musical terms and clear instructions for which songs go together. I feel like the order in which concepts are taught also makes a lot of sense. Overall, it's a good method for a teacher who doesn't know a whole lot about HOW to teach another person to play the piano! I currently have some of my students on this level, and others on the regular beginner levels. I love how all of the different levels are interchangeable, so gifted students can advance more quickly, and students who need a little extra reinforcement can stay on the lower levels. The map for how this all works is on the back of all of the books, which you can see on the book preview. So many great things about Alfred!

Value for money

Could be her teacher or the book, but my kid is making much better progress than with her previous book (and teacher).

the exercises and the information is helpful to new students.. and the price is right

I like the fact that the books in each level such as Lesson, note spelling and solo move along with the same lesson plan. I especially like that it take an 8 yr old child slowly and constantly reaffirming each musical term and meaning.

The lessons in these books are great. My daughter has been a great job learning the piano in her first year so far. I would recommend these to

Good book

Big help on rhythm. Wish piano was more prominent and background was less. Want to hear where i should be hitting keys and correct tempo.

Best Piano book ever!

Great for kids learning piano

I would call myself a beginner piano teacher, as I play the piano myself but have had no instruction as to how to teach others to play. I now have four beginner students, whom I have been teaching for a little over a year. I love the Alfred method. The four books: technic, lesson, solo/recital, and theory all seem to really work well together. The songs coordinate with each other, so for each new concept taught in the lesson books, the student has a warm-up, a solo piece, and some theory work to back it up. I find this to be very effective. It gives the students a chance to see several examples of each concept, and practice each new concept in different ways until they achieve perfection with it. It also really walks the teacher through each concept very clearly, giving definitions for musical terms and clear instructions for which songs go together. I feel like the order in which concepts are taught also makes a lot of sense. Overall, it's a good method for a teacher who doesn't know a whole lot about HOW to teach another person to play the piano! I currently have some of my students on this level, and others on the regular beginner levels. I love how all of the different levels are interchangeable, so gifted students can advance more quickly, and students who need a little extra reinforcement can stay on the lower levels. The map for how this all works is on the back of all of the books, which you can see on the book preview. So many great things about Alfred!

Value for money

Could be her teacher or the book, but my kid is making much better progress than with her previous book (and teacher).

the exercises and the information is helpful to new students.. and the price is right

I like the fact that the books in each level such as Lesson, note spelling and solo move along with the same lesson plan. I especially like that it take an 8 yr old child slowly and constantly reaffirming each musical term and meaning.

The lessons in these books are great. My daughter has been a great job learning the piano in her first year so far. I would recommend these to

Good book

Big help on rhythm. Wish piano was more prominent and background was less. Want to hear where i should be hitting keys and correct tempo.

Best Piano book ever!

Great for kids learning piano

love them

Very logical and teaches the theory step by step!! Highly recommend for beginners.

Fast shipping, this is the third series of books for my son he is learning piano. He is six years old. These but have fantastic content. The shipping was fast and the price was reasonable.

Have been looking for this item for some time, so glad to find it.

Great book series. Kids enjoy playing from these books. The use of concepts and practice music is very complementary. There's some great fun to be had at the piano with these books.

I ordered for my granddaughter - a being piano student. She loves it.

Piano books

This is the third book in this collection that we purchased for our daughter. She is progressing well and really looks forward to her piano lessons.

Great first piano book. My children have loved these books and our piano teachers have requested them!!

Came in the mail bent. Was not marked on package to not bend. Pretty dumb

Thin book. It arrived with mangled binding.

I bought this CD to go with my daughter's piano lesson book, as her teacher instructed. I take issue with the fact that, halfway through the CD, they clearly change pianos. The tone and pitch of the piano changes quite drastically. Also, there are a few glitches such as noise, pops, and a few places where the sound cuts out for just a second. This CD is being played on a very high-end sound system too. It would behoove them to re-record these CDs and better represent their company.

This series of books is what our piano teacher uses, and sometimes I can find them a little bit cheaper than Amazon and it saves me a trip to the music store. I have three kids using various levels, and they work well.

this cd accompanies our daughter's current piano lesson book - the arrangements are a bit fancy, but it's at least helpful for her to hear the song she is learning to play

Easy to understand. I wanted to get started on music theory. Although I'm an adult, I felt I needed to start at a really basic level to ensure I'm grasping the concepts. This book is excellent.

As a teaching aid for Alfred's lesson book Level 1 B I love the way it is coordinated with the lesson book itself. It makes assigning the theory lesson to match the songs that week a very easy task. I would highly recommend it as a teaching aid.

Came on time and easy to understand

Good book and great price. Fast shipping.

