John Thompson's Easy Piano Course (4)

Author: John Thompson
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-11-01
Features: The main purpose of Book 4 is to give students the opportunity to further enhance their ability to apply the knowledge learned in the previous books. For this reason, this book no longer presents additional technical requirements. Instead, it introduces a few new keys: E Major, B Major, A-flat Major, D-flat Major, and G-flat Major. The examples related to the new keys are intentionally written to be very simple. The ledger lines between the treble clef and bass clef are also illustrated with diagrams, helping students identify the notes on the ledger lines in an easy-to-understand way. The explanation of dotted quarter notes uses examples in 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures. There are also examples that require finger changes to play repeated notes. Of course, this helps to expand the range of hand movement and prepares students for a new technique introduced in Book 5—the technique of the thumb passing under the hand and other fingers crossing over the thumb. When playing some of the later pieces in this book, students are allowed to use the pedal simply and preliminarily, preparing them for the detailed study of pedal art in Book 5.