Students will work through Alfred's All-in-One Lesson Book 1 in this 18-week course. No prior piano lessons or musical experience is necessary. A tentative schedule is provided below, however, we will move at the student's pace. We will spend more time on certain concepts if students need more help. We may also move more quickly if students easily retain information and concepts from prior weeks. It will be fairly flexible to accommodate students' needs. Every week, we will review information from the previous week including songs, theory, worksheets, and newly learned concepts. Homework will be assigned at the end of class each week. Assignments may consist of songs, theory, Boom cards, worksheets and listening to audio recordings.

Week 1: Introductions. Learn how to sit properly at the piano, posture, hand position and placement, finger numbers, playing loud and soft, high and low. Introduction to black keys. Worksheets will be assigned to reinforce these concepts.

Week 2: Practice playing on the black keys. Students will learn black-key melodies. Quarter notes and half notes. Practice counting on middle C. Homework and songs assigned to reinforce concepts.

Week 3: Learn whole notes. Practice new black-key melodies using whole, half and quarter notes. Introduce bar lines and measures. Students will practice counting and sorting notes into measures. Practice writing stems on notes. 

Week 4: Introduce dynamics. Emphasis on rhythm from this point on. Practice new black-key melodies. 

Weeks 5 - 7: Introduce musical alphabet. Students will learn the middle C position. Practice identifying notes on the piano. Fun exercises on key recognition. Begin identifying direction of notes - step, skip, repeat. Ear training used to identify note direction. 
Introduce time signature, C position playing, dotted quarter notes. 

Weeks 8-9: Introduce the staff, lines and spaces. Begin bass clef writing. Students will practice left-hand notes in the C position. Introduce mnemonics in the bass clef. Continue learning new songs in the lesson book.
Begin treble clef writing. Students will practice right-hand notes in the C position. Introduce mnemonics in the treble clef. Songs assigned in treble clef.
Boom card assignments given for note-reading mnemonics.

Week 10: The Grand Staff. C position notes and writing games. Songs assigned in C position for the week. 

Weeks 11-12: Review mnemonics in both clefs. Introduce "legato" playing and practice drawing slurs. Introduce 2nd intervals and assign songs. Introduce tied notes and review slurs. Learn the difference between slurs and ties. Review 2nd intervals and practice songs before moving on.

Weeks 13-14: Introduce 3rd intervals. Practice rhythm counting with notes and rests. Practice ties and slurs. Review mnemonics. Several songs assigned to practice 3rd intervals. Students will be given the choice of song(s) to play as a solo piece in the last lesson. 

Week 15: Melodic and harmonic intervals. Practice playing and drawing intervals. Song review and selection for recital. 

Week 16: Introduce quarter rests. Review mnemonics and counting. Assign/learn final songs. 

Week 17: Review of concepts. Song review. Theory and review page on all concepts learned. Instructions for recital given for week 18.

Week 18: Recital time! Students will play for each other. If we have extra time, we will work on boom card rhythm, sightreading, quizzing, etc...

If we need another week or two to finish up the book, the extra classes will be provided at no extra cost.