Rafael Marco S.

Balbin
MM Piano Pedagogy

Understanding How Method Books Act as Tools in Piano Learning: A Pedagogical Perspective
of Wunderkeys Method

During the early 1900s, there were no standards for piano teaching. It was only around that
time when research on piano technique, music journals, and music organizations started to
emerge, and everything seemed new. It was only around the mid-20th century when teachers
started to realize that to teach piano effectively, they had to see students as individuals who
have different learning needs and capacity. Teachers during this time developed an
understanding about the motivations of their students and then adjusted their teaching
practices and strategies according to everyone’s needs. This then started the emergence of
multiple method books featuring different approaches in reading, rhythm, improvisation, ear
training, technique, and other fundamentals in piano learning. Method books this time now
catered learners in different levels.¹

According to Pete Jutras, the previous Editor-in-Chief of Clavier Companion, “A method is a

tool, and it can be very useful. The method provides students with materials enabling them to
learn and apply new skills, sequences, and concepts. There are many important tasks, however,
that even the best method can never do it by itself—these tasks are the responsibility of the
teacher.”

A method book is a textbook for a particular musical instrument. In this case, we are talking
about the ones particularly for the piano. These method books are chosen by teachers to help
teach their students in a seemingly organized and step-by-step manner starting from the easier
concepts to the harder ones, and all of which are arranged by the author. It has a compilation
of songs in different genres such as classical, popular music, and some folk or traditional types
of music. All of which are carefully arranged to suit the level of the student. While using the
method book, the teacher must assess each student and plan for a framework that works best.

The improvements and advancements of the methods used in piano learning have been
progressing significantly ever since. In the older method books, they rarely tackle the idea of
creativity. They simply explained musical concepts piece by piece and were usually focused on
finishing the book and on to the next. The method books today are now more appealing to the
eyes of students. It is more vibrant, less dull, full of illustrations in comparison to how they
looked like before. These said illustrations often result to striking the creativity of the student,
hence making the session more enjoyable and fun. After all, the engagement and enjoyment
felt during piano learning are crucial in enhancing teaching outcomes. Aside from their physical
appearance, books nowadays already show more innovative methods and materials than the
previous ones. This, in turn, results to a higher quality of musical training for the students.

¹Connie Arrau Strum, Michael James, Anita Jackson, and Debra Brubaker Burns, "Celebrating
100 Years of Progress in American Piano Teaching-Part II: 1950-2000," The American Music
Teacher (2000-2001): 24-25.
It is hard to measure the effectiveness of a method book, and there is not a one-size-fits-all in
this situation. The effectivity of a method book varies differently from each student and
teachers often go to using what works best for their individual students. With that said, we can
only compare method books by the features they have, but we can’t say that one is better than
the other.

Method Book Perspectives

Clavier Companion, now called Piano Inspires, published a special issue called “A New Look at
Current Methods” which aimed to review the piano method books from 2009 – 2011 to inform
their subscribers – mostly teachers – and help them decide which book is best suited to each of
their students.

As mentioned earlier, they described the method book as a tool rather than a guide. The
method book in itself will not lead to the student’s success and the outcome of the lessons will
still depend and rely on how the teacher applies and adapts it to the student’s needs.

In this publication, they evaluate the method books based on how it approaches the following
aspects of music—reading, rhythm, theory, skills, technique, repertoire, and supporting
technology. Let’s discuss them one by one.

There are four reading approaches to this aspect, and here are the following:
- Middle C approach
In this approach—as the name suggests--the first note learned is the Middle C and it is
shared by both thumbs. From here, notes generally expand outwards. The students
learn one note above the Middle C, then one note below; two notes above, two notes
below, and so on.

