New Student: Alfred Premier

Note: this post is specifically written for new students beginning in the Alfred Premier series.

Beginning student materials

Welcome to Newell Piano Studio! I'm so excited to work together to learn to play the piano. Our lessons will focus on learning from one of my favorite piano books called Alfred Premier, which is one of the top piano method series in the market. This pedagogically up-to-date book has a great mix of fun music ranging from classical pieces to traditional songs and more. Each song also includes a teacher duet for us to play together and sound extra fancy. Students who practice regularly will typically take two semesters to complete this book and by the end will be reading and playing sheet music on the staff. So exciting! You can order your copy of the book from Amazon here or visit a local music store to pick up a copy in person.

In addition to your lesson book, you will also need a set of music flashcards, which you can order here. We will use these to play games during lessons and you will practice with them at home.

Each student will need their own blank notebook (a regular spiral bound notebook is great) used only for piano for lesson notes. I will take notes on what should be practiced during the week in the notebook, you can consider it your "at-home piano teacher". While siblings may share lesson books and flashcards, they cannot share notebooks. Students should also each have their own folder to keep loose leaf music and worksheets in.

Students should keep their music, flashcards, notebook, and folder in a bag or backpack dedicated only to piano supplies. It is so helpful to have a place for piano materials to be that's easy to grab on your way out the door to lessons.

To summarize, please come prepared to your first (and subsequent) lesson with the following:

• Bag or backpack only for piano supplies

• Blank piano only notebook

• Lesson book

• Flashcards

• Folder for additional worksheets/music

Please let me know if you have any questions! I hope you enjoy learning from Alfred Premier as much as I love teaching from it!