Piano Discoveries: Discovering the World of Music at the Keyboard, Off-staff Starter, On-staff Starter and Levels 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3 and 4. (Keyboard).

Piano Discoveries: Discovering the World of Music at the Keyboard, Off-staff Starter, On-staff Starter and Levels 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3 and 4, by Janet Vogt and Leon Bates and illustrated by Joseph Stokes. Heritage Music Press, a division of the Lorenz Corporation (Box 802, Dayton, OH 45401-0802), 2001. 48-64pp., $6.95 each. Beginning to elementary.

At each level, there is a Piano Discoveries (method) book and a Theory Discoveries (theory) book; a MIDI accompaniment (SMT) disk and a CD accompaniment disk for each level are projected to be available at a later date. Levels 2B, 3 and 4 books also were not yet available at the time of this review.

Piano Discoveries offers the option of beginning in the Off-staff Starter book (pre-reading notation) for younger beginners or the On-staff Starter book (immediate introduction to the Grand Staff) for older beginners. Both books lead into Level IA. The Off-staff Starter uses a typical beginning approach with pieces on the black keys (pre-reading notation), leading to an introduction of the Grand Staff and Middle-C reading approach for the rest of that level. The On-staff Starter book begins directly with the Middle-C approach. In Level 1A there are pieces in Middle-C position, C-major finger position, G-major and F-major positions, but also an interesting set of pieces in D minor (an early opportunity for the children to hear minor tonality). In Level 1B a wider variety of interesting sounds are evident: minor with #4, major with #2, as well as the usual major five-finger pattern positions. The authors seem aware of the need to encourage young pianists to venture out of fixed position playing, and pieces at this level show some shifting of positions, usually by octave leap up or down. By Level 2A, I was pleased to see some challenging pieces with quickly shifting hand positions, like "Bumble Bee and the Fly" from Level 2A.

The Theory Discoveries offers supplementary written and aural exercises for note reading and rhythmic development. A "Teacher's Corner" section at the back of the theory books outlines some wonderful suggestions for singing, ear training, rhythmic dictation, composition and improvisation that may, unfortunately, be overlooked. It may have been more helpful to include these suggestions throughout the method book.

While my personal preference for a beginning piano method is one that uses the intervallic and landmark ...