Classroom Keyboard

The Keyboard/Guitar strand of the National Core Music Standards calls for students to become not only performers, but also creators of music. Pat Bissell's book presents strategies and sequences — developed over years of dedicated work with urban and suburban children — designed to help students achieve the standards. I applaud in particular her use of authentic musical examples and emphasis on improvisation through aural understanding. Teachers who incorporate this book into their keyboard classes — not to mention their private lessons — will give their students the gifts of joy and creativity. -- Scott C. Shuler, PhD, Consultant, Solutions Music Group; Past-President, NAfME: The National Association for Music Education
This innovative approach to learning the keyboard provides an unique, sequential approach that utilizes iconic notation to teach harmonic structure, intervals, and melodic structures. By starting with finger numbers, students are able to achieve instant success without the anxiety that can sometimes accompany trying to learn traditional music staff notation as a beginner. This approach to keyboard instruction provides a logical sequence that will take the student from finger numbers to reading traditional music staff notation, all the while incorporating improvisation and building an understanding of intervals and chord progressions. The inclusion and explanation of how chord progressions work in music, often absent in more traditional piano instructional methods, is especially useful for teachers who desire to include composition, improvisation, and aural musicianship into their pedagogy. -- Bryan Powell, Executive Director, Association of Popular Music Education
Classroom Keyboard offers students much more than the standard series of keyboard melodies and technical exercises. The authors provide students with the tools for understanding chords, patterns, and scales while they are developing their performance skills. A special feature of the book is the inclusion of composition activities enabling students to make the music their own. The book laudably takes a comprehensive approach to teaching musicianship as a combination of technique, creativity, and musical understanding. -- John Kratus, Ph.D., Professor of Music Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI