czerny op.599

[chopet]

I have been asked to teach piano to a ten year old beginner. A friend of mine sugested that I use Czerny's practical method for beginners op.599 as a first tutor book ie. from the first lesson, and teach pop songs on the side, because the child is really into pop.What would you say to this? If you disagree feel free to suggest something else. I wont be starting to teach her for another two weeks (got exams right now).

[chopet]

ok.
since I havnt gotten any replies I will take it that czerny isnt such a good idea...lol. didnt think so.
I will use the oxford piano time books

[ludwig]

Hey chopet,

I think the Czerny can be used as supplementary material, maybe for passage reading or just simple exercises. I do think they are more like exercises rather than music "learning", i.e reading, acquiring musical knowledge etc... I use a lot of method books together with some interesting (maybe pop) on the side, so they can apply the knowledge they've learnt in pieces they enjoy playing....I never liked just using one method or a strict order of learning music/improving technique.

[pianostudent]

since I havnt gotten any replies I will take it that czerny isnt such a good idea...lol. didnt think so.
I will use the oxford piano time books

You haven't got many replies because your topic sounds not interesting to people in this forum (well at least me (a beginner)). If your student is really into the pop tune, then teach them. I believe you can make a lot of fun things from those. For example, first teach he/she to read wirte music score, then ask he/she to transcribe his/her favorite tunes. This can only be done in a few pharse. You could make variations from that and teach him/her do simple harmization. You also can make the tune more classical. Imitate the style of some well-known composer. Along the way, ask the student to sutdy some easy master pieces (there are a lot of topics about this, do the search). Then, ask the student to make his/her own version, by adapting the tune to fit in the same chord progressions he/she have learned in those pieces. Every time you teach something new, ask the student to put that in his/her faverite tunes. Also don't forget to ask him/her to transpose those to other keys.

Please do not use Czerny exercise, it will blow your student's musical creative thought out.

[ludwig]

I disagree with you pianostudent, I think the board is for asking questions and not a popularity contest on who gets the most replies...I think if you have a serious question you should ask it, and people here should give their advice on the matter to their best ability if they know something about it. I also think that Czerny is great for some things, especially to correct or strenghen something particular in your techniques, and the easiery ones are good sight-reading/passage playing exercises...

By the way, on the topic of popular music, I think it should definetely include some in their repetoire if they love the stuff... Some of my kids love playing pop songs to their friends and they are inspired to improve their technical/music reading skills in classical music just so they could more difficult pop songs too... If they are beginners I think you should also include maybe some famous tunes from tv series, cartoons, movies etc... They are fairly easy to notate if you don't have the music for it, and you can give them some background info on music for media or commercial music and make a musicology/musicianship lesson out of it, kids love story telling and analysing things

Another thing is because of the repetitive nature of pop music (from same chords and chordal progressions,) encourage them to know the chords and perhaps do a little composition task out of it, where they compose their own pop song first with chords, then adding in a interesting melody for singing or the right hand to go with the chords. Introduce interesting chords from different pop songs later on and then analyse the modulations and golden section of them (usually a build up or a sudden change of texture, with the modulation) so they also know the structure of the songs they're playing... Then they have more tools to compose their own pop songs.

but yeah,from my experiences they will always love classical music and its complexibilities and they well want to get the knowledge/musicality/techniques from it to be able to play all styles of music

[galonia]

Um, Czerny is way boring if that's the only other stuff you're going to give your student apart from the pop pieces he/she is learning.

I mean, I grew up on the stuff, and I don't mind it, because my teacher made me transpose them and we learnt one every week or something like that, so I got through them really quickly.  And I did HEAPS of other repertoire.

But if you are trying to expand your student's tastes, then I would not go near Czerny at all.  That will just confirm to them that classical music is dull.

[asyncopated]

Hi,

Czerny is a good place to start.  The first few pages are simple and enough such that the student can actually concentrate on learning the basics.  However, having said that I agree  with what many have to say.  The stuff in Czerny Op. 599 has a lot of padagogical value but lacks musicality.  I still use it for practicing sight reading though. 

After a number of czerny exercises (say first 15 - 20). I would quickly move onto something more fun.   There are a number of threads on easy pieces that are beautiful.  My favourite sets are schumann's Album for the young and Burgmuller's 25 etudes.  These too have alot of padagogical value, but are amaizingly fun to play.  Take Burgmuller's arabasque Op. 100 No. 2 for example.  Somehow children simply love it!

If they do then show interest in classical stuff, I would than move on to something like a Mozart or bach Minuet -- introduce it as a dance.  I.e. play it for them and ask them to dance.  Actually that's what my teacher made me do, but I have to many inhibitions -- I'm 29.  I think it would work very well with children though.

There is a lot of sigma with classical music.  It's BORING.  If you catch children young enough they don't have the impression that it is boring and you don't you have to work up hill and find a way to interest them. 

Not that pop isn't good, but eventually if the child does take up the piano s/he will take you for introducing them to classical music.


Al.
   

[asyncopated]

Hi,

Czerny is a good place to start.  The first few pages are simple and enough such that the student can actually concentrate on learning the basics.  However, having said that I agree  with what many have to say.  The stuff in Czerny Op. 599 has a lot of padagogical value but lacks musicality.  I still use it for practicing sight reading though. 

After a number of czerny exercises (say first 15 - 20). I would quickly move onto something more fun.   There are a number of threads on easy pieces that are beautiful.  My favourite sets are schumann's Album for the young and Burgmuller's 25 etudes.  These too have alot of padagogical value, but are amaizingly fun to play.  Take Burgmuller's arabasque Op. 100 No. 2 for example.  Somehow children simply love it!

If they do then show interest in classical stuff, I would than move on to something like a Mozart or bach Minuet -- introduce it as a dance.  I.e. play it for them and ask them to dance.  Actually that's what my teacher made me do, but I have to many inhibitions -- I'm 29.  I think it would work very well with children though.

There is a lot of sigma with classical music.  It's BORING.  If you catch children young enough they don't have the impression that it is boring and you don't you have to work up hill and find a way to interest them. 

Not that pop isn't good, but eventually if the child does take up the piano s/he will thank you for introducing them to classical music.


Al.
   

[chopet]

UPDATE
Had the lesson last night. It went absolutely fine. I used piano time 1 and after she has gone through that I will find some easy repertoire to work on. Will keep czerny till later on. She actually went alot further than I would have expected her to in the first lessohn. She breezed throughwhat I had planned for this week, and also through material I would have kept till next week or the week after, without a bother. This was all in the first twenty minutes. I had to draw the line there though, didnt want to overload the child with information on her first lesson. We spent the last ten minutes playing music games.
Thanks for all the replies