Smallwood's Piano Tutor

Fantastic tutor for beginning to play piano. I started with this (by my piano teacher) when I was 9 - 59 years ago. It was good then and delighted to see its still going strong now. As they say, if it's not broke don't fix it!Excellent tutor and great little tunes to get you or your youngsters started. Now it’s my Grandchildren’s chance to learn the piano (even on the same piano I did!)

This was the main book I was taught on, from way back in 1960 onwards, and I reached Grade 8 etc and my life has been in Music ever since. Now I'm teaching piano to adults, and decided to use this as well as the more modern ones available because of the thorough grounding it gives and the way it progresses. This is an exact reprint of the original - copies of which are rarely available, as people tend to keep them and hand them down the generations! I recommend any learner to use this book along with anything else.

I've had an on-off relationship with the piano over the years & restarted lessons this year after a hiatus of several years.My new piano teacher recommended this book. First impression was: this looks old & fuddy-duddy. But my first impressions were wrong. I am very impressed & am enjoying working through it.This is a no-nonsense tutor which goes through the C scale first & then progresses to G. There's a reassuring feeling of structure and progression here. It's not rushing you through, progressing glacially slowly, or making it "fun for the kids". I've seen a few tutor books in my time but this one really is the best. It's certainly stood the test of time!Recommended.

Very comprehensive introduction to piano with no gimmicks. Obviously tried and tested..Perhaps a little daunting at first, because the lack of illustration makes it a little ‘uninviting’ but on the other hand thaThere are no distractions! Perhaps the rather old fashioned easy pieces (many of them hymn related) are a bit serious but do the job of teaching well.

I think this book has been around for 70 - 80 years and is still preferred by some teachers. It starts from the real basics and gradually works up to some good quality performance pieces and piano duets. If used along with a decent teacher then complete beginners can make steady, solid progress