New Ideas Piano Series Tutorial: Preliminary Level C

Author: Bao Huiqiao, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-04-01
Features: The "Preparatory Level" of the "New Concepts Piano Series" consists of three volumes. Volume is designed for complete beginners to "start using" the piano, with a focus on children but also catering to adults. As an important feature, we adopt the modern educational philosophy that strongly emphasizes the "practice before theory" concept. In the first half of this volume, instead of learning notation first, students start by playing the piano, allowing their fingers to make contact with the keys and letting their ears listen to the music they play. Gradually, they learn to read the five-line staff in the second half. Unlike "Beyer," which focuses for a long time on the right hand and white keys, this volume starts with black keys and uses both hands from the beginning. In terms of musical style, instead of first establishing and consolidating the functional system of major and minor keys before breaking it, students are exposed to a variety of musical styles from the very beginning of their piano studies—of course, this requires the teacher's involvement. All the pieces in this volume are accompanied by teacher parts, allowing teacher and student to play together so that students can experience vivid and complete musical images and rich harmonies from the very beginning of their learning. This ensures that music and technique enter the learning process together, rather than focusing on technique first and music later. The second volume is structured around the theme of playing skills, explaining typical performance techniques through pieces that gradually increase in difficulty. The third volume is organized around musical theory, combining pieces to explain basic musical concepts such as intervals, chords, and modes. The tasks of these two volumes are no longer just "beginner-level" but prepare students for further learning in the "New Concepts Piano Series." The second feature is the inclusion of musical theory and knowledge. To play the piano well, theoretical knowledge is essential. The third feature is about musical style and left-hand application. As mentioned earlier, starting from Volume, students are guided to explore a wide range of musical styles and practice independent use of both hands. Therefore, the later two volumes include more pieces with pop music rhythms, half-step progressions, and sections where the left hand carries the musical theme. The fourth feature is the inclusion of Chinese-style pieces. Since the piano is not a traditional Chinese instrument, playing Chinese pieces may not be as fluid as playing foreign pieces in terms of finger technique. That is, Chinese pieces often appear more technically challenging in the beginner stage. The fifth feature is about the tempo of the pieces. Volume is for beginners, and most pieces in the second volume are also very simple. By the third volume, some pieces have technical difficulty comparable to certain pieces in the "Basic Level" Volume of the "New Concepts Piano Series." The "new concepts" approach requires new ideas for the pieces. To meet the requirements of the textbook, we have adopted and composed a significant proportion of new pieces, approximately three-quarters of them. This proportion may even be higher than that of other volumes in the "New Concepts Piano Series." This could be considered the sixth feature of our "Preparatory Level" textbook.