Any experince with beginner?

[onwan]

Hi, my friend asked me, If I want to teach her play the piano, but I have never taught anyone before. Has anyone some experience with absolute beginner? What to teach first? Is there any good book or sheets which I can use?

[evitaevita]

I think that, if your friend has no experience in music, then you should start teaching her the music theory (you know, he/she should learn some basic things in order to read music).

Do you want to use piano methods or other instructive books?
Also, this is a thread in which a lot of information about piano methods is given:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=48486.0

[sucom]

If you're not used to teaching beginners it might be worth using an adult tutor and follow that.  There are many adult tutors available, some good, some not so good but all will follow a method of some kind.

The only problem I have found with adult tutors is that they can sometimes move too quickly, assuming the adult learns more quickly.  This is true in some cases (those with a natural talent) but not necessarily true with everyone.  While the mental capacity may be greater to understand the theory, the fingers, alas, may lack the flexibility and there may be difficulty with coordination at first. 

The very best way to learn about teaching is to just do it and as you become more experienced, ideas about the best way forward will gradually develop.  The Michael Aaron adult tutor isn't too bad and students tend to enjoy the choice of pieces.  Quite a few people use children's tutors, like the Piano Time books by Pauline Hall, even for adults, although the young images and rhymes found in some of these books can be a little disconcerting for the older beginner.  Nevertheless, they can work well if the student can work past the rhymes and colourful images.  And they do provide an excellent basis for a good technique and for note reading in general.

Any method book will help you through - if you go to a music shop and look through a few, I'm sure you will find one that will be perfect for your friend.

[hfmadopter]

Your friend will need music theory along with a level one book. I download scales and chords as needed from musicforteachers.com and have students or even myself work on those. I use two different piano series first grade books. The John Thompson grade I book for adults is pretty good. You may want two copies, one for your student and one for yourself to read through between lessons. The adult book has a page for the teacher and a page for the students lesson.

Bottom line, teach some music theory, correct hand placement, correct arch, posture etc. Teach the keyboard layout ( it's in the book anyway but reinforce that) before you start really getting down to music. It will go slow for the first few weeks, the student will want to be playing real music and get impatient but this has to be done. I add a sheet of some piece of music they like and we disect it so that they can see how what they are learning about theory and what the content of the real piece of music is in relation to each other. And when I feel they are ready we start working on that piece of music. Something in C, G or F keys which correlates with the lessons in the first grade book, the chords and scales I have given them as well. I just have to say that early lessons is killer for older students, they want to play music, they don't know how yet.