I've used this series for many years. Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course is so effective in teaching the younger student.

I use this book to teach my elementary school students piano. It's my go-to!

CD case came severely cracked, so not happy with that at all. CD appears to be fine.

Great Piano Book for Beginners

Just bought a newly printed book. However pages 1-8 and 25-32 are printed twice. All the rest are missing. Check your book when you receive it. I think I'll purchase a used one.

I've used Alfred books for piano lessons for years. They are attractive to the children, and present materials in an excellent sequence. They provide several books for each level, so the students get a broad interesting variety of practice tools to make their progress exciting and successful

Great for the paino lessons that my son is taking. His instructor requested this particular book, which goes for double the price elsewhere. Thanks Amazon.

this cd goes with the children's level book, and was fine. I wanted the adult level two cd, so i could not use it, but my piano teacher was delighted to have it. It is fun to play along with the cd, and the kids who have this book will love being able to use it. Now i know to match the number on the cd with the number on the book(not the 2, it is a longer, like a 5 or 6 digit number) and i will be able to find the correct cd's from now on.

Great set of prep course books that are easy to follow and understand for my young beginner boys! Their teacher highly recommends this set and so do I!

Alfred's is a good Piano Lesson program. Especially for beginning students.

Good to learn

This is a good tool and the songs have fun lyrics and melodies that my students enjoy. They also pair well with the suggested songs in the Solo Book.

Great piano method at good value. Delivered right to my door is a bonus!

As expected

Good book.

Great piano course.

Very nice instructional book. I am pleased and proud to provide these to my students. I will buy these in bulk.

It was needed for my daughter's class. It was required the instructor. My daughter was able to follow without difficulty.

This is strictly a review of the Kindle edition. I purchased it to see if it might be an interactive text or have the ability to write in the workbook. But it is only an electronic, read-only version of the book. It is pretty useless to have a theory workbook that a student cannot write in. It would be awesome to have this book as an interactive app, but as-is, the Kindle version is pretty useless.

Great quality book and a fantastic series for learning piano.

Like

easy course for a piano beginner.

Great place to start in Alfred's course. Bought for my step-daughter use alongside the note taking and other theory books.

One of the page was half way tear off.

Perfect for young children to learn how to play the piano.

This is a great coordinated series. Used it for YEARS.

This book has been a great learning tool for my kids to learn the piano. Highly recommended our piano teacher.

Nothing

What the piano teacher asked for so I guess it's okay :)

Very clear and helpful! My daughter loves it and I can follow along too.

Love the lesson book, easy-to-read, fun songs for every child!

I am trying to buy the one for Adult Basic Piano Course but got this one. Beside this mistake, the quality of the CD could be improved. It mixes other instrument with the piano. For someone who tries to learn from this CD, this is a kind of distraction that you don't want to have.

Great series for beginners! Very easy to follow!

Great product

Some people skip over some of the books in the series but I suggest that you purchase all of the books in the course. Each of them have a piece that your child will need as a future pianist!

Covers necessary info to guide and to teach..

Quick shipping! Perfect condition. Very happy with this book will continue with this series for my 7 year old daughter piano learning needs.

good

This is a great product and very good for teaching children. I highly recommend this series. I will be ordering more.

good beginner book

I did not start with Alfred's level A. I started with Alfred's group piano. Therefore, the jump from the theory in the group book to this level was pretty significant. I had to do a few extra lessons first just to get started.

My daughter has been using Alfred's books and she loves them. They are fun and they seem easier to learn from than the books when I was a kid.

Required for piano lessons.

Goes hand in hand with the Lesson book. Great together

good item , well packed, goof price and prompt delivery !

my kids play piano with it. they love it.

Perfection condition

Fast Deliver/Good Product

Good book

Great book for starters. I bought this for my daughter and she loves it. She is learning really quickly thanks to this book

great for beginners

My 7 year old has just started taking piano lessons and this series is recommended by her teacher. Seems ok to me

Great books for the beginner piano.

It's ok

Very specific.

Nice!

Nothing to reduce the points.

Very good easy to use I recommend this book to others learning to play the piano. Great for children too.

Nice price, quickly shipped.

Excellent companion to the Alfred 1B Lesson Book. More of a workbook to fill in and complete. Reinforces subjects discussed in Lesson Book.

Nicely written and easy to follow

Great quality, quick shipment!

As a piano teacher for a dozen years, the Alfred Prep series is perfect for my young students. I use the Prep series to start any of my students in Kindergarten or First grade. It teaches them good beginning skills and moves at a good pace.

Quick and fast delivery. Good Music Books for beginners.

Easy to understand

Was as advertised

The piano book is exactly what we were looking for. Our piano teacher had recommended it to us. It's great.

