I’m a new teacher going on my second year. Last fall, started out using HL level one with my 8 year old beginner student. It didn’t work well with her. She is very musical and loves to sing, so I transitioned her into MFPA Book B. in January. She loved it. Plus, I have to say I was very impressed with the book. It was a perfect fit. I would not hesitate to use the book with an 8 year old if I felt it would fit with that student. Definitely would use for the younger kids.

I used Piano Town with my 13 year old daughter. She did really well with it. She never complained about it being boring. I used the cd that goes with it. The cd is unique in the melody lines are not obvious in the accompaniments. The student needs to play the meter correctly to play with the music and it can be tricky at first. I liked that feature as it reinforced learning to stress the first beat in every measure correctly.

For a 13 year old boy I tried Janet Vogt’s Mastering Music. I loved this book. I taught theory separately from the book, and bypassed the beginning intro. My student also enjoyed the book.