Hi~

I have 3 new students starting next week. One is a 12-year-old girl, and the other two are her cousins - boys, ages 8 and 12. They all live in the same household and are all beginners. I am wondering what method books to use with each of them. I don't want them to all use the same method and be playing the same pieces.
They are all quite bright, and I think the PA Primer would be much to easy even for the 8-year-old. I don't want to put them all into the Accelerated beginner book. I'm thinking that perhaps I could put one of the 12-year-olds into the Accelerated Beginner book and one into the Adult Beginner book, and then use a different method entirely with the 8-year-old.

Any thoughts?

Oh, I thought of one more thing I wanted to say/ask: I'm not really crazy about the idea of using the Adult PA with a 12-year-old, mainly because of the repertoire. It's geared so much toward adults (all that pop music from earlier decades). So, perhaps an "older beginner" method book from another series is in order here. What have you all used with success?

I've used the Alfred older beginner book (silver) a few times with success. It is very positional, so you have to be sure to supplement with other music to get kids out of always "C position" or "G position." Maybe for the 8 year old you could consider Piano Town? I've used that course with a couple of boys around that age, and it's worked very well. It moves more quickly than PA Primer, introducing eighth notes, sharps/flats, etc, but not as quickly as the Accelerated.

With bright 8 year-olds, I've had success using PA Primer. I assign more pieces per week, and they can move very quickly. Some of them explore ahead on their own. I just make sure that I don't pass any pieces unless they are perfect to make sure they have learned and incorporated all the concepts.

That's tough to have two 12 year-olds! I love Accelerated PA and Adult PA. Maybe you can use Adult PA with a lot of supplemental music? I agree with Emily that Alfred is very positional. LH doesn't do much playing other than playing primary chords.

I agree with the suggestion of considering PIano Town. If you want to see what the pages look like, visit Piano Town on facebook. They have done page-by-page images for the lesson books; it started in May 2011 with the primer book, as of today (6/28/12) the newest entry is Level 4, page 4. Navigating through is a little tricky with facebook timeline, but you CAN see everything, and observe teacher comments.

Other suggestions:
* Let the other 12yo use PA Accelerated.
* Let the 8yo use the regular PA course. If he really flies through it, you can supplement or skip some pages.
* Begin one of the 12-year-olds in a faster-paced book like Alfred Basic Older Beginner, then change to PIano Town or Alfred Premier later on.
* Use Hal Leonard Adult method for one of the 12yo students; it has less of the "older pop music" Trista mentioned. :-) I think theory & lesson & technique are all integrated into one book.
* I have heard good things about Noona books, though I have not tried it myself; there are some reviews of this curriculum and many others on the Yahoo Groups piano teacher forum. You cannot access the information unless you are a member, so visit the site and ask to be a member. :-) This is a link to the Yahoo Piano Teachers Group Once you're in the group, visit "Files", then "Kevin C Course Reviews". Kevin recommends Noona Clavier for teenage beginners.

I look forward to hearing about your solution for choosing books for these students. All the best to you!

Amanda

Thanks for the ideas, everyone! I'll have to look into Piano Town, since I have never used it before.

Just a quick comment on the PA Primer -- I think you can just use a loaner book and go through the whole first half (off staff) in the first lesson and do roughly a unit a week after that. I've done that before with great success, incorporating in some of the Primer Gold Star pieces as well.

I've done that too (though I still had the student buy the book).

I had this issue 2 years ago, and ended up using Accelerated with one student and Piano Discovery's On Staff starter with the other. I just sympathized with the "cartoon pages" and he never complained. When the Accelerated brother quit I asked if we wanted to switch methods and it was decided to keep on in Piano Discoveries, as some of the songs were really being enjoyed. I still supplement with PA and HL.

What about putting both 12 year olds in the Accelerated Lesson book, but have each student use different supplementary books. I've taught many siblings over the years and have never had a problem with them using the same lesson books. None of them have ever complained about having the same pieces, and competition between the students hasn't really been a problem either. I think it is all in the way you approach it with the students.