John Thompson was a pioneer in this Middle C approach. Until now, the most famous
way to read the notes on the treble clef space is to spell the word “FACE” and the many
students still read notes using mnemonics—Every Good Boy Does Fine (EGBDG) and
Good Boys Do Fine Always (GBDFA)

One key advantage of this approach is that the letter names are all utilized (A-G). It is
also easy to locate given that your both thumbs will share the same note. However,
there are also disadvantages to this approach. One of which is the student may develop
a fear of black keys. Method books with this kind of approach in notation has a delay in
the introduction of sharps and flats. Next disadvantage is the finger to note association.
The Middle C approach might cause the student to associate certain notes to certain
finger numbers. This is because they are always played with the same finger numbers in
multiple songs. Once done with the Middle C position, the student may have difficulty in
using different notes with different finger numbers.

- Multi-key approach
 In a multi-key approach, the student is introduced to all keys in quick succession in their
first few sessions. Some method books introduce it more gradually than the others, but
the goal is to introduce all keys—both major and minor—early on.

The student will not develop any fear to sharps and flats in this approach once
conquered, but the challenge is in the beginning itself. Since key signatures are
introduced early, visual confusion can be quite prevalent. Beginner students are also
fond of playing while in a certain hand position and this might pose difficulty on
positional orientation to them. Technical problems may also occur using this approach
especially when used on younger kids since playing five fingers on adjacent keys may
not be applicable for their hands yet.

- Intervallic approach
This approach focuses on recognizing patterns. The first patterns taught first are simply
the up and down movements with the absence of the staff. This is followed by steps,
skips, and to note pairs of greater distances.

Landmark notes are introduced in this approach. In Frances Clark’s “The Music Tree”
way back in 1955, they taught the student the Bass F, middle C, and Treble G to be able
to find other notes by interval.

This is a very interesting approach to the student. This uses the entire keyboard, and the
student understands that there is more to piano than just the middle octaves. Pattern
reading is also one of its advantages. It helps the student read several notes at once.
Instead of doing a single note identification, the student gets to see patterns in the
music and gets better understanding in its relationship with one another. This also
forms the basics of music theory. For its downsides, multiple landmark notes can be
confusing especially for the younger students. The terms used in these intervals and
registers such as “Bass C,” “Treble C” can pose difficulty to young and unfamiliar
children. Selections of music in method that uses this reading approach can also sound
unmusical. Because of having fewer notes to use and choose from, the composer of the
book is only limited to using a small number of notes, patterns, and music passages.

- Eclectic approach
Some authors realize that no method contains all the advantages without some
drawbacks, so they decided to go and compile the advantages of different approaches
and combine its good features.

Although it is an innovative idea at first, the lack of unifying teaching philosophy can
pose a problem as well. Some concepts may be arranged in no particular order and are
simply introduced one after the other.
Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages, therefore there is no method book that can
be used effectively to all students. If the method book is a tool that teachers use to their students, the
teacher owns the responsibility to choose which tool works best for every individual student. A good
piano teacher can develop a student’s skillset using any method and any approach, though it may
require a careful selection of supplement materials aside from the one primary book that’s being used.

Now, let us discuss about the rhythmic approaches. Rhythm is the music’s pattern in time and is the one
indispensable element of music. In its most basic form, counting rhythm can be taught by clapping or
tapping, but like the other approaches, they are just one of the ways to teach it. Method books also use
different and creative approaches in teaching rhythm to its students.

- Metric counting
In metric counting, the beats of the measure are counter as 1-2-3-4. All the approaches that we
will tackle later on will eventually arrive to this kind of counting. This is the simplest and most
straightforward way in teaching counting to the student.

- Nominative approach
This approach is also called as the chanting approach. In this type of counting, the teacher and
student use the names of the notes to count its rhythm. For instance, counting two eight notes
as two-eights, half-note for half notes, etc.

- Unit approach
This type of counting focuses on the values of a particular note. If metric counting puts
significance to the current note position in the measure, the unit approach stresses the duration
of the notes. For example, half note gets one-two, dotted half note gets one-two-three
regardless of what beat they are on.

