Read Those Notes 3

Kevin and Julia Olson provided a big finish to their series on Note Reading.  The Perfect Start for Note Reading is the third and last book of this note reading series.  (There are still other Perfect Start books for other things.)

Much like book one (read about it here) and book two (here), this book begins with an overview of musical terms.  Students will find many of the concepts in the book listed and defined.

You'll find:

Tempo: Largo, Andante, Allegro

Dynamics: piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, forte

Note values: quarter, half, dotted half, whole

Rest values: quarter, half, whole

Bar lines and measures

Time Signatures: 2/4, 3/4, 4/4

Musical alphabet (pictures of where keys are located on the piano)

Staff (pictures of where notes are found on the staff)

Each exercise is 8 measures long, and accompanied by an optional teacher duet.  There are accompanying pictures and fun words for each.  These are often fun for students because they are "bite sized" pieces that help the student understand the progress being made.  Though they may only play 16 measures, they finished 2 exercises this week.  

This book starts where the others leave off.  The first book covers Middle C position.  The second book branches to C position and treble C position.  This book begins with Low G hand position, introducing all bass notes at once.  (Right hand is still in C position.)  Unit 2 introduces G position for the right hand with notes G,A,B.  Unit 3 adds notes C & D.  Unit 5 moves the left hand to the G position covering middle C.  Unit 5 changes to F position.  All flats are marked as accidentals rather than key signatures.  Unit 6 moves to D position, again marking the sharps as accidentals rather than key signatures.

This book moves faster than the previous books, taking into consideration that your student is probably capable of handling more than one new note at once.  The position switching at the end includes notes the student is familiar with, but uses a different hand position.  There are also helpful hints in the last units regarding accidentals, such as "This note is still sharp because of the sharp symbol earlier in the measure."

This book has been wonderful for some students that are struggling to move out of C position.  The exercises are short enough that the student can be successful.  For those students who think these exercises are short and silly, most still enjoy playing with the duet or singing the words.

You can find this book on Sheet Music Plus for $7.95.