John Thompson's Modern Course

[fishmonger]

Is there anybody who thinks John Thompson's Modern Course (Grade 2 in particular) is too difficult/fast-paced? I'm assuming each grade takes about a year to complete, however, after 6 months I am not close to halfway through, and I cannot play most of the pieces at the suggested tempos.

More about me: I'm 25 years old, and have been learning piano for about a year and a half. 1 year with Alfred's Adult Course book 1, which was I progressed through steadily. I switched to Thompson's because it had more classical music. I've always practiced an hour a day five days per week. I do have a teacher who I see twice a month for 45 minutes each time.

So is it just me, or would other students have trouble with the pace and difficulty of this book?

[deanslist]

I found the difficulty in that particular book to be very inconsistent. There were pieces that I blew through in a week's time. Others I was never able to play to my satisfaction. My teacher and I would decide to move on because I had actually learned the particular thing those few pieces were trying to teach.

I'm 36 and have bee taking lessons for a little over 2 years. I finished the Thompson Adult prep book in 2 months and took a year in grade 2. I've been in grade 3 for about9 months and am going nowhere fast. However, that is more due to my practicing time constraints within the last year. Pieces that seem like they should be easy are hard and vice versa. On the bright side my technical skills and musicianship have taken a sudden leap forward after spending what felt like a very long time on a plateau. Now there is much more sight and less labored thinking in my sight reading. I am noticing that I am just recognizing some basic chords as I am playing. It's nice to be able to take in some things about the harmonics on the fly. Finally, playing is starting to become intuitive in ways that I always expected that it should be. I just needed enough knowledge to be able to get to that place. Somewhere near the end of grade 2, I was able to give up the constant counting in my head. I'm not saying I never count, but after I have the basic rhythms, I play by feel. My teacher will tell me when I am off, but it doesn't happen too much. Even when it does, they are relatively small errors.

I am also playing 5 years or so ahead of myself by starting on Beethoven's Walstein sonata. I adore the piece and I really don't care how long it takes to learn it. I'm still on the first two pages, but am very happy with the steady, albeit slow improvement. This piece helps to balance the pieces in the lesson book that I either don't like or that frustrate me, or both. (It's so much easier to work on something difficult if I love it.)

I didn't mean to write a book, but hang in there. There may be a better lesson book choice. I like Thomspon's approach, and like how much classical music is in there. But I really don't enjoy that many of the pieces. (That's why it took the Beethoven sonata to light my fire again.) It seems like classical music has better to offer even though they still need to be adapted at this level. There was one piece from Grade 2 that I loved- the Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffman by Jacques Offenbach. I played that piece as a prelude for my voice recital last May. I'm working on a Schubert Serenade in grade 3 right now. It is lovely! - and not terribly difficult.

Good luck

[sue81]

Hi,

Try not to be too discouraged. I went through the Thompson series myself as well as the Schaum series and I recall feeling that the Thompson book was always harder. However, looking at it now from a  teaching standpoint (I have two students) I think that the Thompson book is more of a challenge but pretty close to where the student should be as far as skills go. In fact, what I started each student with Schaum primers, moved one in to the Alfred series (because she's a slower learner) and put the other in Thompson, continuing with Schaum as well. This way, the have variation in teaching/learning the skills.

Bottom line, do what you have to do to get through those tough pieces. Go over the tough spots, work on fingering, etc. You WILL get it. That's your "challenge" book. Don't give up and don't run from the challenge! 

[jepoy]

Hi,

I grew up with those method books and my teacher back in the day was rather traditional and wanted me to finish the whole book before moving on to the next grade. The whole process was rather slow and quite frankly, probably contributed to my disinterest in piano lessons when I was young. Also, she was a bit averse to teaching pieces outside of the method books. She'd usually tell the students to learn pieces they like in their own time.

I'm taking lessons from a different teacher now. What I find different in his teaching method is that we discuss and choose a piece from each period (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, sometimes Modern) that is within in my level (he prefers original compositions, not watered down arrangements). If I do well on Bach piece, for example, he'd assign a more difficult Bach piece. If not, he'd assign a Bach piece that is of equivalent difficulty to the one I took. We keep doing this for each period.

What I like about this approach is that I'm involved in the building of my repertoire and it keeps me motivated to finish a piece. I too would often work on a piece that is way above my level simply because I love the piece. When we get to that level, I'd surprise my teacher by showing him that I'm already familiar with the piece and we could simply focus on polishing it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that don't be too overdependent on method books. If your teacher is open minded enough, try learning the pieces that you like (from the method book or otherwise) and making sure they sound really beautiful. As my concert pianist friend would often remind her students, it's quality of the music that counts, not quantity.

[b0mbtrack]

hey, i have the second book.  I just started looking at it and have a question about the first piece in it.  On the top of the page it tells how your wrist and hand should be while the thumb goes under the 2nd finger but i just don't get what they are talking about in the description.  How should the hand/arm bend?

[danny elfboy]

hey, i have the second book.  I just started looking at it and have a question about the first piece in it.  On the top of the page it tells how your wrist and hand should be while the thumb goes under the 2nd finger but i just don't get what they are talking about in the description.  How should the hand/arm bend?

Can you write down the description here?

[b0mbtrack]

here is what it says:
practice this with the right hand until the thumb can pass under smoothly without turning the hand.  The hand(of rather the arm) must pivot over the thumb without breaking at the wrist.
i'm lost because first it says without turning the hand, then it says the hand must pivot.

[fishmonger]

Thank you all for your responses. The first 3 were very helpful and more than answered my question.

[b0mbtrack]

fishmonger, do you know what they were talking about on that 1st page in the book?

[russda_man]

I've always practiced an hour a day five days per week.

1 hour a day is not enough, hence why you're not progressing.

[rgh55]

The John Thompson method is difficult.  I have started a few students in John Thompson and have had to move them to another method.  Otherwise, they would have quit.

[gyzzzmo]

I loved John Thompson, the midgets in the book were funny (yes i did the kid-version).

But in general those more famous methods are all pretty good. The only bad things are usually the students and/or the teachers who dont know what to expect as progress, or stubbornly stick to those methods only instead of explaining the basics of the learning process and providing some additional excersises to make study go more efficient.

[go12_3]

I do understand about the John Thompson's Modern Course being more difficult for
most students to handle.  I have one student that is on the Book One level and
she seems to enjoy it very much.  I think the students have to have an aptitude about
music and be able to handle the course.  This student doesn't like the Faber & Faber Piano Adventures; she only sightreads from those during her lessons, and she's in Book 3A level, which goes to show how the John Thompson's Book One is equivalent to the Faber & Faber Book 3A level.  I noticed the hand positions changes towards the end of the book and
students don't like that as much, unless I explain what is going on.  One piece I had my student learn about transposing and then she caught on easily.  Like I said, most of my students can't handle John Thompson's Course.