John Thompson

Part 1

Now available as a book and Online Audio edition.

This course is designed to present the easiest possible approach to Piano playing, complete with an amusing family of characters and illustrations to help emphasise the information being taught. Part one is devoted to developing fluency in reading by note, the biggest hurdle for most young children. The range is purposely limited. Only five notes up and five notes down from middle C are presented and time values do not go beyond crotchets.

Each book of the course contains its own writing exercises, sight reading drills, review work and later, technical studies. Accompaniments for teacher or parent are supplied with most of the examples.

The accompanying Online Audio is a wonderful tool for enhancing this method with highly acclaimed midi-orchestrated backing tracks. Practice becomes so much fun!

Each track is split to enable the pupil to hear both Piano part and accompaniment if the balance is centred, the accompaniment without Piano if the balance is to the left, and the Piano part alone if the balance is all the way to the right.
There are also two tempos for each song, allowing slower practice while it's needed - an ideal accompaniment for learning!