I'm Sold

We are huge fans of Jon Schmidt! As one of the Piano Guys, he's entertained us through his many YouTube videos and Savannah has learned several of his songs over the past few weeks. (She's almost mastered this and this!) When I was browsing his music site one day, I came across these piano method books (here and here) and decided to give them a try. Here's what I love:

1. I've been teaching Soren (age 8) piano lessons for about 9 months using a different method. He gets it and is excited to play, but the progress has been pretty slow. I've seen more progress in 2 weeks of "67 Fun Songs Primer" than I did in several months of the other method we were using.
2. Sadie (age 6) has been begging to play the piano, but the method we already had wasn't a very good fit for her. I started her on "67 Fun Songs Primer" and it's perfect! She loves it and frequently asks when it will be time for her lesson.
3. With the primer book, lessons are daily and take no more than 10 minutes. There is plenty of reinforcement with simple songs that go along with each lesson. My kids' confidence builds daily. The primer book boasts, "Now parents can teach piano without experience!" The daily lessons are simple and actually take less time than it took to monitor daily practice before we switched to this method.
4. My kids are learning to read music and it's sticking! This method is pure genius and has eliminated the confusion of too-many-things-to-remember-at-once found in other methods.
5. Each lesson in the primer spells out exactly what to do. It literally goes through the dialogue between teacher and student so that parents with no musical background can confidently teach each lesson. It even throws in a little game here and there. Soren loved the game in his lesson today where we pretended the piano would blow up if he missed any notes. He laughed and laughed when it blew up twice...
6. The price is right. Each book is $15.95 which is about what we have paid for one piano lesson in the past. I'm saving a lot of money by being able to teach them myself.

I could go on, but you get the idea. I'm sold on this method and love sitting down with my kids and seeing their excitement about the rapid progress they are making.

By the way, I have no connection to Jon Schmidt and have not received any compensation or free product for this endorsement. This is straight from me because it makes me happy! :)