- Syllabic
Syllabic counting uses words and its syllables to teach a note value. One famous example for this
type of approach is the usage of fruits. You can use the word grape, with its one syllable, to
count quarter notes, apple for two eight notes, and watermelon for four sixteenth notes.

Commonly, these approaches are combined together to reinforce one another, so the teacher must be
able to determine in which ways the student will learn rhythm much more efficiently. If the primary
method book being used only uses one approach, the teacher can then formulate an activity using
another approach to strengthen the student knowledge later on.

Moving forward, how a method book approaches theory relies solely on how the music concepts are
laid out in the book. Is it included in the primary method book? Or is it separate as a supplementary
material? This evaluation of its approach can also be based on its pacing in discussing the concepts such
as key signatures, intervals, chords, etc. These concepts are introduced in a strategic and logical manner
and method books teach then in different orders.

The skills, another criterion in the evaluation, talks about the necessary skills that are beyond piano
playing, but are essential to the student’s learning journey because it helps the student to have a better
understanding of music. This also improves the quality of their performances as it helps the student
understand the relationship between music elements. The example of such skills are ear training,
harmonization, transposition, cadences, and musical forms.

Let us now go to technique.

In the 19th and early 20th century, many pianists suffered from injuries related to piano playing. These
included Robert Schumann, Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Ignaz Friedmann. Although
there were already works about technical passages and patterns, there were no guidelines and
instruction about motions. It was clear that more information about technique was needed.

There were notable piano pedagogues through the years that tried to develop a pedagogy for a
healthier piano technique, and some even focused on scientific and anatomical ways to improve
technique. Piano pedagogue Dorothy Taubman is an example of such pedagogues that developed
approaches in technical approaches which reduce the chances of injury.

Technique is now an integral part of the learning journey. The proper piano technique focuses on the
connection of our physical body to the instrument. This includes paying attention the hand shape,
proper distance to the piano, breathing, and also the tension we feel. Once a good technique is
ingrained to the student, progress will be much easier and quicker than if you practice with poor
technique. These small details are very important to pay attention to as it adds up to huge
improvements overall. This also reduces risks of injury in piano playing as the student levels up to more
complicated levels.

Technique is defined in many ways, and it comprises different aspects. For Klingenstein, author of the
book “The Independent Piano Teacher’s Student Handbook: Everything You Need to Know for a
Successful Teaching Studio,” the ultimate goal of good technique is to produce a good sound, and to be
able to project the sound one wishes to create. He also said that technique is to allow the student to
play increasingly more difficult repertoire with comfort and ease. A player with good technique is
relaxed, yet in control of the sounds being produced. In the book Musical Fingers by Clark, Goss and
Holland, they define technique as “the study of the most musical, comfortable and efficient way to play
the piano. It involves using not only your fingers, but your entire body, your mind and especially your
ears.”

Music teachers incorporate technique during their lessons in order to build a good foundation of
technical training to the student.

Methods on how to teach technique have developed over the centuries that have passed, and an
experienced teacher today will be able to convey the importance of playing with a proper technique.
Drills and activities to improve technique are now part of the learning process to solve difficulties in
piano playing, and most modern method books today already include how-to segments in their books.

The evaluation of technique in a method book can be answered by its order of presentation and how
they are presented. Since method books are tools in piano learning, the technical difficulties of the
music and activities found in such books should be in order starting from the easier ones to execute to
the harder ones. Clavier companion used questions to evaluate this aspect and here are some to name a
few:

- How much technique tips do the book gives the student?

 - Is the technique part of the primary method book or it is addressed in a different book?
- Are there tutorials and how-to segments addressing the technical challenges of the piece?
- How does the book teach proper hand shape?
- How does the book illustrate steps, skips, and jumps?
- Do they address the weak fingers more than the strong fingers? Do they have a separate activity
for it?

