the traditional sink or swim / devil take the hindmost. There seem to be two working philosophies here: the modern how do we teach this so anyone can do it, vs. By comparison, Karl Czerny's beginner piano method from 1840, still very popular and clearly the more “serious” book, is very dense, demanding a focused, hard-working student right from the beginning. There's very little resistance, and the entire book can be learned in a few weeks. The literature of drumming is full of other less egregious examples.Įvery page of Beyer teaches basically one thing, which can be learned instantly, or in a few easy practice sessions. See Drumeo-published beginner materials for an example of catastrophic failure at that. It has the most perfect, gentle, linear, learning curve I've seen in any book, which is not easy to do.

The rest of it consists of solo pieces and teacher duets- sweet little romantic 19th century tunes. There are more technical exercises other places in the book. It begins with several pages of technical exercises- fingering exercises for each hand, then both hands together. It will feel familiar to anyone who has seen a lot of drum method books, and is extremely friendly to beginners. I mean the conception, design, and apparent philosophy of the materials- I don't know where it stands relative to current views on piano technique and instruction. Though it was first published over 150 years ago- virtually prehistoric by drum literature standards- it's a very modern method. I have the Alfred Masterworks edition, with modernized notation.

Apparently it remains very popular in Asia. It was released in 1860, and is still in print in multiple editions, but it does not seem to have many advocates today as a primary method book- not that I can find on the internet.

One book I liked was Elementary Method for the Piano by Ferdinand Beyer. Last year I bought an 80s-vintage Clavinova, and got some beginner piano books so I could learn how normal people do it- I'm able to hack out the notes for transcribing and composing, but have very little technical ability on the instrument. I'm always seeking out methods for introducing people to non-drumming activities- playing the piano, in this case.

Beyer piano book pdf