Frances ClarkThe Music Tree Student's Book: Time to Begin -- A Plan for Musical Growth at the Piano

This series is by far the best with teaching intervals and musicianship. Highly recommend.

My daughter loves the book, she’s been learning piano for about a year now and is in P2 level, keeps her engaged n entertained

The Music Tree is an excellent method for very young beginners. Because it is intended for such young children with small hands, the pieces do not utilize finger 5 which is the weakest finger especially in beginners. Right from the very beginning, the student is given pieces that require a lot of moving around the piano, which will prevent them from getting locked into a 5 finger position so common with other method books. Many of the first exercises in The Music Tree start the student on the black keys. So when sharps and flats come along, the student is not at all intimidated. This book is approximately 50 pages. It introduces note reading so slowly that it almost tricks my 4-6 year old students into reading without them even realizing it. By the end of the book, the student can read intervallically with "landmark" notes of F, C, and G.

These books are terrific. First of all, they really teach a child how to read music. Methods that utilize C position or G position really just handicap a child in the long run, because most intermediate-advanced piano music isn’t written in any “position.”The method progresses step by step, using one finger on each hand, then two, then three, while learning to read notes using two lines on the staff, then three, then four. It’s very developmentally appropriate and produces musicians who are very strong readers in both treble and bass clef (and many young pianists will tell you that their weakness is reading bass clef).

I don’t need to remind my kids to practice because they love this book!

I have had so many transfer piano students who “learned” with either the Faber & Faber method or the Alfred method. Why is “learned” in quotes? BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T LEARN ANYTHING. Yes, I’m yelling. I feel so bad for all of the parents who spent good money on bad lessons. And it’s super easy to prove that these kids have learned nothing. All I have to do is put a ridiculously simple piece in front of them that isn’t in C Position, G Position, etc. and doesn’t say C POSITION at the top of the page, and they’re completely lost. See, that’s the problem with position training. It works under the assumption that all music EVER has words at the top of the page telling you where to put your hands at the start. WHAT??? No. Learning how to read music is critical. Frances Clark believes this to be true, although I do agree with other reviewers that it takes too long to get to actual note reading on the staff, and I’m not a fan of introducing notes on a partial staff made up of only 3 or 4 lines; why not just make it the proper 5 lines from the beginning and continue to only utilize the lines and spaces necessary to show the interval? Not getting to the (full) staff (and then the grand staff) sooner is the sole reason for my giving this book 4 stars instead of 5.Things I like about this method and this primer lesson book:1. From the very beginning, students are taught to span the keyboard on black keys. This makes the entire piano less scary. Ask a child to sit at the piano for the first time and make up nonsense, and they almost NEVER use the black keys and they rarely play beyond their immediate reach. Again, a vote for Clark over the other Positional methods as they do not encourage movement like this.2. Landmarks. Landmark notes make it easy to find other notes. The landmarks are perfect for understanding the layout of the grand staff. I also go back to the landmarks when I believe it’s time to explain the Circle of Fifths.3. Intervals. I really despise “skips and steps” because the music teachers in the public schools haven’t decided if they are talking about half steps and whole steps, or seconds and thirds. Stop giving stuff cutesy nicknames. Kids like learning big words. Another point for Ms. Clark.4. Black keys vs. white keys; Haven’t you had a new student ask you what the black keys do? Well, you won’t field that question because they learn right away that the black keys do the same thing as the white keys, and as I said above, I’m positive the student has sat at the piano and made stuff up on the white keys. In fact, playing actual pieces on white keys isn’t introduced until page 32, which is something else I psych my students up for (“Look! We’re almost to the white key pages!!”)5. Duets!! Most of the student pieces have teacher accompaniments, which is just fabulous. There are so many benefits to this that there are whole books written on the subject.6. Theory pages are included in every unit/lesson. I’m a big fan of theory and written work. Knowing how to write the music down - picking it apart and putting it back together - is a critical piece of understanding music. I’ll never understand teachers or methods where theory isn’t considered important.7. Composition is encouraged, both in this book and in future books.The complementary “Activities” (a.k.a. More Theory!) book is good for very young students who like to color. I’ve reviewed this book specifically as well.The level 1 books start with a lot of review and I’ve found that with the students who start a little later and have outgrown coloring, I can start them with the Level 1 books and supplement the missing info using my own brain. I’ve also reviewed those books.

My five-year-old daughter loves this book. It moves at the right pace for her. She can learn the songs within a week of practice and move on to one or two more songs for the next week.I love that the book teaches more than just reading notes. She has learned rhythym, intervals and octaves, slurs, measures etc. All at a pace that a five-year-old can understand. I feel like she will get the inner workings of the music sooner this way, rather than just reading notes in succession to find the melody.She has been using this book with an experienced piano teacher, rather than just with me at home. Her teacher added pentachords and chords for practice, and uses the workbook along with this book. But in only five months she has made a lot of progress.

Got this book for my 6 year old daughter for her first year of piano lessons. 3 months into it and she can play every song in this book. It clearly marks which finger to use, right or left hand, etc She is learning along with piano teacher guidance. Definitely recommend this book and will be ordering a second level soon

My daughter started to learn it just after her fourth birthday, this book is easy to understand

My son's piano teacher recommend this book.

LOVE IT ! The best young beginner method .

a great method for young children 3-5

reasonable condition