There are more ways in order to discuss how the book applies technique learning in their methods, but
it has a common goal—to make sure that the student will be able to play the instrument without
tension, wrist pain, and making them able to tackle difficult passages and create a good sound without
risking injuries.

Since method books have different approaches in piano technique, the teacher must know which
technical elements are present in each book to pick the one that will suit best to the student. It isn’t
always about the question of what concepts are presented, but also how they are shown.

Repertoire is also included in the evaluation of a method book. To simply put it, this aspect questions
the quality of music pieces used in the book. Are the pieces similar from one another in terms of
harmony? Is the melody of the musical pieces enjoyable to the student? Do the music in the book only
fixes your hand to one position?

This is also the part where they evaluate the variety of the songs used. Do they offer variety of genres
such as folk, jazz, classical transcriptions? Or are the music original pieces written by the authors?

For the last part, supporting technology is also included in the criteria for evaluation. Supporting
technology talks about the software that is included to complement the learning of the student.
Nowadays, modern method books already include MIDI disks and CDs that have accompaniments for
each song, making it more enjoyable and fun to listen to. Sometimes, the CDs have two versions—the
practice tempo and the performance tempo. These supporting technologies are labeled by the Clavier
Companion as a “very cool metronome” because of its prerecorded accompaniments.

The evaluation of supporting technology of the method book is based on how these technologies are
applied in the music lessons. As the name itself suggest, it’s a supporting material and not a necessary
one, but it improves the quality of the music learning experience overall, hence most modern method
books nowadays have it.

These criteria will help us to have an in-depth understanding of piano method books. Using these
criteria I presented, we will evaluate a method book that first started to make learning materials for
preschoolers, then started to publish a whole series including two primer books. Let us talk about
Wunderkeys.

WunderKeys is a method book that caters to teach piano to young children. It was founded by
Andrea and Trevor Dow, who reluctantly turned potential students away from ages 3,4, and 5
for lack of a real program to teach piano way back in 2005.

Because of this, they embarked on a journey to start a piano program highlighting the many
benefits of music on the developing brain of preschool children. In their first book— Book 1 for
Preschoolers—their main objectives were to instill experiences to the student. This includes
recognizing sound, symbols, having aural awareness, being able to play long sounds and short
sounds. Part of it is also teaching the student to play notes moving from higher and lower.
After their Book for Preschoolers is their Primer Book for the piano, which we will be evaluating
today. Here are their following objectives for the Wunderkeys Piano Book 1:
- Gain an understanding of the keyboard.
- Read rhythmic notation and develop aural awareness.
- Explore correct piano posture and hand shape.
- Learn the musical alphabet.
- Identify notes on treble and bass staves.
- Play pieces accessible to small hands.
- Explore dynamics and time signatures.

Now let’s discuss its features.

First Experience/Pre-reading

Most of their pre-reading activities are

included in the Book for Pre-schoolers.

Are you familiar with games such as Guitar

Hero, Osu, O2Jam, when you need to press a
key exactly when it reaches the line and release
it once it ends? Similar execution is also done
here in the lesson book for preschoolers. The
arrow after the note means the student must
hold the note until the end of the arrow is
touched.

Although the student and teacher play their

respective parts separately, it still encourages
and practices collaboration between the two
nonetheless, which is another important thing
especially at an early age.
During the pre-reading stage, Wunder Babies finger gloves are used to determine which note to
play.

In Primer Book 1, the first thing that the student will learn is the left and right hands and their
respective finger numbers. This is followed by the black keys namely groups of two, and the
groups of three. This is the part where the students experience the differences of the sound
starting from the lower end of the piano up to the highest octave. After this, the teacher can
ask the student how it sounded. How is the first group different from the other group. Did it go
higher? Did it sound lower? Can you name an animal that sounds similar to the notes on the
right part of the keyboard? How about on the left part?

The way WunderKeys took this first experience is wonderful and smart because it promotes
creative thinking, interaction, and bond during lessons.

