NEW YORK, Oct. 1, 2001 Everyone would like to play the piano, and just this week the innovative folks at Walden Pond Press announced another way to help you get moving toward that first piano lesson! You put the numbered stickers on your piano keys, and you're ready to play piano right away! It's a great way to prepare your child for their first piano lesson.
A child of six could do it, you say, and, in fact, many six year olds are at it right now, playing "piano by number."
Walden Pond Press announced today the release of several new family music products, The Christmas Carol Kit and Piano Is Easy. You'll find they are easy to include in your child's piano lesson if they've already started.
All you do is put the numbered stickers on your piano keys and you're ready to play piano in a few minutes! They even give you an Audio CD you can play along with, once you get used to playing the songs by yourself! The CD is like a piano lesson on disc for kids.
Based on the work of Emmy Award winning composer and leading Westchester music teacher John Aschenbrenner, (Search for Tomorrow, As the World Turns, Guiding Light) this fun new family book gets anyone with common sense started playing the piano.
And it's easy! "Too many people are hung up on reading conventional sheet music right away," says the author, speaking by phone from New York City. "Try an easier approach at first. Play piano 'by number' and then switch to reading music later. Music should be fun at first. Later, there's much work to do, but you're ready to do all that hard work because you know the crazy musical fun that lies ahead. If you start with ALL hard work, almost all kids just fold up and quit. I'm trying to prevent that! A piano lesson for a beginner should be fun, all the time. "
And that's the key, apparently: get a good start playing piano "by number" and then switch to reading conventional sheet music when you're feeling a little more confident. Sort of a "training wheels" approach. It works!
You're asking, of course, what is playing the piano "by number?"
You put the numbered stickers on your piano keys and then you're ready to play fun, familiar songs right away. You're off to a good start with this piano method, and the folks at Walden Pond Press have got the testimonials to prove it.
We're talking stuff like "My children practice without being asked."
Wait a minute! Children practicing piano without being asked?
"Play, not practice!" cuts in Emmy Award winning author John Aschenbrenner. "Have fun or you'll quit because of the necessary drudgery. Mix it up. Fun, work, in equal measure."
Another Westchester Mom recently attributed a huge rise in math skills to her five year old child working once a week with John, studying "music by number." To be fair, John disclaims this and says, "The rise in math skills is easily attributable to the natural chronological development of the child: she's getting older, so her mental skills are growing."
This same Mom still swears by John's "music by number" for her youngest child. "She sits by the window and waits for her piano lesson. I think it's great."
And research (from a recent Newsweek article) shows that childhood music study, especially if continued for a while, produces spectacular test results:
"After four months the piano kids scored 15 percent to 41 percent higher on a test of ratios and fractions than the other kids." ("Music on the Mind" Newsweek, July 24, 2000.)
This "piano by number" method has been taught by the Emmy Award winning author to a wide group of people: stroke victims, Down's syndrome kids, elderly nuns, and everyday kids, and Moms and Dads. All these students seem to give "piano by number" the thumbs up as a great way to start piano.
"Music by numbers has been around forever," says the author. "The numbers are the names of the classical 'intervals' in music: I just put a little sticker that goes on the piano keys to tell the kids which button to push. They do the rest! The 'numbers' the kids learn are the same as the steps of classical 'solfege,' a singing system still used today in virtually all classical vocal music circles."
Anything that has everyday kids (who most likely would have quit altogether with conventional piano methods) saying, "Piano is cool," must be worth a second look.
If you'd like to read more background, click "Author" or "Satisfied Customers."
