I need advice and help in finding the best twaddle free piano curriculum for kids. My two 8-year-old children are taking piano lessons. The other day my daughter was given a song about goblins and ghosts to learn and sing, and she disliked it very much. At first, I told her to sing it because it was her homework. I then reconsidered and told her she didn’t have to if it made her uncomfortable.
Before putting her in formal-piano lessons, she had been learning to sing and play songs from the Simply Charlotte Mason Hymn study book. Learning and listening to this music was terrific and joyful for the whole family. However, my husband pointed out that she was learning a bad habit by playing with one finger and that she needed formal lessons before we continued any further.
Here is my issue. I would like for my daughter to learn piano in twaddle-free lessons. Why should she have to sing about goblins and ghosts? I mentioned this to the instructor, and she said she didn’t have to sing it, but she did need to play it for practice.
Then we discussed eventually switching over to the Simply Charlotte Mason Hymn study book. The instructor said that she would need an age/skill level appropriate book. My question is, do you know of a hymn study based piano curriculum that teaches all the skills required to learn the piano and read music independently? The teacher mentioned that she would eventually allow the kids to branch off into the music they like to play.
At this age, I have only two goals for these lessons. One, to equip the kids with the skills to learn an instrument, and two, learn and participate in the value of family worship through singing and playing hymns together.
My kids have used Alfred piano books, and I don’t recall any songs like that off the top of my head.
Hymns in a Hurry by Ryan Kelly is a different piano approach, which my 14yo son uses along with continuing his Alfred books. It gave him a quick way to move into playing hymns – literally 10 minutes and he was playing a hymn. A second volume of it comes out soon, and he also offers video lessons if you want that subscription. He has Pop Music in a Hurry and Christmas Music in a Flurry as well. You can search Hymns in a Hurry on Google to find the website with an explanation of the method and a free sample lesson, and Ryan Kelly also has a YouTube channel with some videos.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>I think that the beginner Alfred book has or used to have two versions – the second version had the same material and tunes but Christian lyrics. We had been given both second-hand but I’m not sure if we still have either.</p>
My kids were using Hoffman Academy’s video lessons (from YouTube and the Hoffman website). Free! Paid lessons are just not an option right now. Some people might view his videos as twaddle in that they seem to be geared towards younger students, but the music concepts are all there and we have not encountered content like ghosts or anything.
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