After the introduction of the black keys, the student now separately plays the groups of two
and groups of three black keys in different finger numbers—right hand first, and then the left
hand. It is illustrated using a very interesting feature of this method book which uses a two-
lined staff without a clef symbol which they call the Wunder Staff.

Some method books also have this feature, but don’t use two
lines. The purpose of this is to teach students about steps on
the piano in a not so overwhelming way compared to learning
it from the grand staff. In Wunderkeys, they use a two-lined
staff for easier transition to the grand staff later. The first set
of activities is 1-2 measures long, then shortly afterwards, a
whole system.
Reading
Before the grand staff is introduced, the white keys are first introduced in groups—CDE, FG, AB,
and then FGAB. These groups are all introduced in Wunder Staff again, which is enough even to
illustrate the four notes. This method makes sure that you get to experience all the notes
beforehand before you begin reading from the grand staff.

The approach of this method book on notational reading is the Middle-C approach, but you will
only find this in the latter part of the Primer Book One. Like the previous activities, the set of
activities are 1-2 measures long, then is followed by a whole two short pieces in the back page.
 The grand staff is later introduced by tracing lines above or below
the Wunder Staff, depending on the clef. This is then followed by
the explanation of the location of the Middle-C and how to
determine which hand to use based on its stem.

Notes are then introduced one by one like how they are
introduced in the beginning—starting with few measures only,
then again, two short pieces (See illustration below)

It’s only in the later part of Primer Book Two when they start
transitioning to a multi-key approach once the student has a
complete mastery of the all the notes.

The illustration shown is the first set of activities that the student does after learning the
Middle C position on the grand staff. In comparison to My First Piano Adventures Lesson Book
B, the Wunderkeys method book took a much longer time before learning the next note
because of the three short activities in the beginning. The Piano Adventures, on the other hand,
showed two short pieces (one for the right, one for the left) before moving on to the next note.
The pacing in this book is a lot slower compared to Piano Adventures which does an eclectic
approach to note reading. The Wunderkeys book layout is a lot more similar to the one that Hal
Leonard used throughout their books.

Hal Leonard Wunder Keys

Warm Up 1 Short Activities 1
Piece 1 Piece 1
Warm Up 2 Short Activities 2
Piece 2 Piece 2
Warm Up 3 Short Activities 3
Piece 3 Piece 3

Rhythm
Rhythm is one of the most important elements in music, and there are two aspects in rhythmic
training—first is the understanding and knowing the note values of each note, and second is
being able to execute them with a good sense of rhythm.

Note values are introduced after the student learns about the black keys, before going to the
white keys. The rhythmic approach of this method started off as syllabic, but mostly metric
afterwards. Quarter notes are first taught using the word “sub” as in submarine, then the half
notes using the word “div-ing” to represent the two beats. Of course, clapping, tapping and
other movements are also encouraged as the student counts to have better experience and
understanding. The dotted half notes and whole notes are approached using unit counting
already.

Theory and Skills

Book 1 and Book 2 of the Primer do not talk about theory. Perhaps it is because they mainly
focus on making the student more familiar with the keys first before introducing other
concepts. Intervals are taught, though only in their simplest forms such as steps and skips.
Book 2 of the primer ends with the student already able to play in p, f, mf, and mp, although it
lacks technical tips and activities.

Unfortunately, patterns and musical forms are also not taught in the two primer books in
comparison to the My First Piano Adventures which did “Mozart’s Musical Patterns” in their
Lesson book B.

Ear training and improvisation

Ear training, improvisation, transposition, and more important aspects of music learning are not
included in the book but are available as supplementary materials which can be found in their
toolkit.

In the toolkit, we can find activities for ear training such as rhythm flash cards which the
student can clap and more games and activities. In total, they have 21 sets of fun activities that
focus on rhythm, major and minor keys, long and short sounds, and many more. The teacher
can pick different activities every session to reinforce knowledge once needed. It also adds
variety to the lessons.