Good. No CD.

It works.

It is what it is. Very useful for teaching piano lessons for children. Still buying the rest of the books.

Perfect for my 10 year old student

I really like this method

My son's teacher uses these for piano lessons (he said he's been using them for 20 years). The songs are really nice, especially toward the middle to end of the book. It was rewarding to play for a few months and then make it so soon to such lovely songs. I think they did a great job of selecting nice music for very new piano players. The theory book is basically the workbook that accompanies the regular music book.

Good audio but poor packing.

Perfect

NOT for beginners. This is for someone who knows how to read music notes and who already knows finger placement on keyboard. Useless to me. Will be returning it.

Great book & kids love it but this used book had too much writing should have ordered a New book.

As I own a Music Academy, at any time we have 5-10 Piano instructors, and yes we talk about books and lesson plans. As my daughter was in lessons with one of our instructors, we had many conversations about different books, as a parent, I can see that because of the way it is written for children, it is a really nice entertaining book and Alfred has these books concentrating on Level 1 & 2 then up to Level 6. Most of the time the first two levels are split into a few volumes, while the latter are single volumes, all worth getting in order, of course. For Adults…. Wait it's a children's book??? Exctly and what we have really come across, as I started taking lessons with the instructors at our academy and of course, I have the adult book, but being a guitarist, this is a new instrument for me. As was explained and is true, the children's book takes a much longer span to cover more material, while the adult book does not. What this means is that the adult book may concentrate on fingering for a page or so and then assume, you have it down and jump to the next step. The children's book does not do this it spends more time and creates more of a solid base for you as a child or adult. So don't be as fast as I was to get the adult book, until you've spent some time with these. Average price range should be from $6-10 each book. Hope the review helps shed some light and understanding, it's a great book throughout all the levels and add-ons.

I used this book and it’s predecessors as a 9 year old to self teach piano and it worked beautifully. I’m now sending this to my niece for her to learn as well. The songs are fun, with most of them being pleasant, and the instruction on basic concepts (slurs, staccato, thirds, etc) are both descriptive and visual to ensure understanding.

I grew up following John Thompson's method, but my children's piano teacher recommended Alfred's piano course. We use the Rehearsal, Lesson, Theory and Hymn books. In less than a year, my children have progressed to level 3. They have learned some of the basics of music: key signatures, time signatures, dynamics, pedaling, and reading. They are able to work through the assigned pages on their own and are ready to play them at the end of the week (when they have practiced their 30 minutes!). Generally, they like the lessons and sneak in some of the later lessons. The method moves to beginner from playing notes to reading those notes on the musical staff in a gradual and natural way. The theory books are well coordinated with the lesson books. Our piano teacher recently moved out of state, so I am continuing the lessons and find the method easy to follow and very helpful.

Wonderful book. My 7 year old takes lessons and this is the book the teacher uses. He’s almost done with this one and going up to Level C (I’m guessing)

I am a private piano teacher and mom and love the Alfred series. I have used it for years and love the huge variety of fun, classical, spiritual, etc. that it offers. There is something for everyone!

First graders who are beginners would definitely like this book. Easy on the eyes, the notes are easy to read and play. Term definitions are brief and easy to understand. you could skip lesson A and begin directly with this book.

My son has started playing the piano just 3 weeks ago.. When I was young, the piano book was hard and difficult but this book is easy. My son really enjoys palying the piano by himself..^^ I am satisfied this book.

exactly what i wanted, good condition, and can't wait for the student to learn more

this is really good book for my kids for learning and practicing piano

This is THE BEST piano tutor series for young children. It moves slowly enough for the slowest pupil but you can skip through for a good pupil. Print is large (as young children's reading books are but which many music pubishers fail to realise is necessary) Music reading is taught by intervals which makes for better sight readers later on and discourages looking down at the keyboard to find the note as intervals can be felt. I wish I had had the Alfred books when I started piano teaching 30 years ago!

This book was very good and very easy to follow! I must admit I though it was easier to follow than John Thompson's Easiest Piano Book which I have also got. I would buy the next stage up to this as it is excellent hoping that the next stage would be as easy to follow.

Book itself is fine but we knew that as been lending the same one, however did take 6 days longer to arrive than stated.

We bought both the piano lesson book and the theory book that accompanies the book. We are having a hard time as our daughter finds learning her keys a nightmare, but the books are helping us out with rhymes and spelling games. It explains where little fingers should be, so it helps out with the learning. Little pictures on each song, help our daughter focus a bit more, and make learning fun.

Can't wait for my granddaughter to get on this book, if it's anything like the previous one it will be brilliant

Perfect!

Excellent purchase