Hello there!

A Piano teacher recommended Dogs and Birds to me and gave me the link to your website. I must say I am very impressed with what I have seen so far! I have been asked to teach children in Year 1 and Year 2 (5-7 years old) the Keyboard, starting from September. I have never taught this age group before, and I was very nervous as to what to teach them, and how to teach them. They will not have any basic musicianship skills and perhaps not the dexterity to learn their way around the Keyboard at great speed, and I don't want to put them off music for life!

I see that your books are tailored to either 4-6 year olds or 5-7 year olds; since my children are in between these ages, which volume would you recommend I buy? Perhaps just the second volume, or maybe the first for Year 1 and the second for Year 2?

I would appreciate some guidance from you on this. I know that children learn in different ways, and as I have not met the children yet I am having to make suppositions about how they are going to best learn and have fun, but any help would be much appreciated!

Many Thanks in advance.<br><br>Post edited by: Jeannie686, at: 2008/07/24 19:37

Hi,

Dogs and Birds comes in two volumes (book 1 and book 2) and each book comes in two editions (animal notes and blank notes). The animal and blank notes editions are the same except that the animal symbols are printed in all of the notes in the animal notes editions. So what edition should you use? Our recommendations give you some idea, but you are right that in some cases the best edition to use depends on the child. If you are unsure initially it is safest to get the animal notes edition. Certainly for 4 year olds or under I (Elza) always use the animal notes edition. I often use both editions in parallel, especially for the 5-7 age group. It is also useful to make use of both editions if you are teaching a group. This enables you to teach the same material simultaneously to children of different abilities, since the “quicker” students can use the blank notes edition, while the others use the animal notes edition. I always get all students (those taught on a one-to-one basis and those taught in a groups) to sing the animal names as they play, whether they are using the animal notes or blank notes edition.

You should not worry about “putting students off music for life”. The method does not focus just on reading music and playing the piano. In addition to singing and playing pieces a typical lesson will contain some rhythm exercises and finger exercises, recognition of pitch (animals) and later on echo games. Improvisation on the keyboard and telling stories associated with the illustrations in the books help to fire the child’s imagination and interest. By using a range of musical exercises young children can stay focussed and interested for much longer. Detailed lesson plans are given in the supplementary notes.

Hope this helps. Good Luck.

I use the animal edition and my 4 year old pupils:) adore it,

I have a three year old starting next week and its ideal for small people.

Fabulous and the best books on the market for small people.

I've been recommended Dogs and Birds too - I'm hopefully about to start teaching a 7 year old. I've taught a child this young before with conventional books and it was, frankly a struggle. However, as you recommend the blank notes edition for children of this age, I'm wondering how it differs from other piano tutor books. Is it because they have to sing the notes first? How is this different from just singing 'a, b, c'?

Sorry to be dense... I'm just intrigued...

Hi Claire,

This is a very sensible question which we are happy to answer.

A, B, C, is still quite abstract even for a seven year old. From experience I (Elza) can say that children can much more easily associate the notes with the more concrete animal names – and they remember much more rapidly (not just on the piano but on the staves as well). It is much easier to remember a letter by associating it with something. Of course for much younger children the letters mean nothing.

In general I start seven year olds on the blank notes version however if they struggle (which is rare) I would then use the animal notes version – or both in parallel.

Singing is extremely important and, as you know, the animals have been chosen to be monosyllabic so they can be sung. This truly helps develop the inner ear and in many cases I have found that very young children can really associate an animal name with a particular pitch. Actually to sing the tune before you play is quite a good preparation for playing a piece. You should find that children will learn to sight sing quite quickly.

Dogs and Birds is not just a set of pieces. Book one also includes rhythm exercises, which again is not usual in conventional approaches, and these rhythm exercises are interspersed throughout the book. As the child counts and taps both with hands separately and hands together this really reinforces the principles of rhythm and also prepares the child to play pieces with hands together.

As mentioned in an earlier post, as well as the pieces I use many musical games (explained in the supplementary notes), which again is relatively unusual but helps to develop a more rounded musical ability in a child.

It is quite unusual for a piano method to be based on the Kodály approach as is Dogs and Birds, especially using the white notes from the beginning. The children start by learning the minor third (Bird Dog) rather than starting on middle C as in most conventional approaches. Dog (D) is by far the simplest white note on the keyboard for the child to recognise and remember. Also because the child remembers using the animal names rather than finger numbers there is absolutely no problem when he or she needs to play outside the range of the traditional ten fingers. In Dogs and Birds finger numbers are not added until book 2, by which time the child knows all of the animals.

Finally we should add that using the animals makes learning much more fun for the children, and as they enjoy it they learn much more quickly.