Technique
The Wunderkeys method book from Primer Book One to Primer Book two shows only a few
topics talking about piano techniques. In the Primer Book One, the proper posture and distance
do the piano is taught directly through imitation. For the round hand shape, they simply
described it as holding on to a ball.

In comparison, most method books usually have illustrations and lessons for proper posture
and round hand shape. The Piano Adventures discusses round hand shape by their “Making
Glasses “activity, and Alfred’s All-in-One Course teaches it by telling students to pretend that
they have a bubble in their hand.
Although not included in their supplementary materials and no mention in their primary
method book, Andrea Dow posted a video on the usage of the “Fingercise Cup” to strengthen
the finger joints and emphasize proper hand shape.

Since we’re here, let us talk about some ways in teaching proper technique to the student.

Wrist is an important body part which we use in piano playing. As Irina Gorin, a piano
pedagogue and an author, stated during her talk called “Healthy Technique at the Beginning
Stages of Piano Lessons,” the wrist can be compared to our neck by asking the audience, “Can
you imagine how hard our life would be if our neck wouldn’t move or turn? Our hand cannot
move if wrist is stiff and immobile.”

The most basic activity to do firsthand is rotating the wrist in circular motion. This helps the
student understand how flexible our wrists are and should be able to move them—horizontal,
vertical, rotating, and circular.

These movements can be taught in various activities. One is the Monkey Swing, wherein the
teacher would wrap a monkey stuffed toy (or any stuffed toy if not applicable) on the student’s
wrist. The student will then press a note with his/her middle finger and sway the stuffed toy
horizontally.

When teaching vertical movements, I tell my students to do zombie hands to have a relaxed
wrist. Unfortunately, most of them are still stiff while doing so. Here are two ways to teach the
vertical movements of the wrist.

First, the student will lay down his/her fingers on the white keys of the piano. As the student
inhales, the wrist would go up, and then go down as the student exhales. The goal of this
activity is to make sure that the fingers will keep standing on the white keys all throughout the
sets of movements. The student can start first with shallow breathing, then gradually breathing
deeply to make bigger movements.

For the second way, the student will put his/her hand inside an elastic band. The teacher would
then pull up the other end and let the student’s hand hang. This will naturally cause a relaxed
hand. The teacher will then slowly drop it to the white key and the student plays a note. This
must be done multiple times so the student can remember the feeling of having a relaxed wrist.

Technique talks about the proper hand shape used in piano playing. Many method books
describe hand shapes in a variety of ways. Piano Adventures teaches this by using Stone on the
mountain, Donut hands, and as stated earlier, Alfred’s teaches us this through pretending
there’s a bubble in our hand and many more. As Irina Gorin stated, holding a thin object, for
example a coin, puts less tension to the wrist and puts our hand to a more natural position.

This technique was used in the My First Piano Adventures Lesson Book A where the student
creates a round donut shape with fingers 1 and 3.
Fun and Activities
One of the best features of this book are the games and
activities that the student and teacher can play during
the lessons. This promotes more interactive meetings, a
lively session, and can even prolong the attention span
of the student. Of course, this also makes the lesson
more enjoyable for both parties.

Off-bench activities are important to incorporate during

lessons. These are musical concepts and knowledge that
are taught without the use of a piano, usually to put
variety in the lessons and to make it more enjoyable.
These sorts of activities can change the whole trajectory
of a whole session and affect the student’s engagement.
This method book specializes in making the sessions fun
through activities and games.

Wunderkeys has a game for every musical concept it

teaches. The materials needed for the games are also
available at the end of the book.

You can freely cut and laminate them if you want for
easy usage and to prolong durability. Instructions are
also included which you can see at the back of the game
cut-out.

