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The goal of the Piano Companion® series is to prepare the piano student to play the music of the masters as soon as possible. Level One introduces the student to the keyboard, reading music, and playing in all major and minor keys. It can be used by students of all ages with the assistance of a qualified piano teacher or for self-directed study. Students with previous piano instruction may use this course as a refresher.
Level One is organized into 17 lessons. The first 5 lessons introduce the basic concepts of the hands, the keyboard, and general music reading skills. Lessons 6 – 17 guide the student through all major and minor keys. The format for these lessons is as follows: each lesson introduces new musical concepts, a major key with its relative minor and their respective hand positions, chords, musical material, technical exercises reinforcing the new keys, a recital piece as a capstone to each lesson, and theory exercises to reinforce the musical concepts. Each lesson ends with a review of the musical concepts presented in the lesson.
After the student has gone through the first 5 lessons, the remainder of the lessons are designed to be accomplished at an average rate of one every 1 – 3 weeks. While this will vary from student to student, the overall time frame to complete Level One is 13-38 weeks. The pace of the book may seem accelerated but can be accomplished by a disciplined and dedicated student with the support of family and friends.