Have you heard the news about the new 2nd Editions of the Faber Piano Adventures? They’ve completed a revision of the Primer and Level 1 books, and will be doing Level 2 (and beyond?) at a later date.
At the MTNA conference, I had the opportunity to look at the new books at the Hal Leonard booth in the Exhibit Hall (and even take home a free copy of the Primer Level Performance book!).
You can visit their website to read about all the updates made in the new 2nd Editions, but below are a few highlights:
- The back of the books shows a chart that shows the books and supplemental materials available. The front of the books also has “2nd Edition” marked clearly in the upper left hand corner.
- Inside the front cover, there is a progress chart that clearly shows the progression and introduction of concepts for easy lesson planning.
- The Theory book more closely follows the concepts and artwork of the Lesson Book.
- The Theory book contains more creative activities, such as improvisation and composition activities.
- New repertoire has been added to the Performance and Lesson Books for more variety at your recitals.
- A new Sightreading Book has been added to the Primer Level and Level 1! It is a thick, black and white book with short examples to sightread. Students are instructed, “Don’t Practice This!” and to cross out the page once they’ve sightread the page for that day.
- A new Teacher Guide is available!
The Piano Adventures method is one of my favorites to use with students (although I deliberately do my best to use a variety of methods with my students), and these updates look great to me! What do you think?
Hi Joy,
I’ve been a reader for qutie a while, just never commented! So, hi!! I’m just wondering what the Piano Adventures Teachers Guide is like. Did you happen to peek into it??
I didn’t peek inside it, unfortunately. Thanks to Stacey – she posted a link below that gives more information. =)
This is the latest buzz on all the piano blogs, and I think it is awesome! I just love PA and use it with all my students at present. I can’t wait to get my hands on that sightreading book!!
Here’s a link to the Faber Teacher’s Guide: http://pianoadventures.com/guide/contents.html
🙂
My thoughts of the 2nd edition:
There are many great improvements: improv, new rep, integrated theory concepts, etc.
I just have one complaint: I dislike the idea of crossing out each page in the Sightreading book as the student completes them. Yes, it may be motivating for students, but I’d rather put a sticker on the page, or cut of the corner of the page with a scissors (an idea I got from Glory St. Germain’s session at the MTNA conference about her wonderful theory books – check them out here if you haven’t heard of them). I dislike the crossing out because you can’t reuse the book with the next sibling.
Hi Joy!
I’m going to start to teach a 12 years old teenager from scratch. Do you think that this collection is good for that age? or what do you recommend me? I have taught children and adults with no previous experience, but not teenagers. Any recommendation?
Thanks a lot!