Curriculum Overview

Petite Prodigies (Ages 5-6)

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Written for ages 5 and 6, My First Piano Adventure® captures the child’s playful spirit. Fun-filled songs, rhythm games and technique activities develop beginning keyboard skills. Three distinguishing features of the Lesson Book A

make it unique and effective for the young 5-6 year old beginner. 

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•  A strong focus on technique embedded in the book through playful technique games, chants, and carefully-composed pieces that gently lead the child into pianistic motions.

• An outstanding CD for the young student to listen, sing, tap, and play along with at the piano. The orchestrated songs on the CD feature children singing the lyrics.

•  The fanciful art features five multi-cultural children who are also learning to play. These friends at the piano introduce basic rhythms, white key names, and a variety of white and black-key songs that span classical, folk, and blues. Young students will listen, sing, create, and play more musically.

• Ear-training and eye-training are also part of the curriculum. The Fabers’ instructional theory “ACE” – Analysis, Creativity, and Expression, guides the pedagogy of My First Piano Adventure.

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 Prep Prodigies (Ages 7+)


Primer Lesson Book is designed for beginning piano students ages 7 and up. 
The Primer Level introduces the keyboard, note values, and the grand staff. Students play in Middle C Position and C Position through recognition of steps and skips, and learn letter names independent of finger number. Musicianship is built through the use of dynamics and coloristic experimentation with the pedal.

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 Prep Pedagogy Prodigies 


 Level 1 Lesson Book is designed for students who have completes the primer level. Level 1 introduces all the notes of the grand staff, elementary chord playing, and the concept of tonic and dominant notes.​
Students play in varied positions, reinforcing reading skills and recognizing intervals through the 5th.
Musicianship is built with the introduction of legato and staccato touches.
The book is organized into units which represent the major concepts and skills.
This level continues the interval orientation to reading across the full range of the Grand Staff. 
The 5-finger approach is presented here in a fresh, musically appealing way.

  Pedagogy Prodigies 


 Level 2A includes C, G, D and A major and minor 5-finger positions. Introduces eighth notes. Transposition and functional harmony skills are presented in highly musical settings. The Level 2A Lesson Book follows Level 1 and continues an intervalic orientation to reading through a musically appealing multi-key approach. Includes C, G, D, and A major and minor 5-finger positions. Transposition and functional harmony skills are introduced. 

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  Level 2B Lesson Book offers a systematic approach to scales, primary chords (I, IV, V7), and transposition for the keys of C, G, and F major. This new edition features nine new songs, plus enhanced arrangements of favorite pieces from the first edition. The new “Scale and Chord Adventures” appendix offers teachers the flexibility to explore major and minor scale and chord patterns in all twelve keys.
 

  Prestigious Prodigies 


 Level 3A introduces 3/8 and 6/8 time signatures and the triplet. Students learn the chromatic scale, the 7th, one-octave arpeggios, and explore the key of D major. Concepts from Level 2B  review includes the systematic approach to scales, primary chords (I, IV, V7), and transposition for the keys of C, G, and F major.

 Level 3B Lesson Book is a fresh, dynamic update for early-intermediate students. This is the level of contrasts: fast fingerwork contrasted with sonorous tonal colors, and traditional harmonies mingled with contemporary sounds. Compositions from Dvorak, Rebikov, and Liszt are included along with new Faber originals. Concepts include the octave, A minor, E minor, and D minor scales (natural and harmonic minor), motive and sequence, all 12 major and minor triads, triad inversions, syncopation, and introduction to sixteenth notes.

  Professional Prodigies 


 Level 4 stresses chord inversions, sixteenth notes, and minor keys. Attention to graceful touch and dynamics continues to focus the pianist on expression.  Concepts review the octave, A minor, E minor, and D minor scales (natural and harmonic minor), motive and sequence, all 12 major and minor triads, triad inversions, syncopation, and introduction to sixteenth notes.

  

Level 5 continues to build musicianship with the circle of 5ths, cadences, flat key signatures, and the three forms of the minor scale. The use of octaves, arpeggios, and dynamic playing across the range of the keyboard develops pianistic skill for the intermediate student.