Repertoire
The songs in the Wunderkeys books are all composed by authors and accompaniments are
provided below each piece for the teacher to play. However, you can access their toolkit (to be
discussed later on) to find various arrangements in different genres and in different levels of
difficulty. The genres are varied and include tunes from Broadway, folk songs, jazz, and some
reduced classical pieces.
Website
If you are a teacher who decides to use WunderKeys to your students, this is probably one of
the things that you will be so grateful for. They have two websites which you can use. First is
the www.wunderkeys.com and the www.teachpianotoday.com

In the WunderKeys website, this is where you can see what they call as “The Toolkit.” These are
lesson printables, sheet music, holiday arrangements, easy transcriptions, and more. These are
all completely free and a part of what you get for using their book. Not only that, but you can
also easily download more games and activities free of charge if you need more than their
books have to offer. You can also find a teacher’s guide and catalogue in their website.

Their free materials also do not cater just beginner students, but they also provide sheet music
and resources for intermediate to early advanced students, including adults.
Aside from that, you can also see find the toolkit useful if you are a private teacher or own a
music school. I, myself, find it especially useful as someone who just started his teaching career
in recent years. In the toolkit, you can also find advertising materials, social media images,
parent resources, and even email templates.

The WunderKeys team helps the teachers and music school owners as much as they help the
students. With their templates and advertising materials, the WunderKeys method also helps
create a connection to the parent. It really is a learning journey where everyone is equally
involved.

Their other website, the www.teachpianotoday.com

is similar to the WunderKeys’ Toolkit, but without the
WunderKeys branding. These are learning materials
which you can use whether you are not using their
series of books. Of course, the contents are different,
but it’s still a generous course of action nonetheless
and you can really see how passionate the authors
are in terms of piano teaching. To top it all off, their
websites are still being actively updated up to this
date, and it’s frequent as you can imagine. They
upload new content especially for the holidays.

Community

There is a Facebook group called

WunderKeys for Piano Teachers which
Andrea actively participates in. It’s like a
support group or a customer service team
for the teachers who use the book.

This group is made for teachers who use WunderKeys

where they can discuss things about the method, ask
for some resources, technique and music advice,
templates, and even suggest improvements. Andrea,
the author, personally replies to queries and many
find it very useful because it even promotes
collaboration between teachers.
A completely dependent start
Although I like the way that Wunderkeys laid out the musical concepts, there are still some
suggestions for improvement.

With not many details about piano technique, the student will be completely dependent to the
teacher regarding this aspect. As stated earlier in the technique criterion, the book relies solely
on how the teacher teaches the technique. It is more of an imitation than showing illustrations
in the book. As I have discussed in the beginning, the teachers must put time in integrating
various strategies in teaching techniques to their lessons.

The design for the first few pages are quite hard to understand without the complete guidance
of a teacher. The student can easily get confused and lose focus when doing things by
themselves since it has a lot of texts and instructions especially in the pages with the games.
This book also does not cater to older beginners or adults starting out on their piano journey
because of its design and graphics.

Wunderkeys also stayed for a very long time in the Middle C position. The whole Primer Book 1
revolves around the learning of all the notes in the middle C position. As stated in the
beginning, there are problems that can occur because of this.
For a book that only teaches a few about technique, the first set of activities in the black keys is
hard to do for the student. Finger number 5 is known to be the weakest finger and young
students may even have trouble producing a sound.

Overall, I still believe that the WunderKeys method book is an amazing method because it
caters to all the parties included in the learning triangle—teacher, student, parent. It is fun and
engaging, carefully designed, and its outside the book activities and freebies are quite
commendable. However, with the absence of some technical drills and posture activities, I
highly suggest only using this method book with the guidance of a trained music teacher.
References:
Chen, Y. C. (2013) A Comparison of the Music Tree, Piano Adventures, And Hal Leonard Student
Library for Beginning Piano Teachers (Doctoral dissertation, University of Alabama, USA).
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