"I got the idea to make this book after I had already written half of it. A couple of years ago I started to write songs for my own piano students; I wanted to write fun and fresh songs that were aligned with my pedagogical style. When I had written over 15 songs and basic music theory guides for my students, I realized that I’m going to make a book based on the materials I had created. And here we are! Most of my students started playing piano as a 7- to-10 -year-old so I wanted to create a piano book for beginners that is ideal for primary school children. When I had written over 15 songs and basic music theory guides for my students, I realized that I’m going to make a book based on the materials I had created. And here we are!I like to keep things playful and find it quite fun for adults as well to learn to play through such lighthearted beginners’ book as this one. I'm sure your "inner child" will be delighted! So your whole family can learn to play together with this book.

 

The content is designed so that anyone can start playing piano with this book, even if they don't take piano lessons. In the beginning of the book, you’ll learn the basic music theory, which allow you to get off to a good start in playing. More tips about different themes and techniques in different songs  are given along the book. I use finger numbering and mark the position of the hand in each song as I have found that with almost 20 years of teaching experience, these work really well to in the beginning.  With my method the students learn very quickly to play even if they can't read all the notes in the beginning. The joy of playing is the best state of mind to absorb new information, so we learn the notes along the way while playing fun songs.

 

The second reason that I created this book was that this year there would have been more students coming to classes than I could take, so I wanted to share my method and learning materials with as many people as possible so that anyone can start playing the piano right away, even if they aren’t able to get to piano lessons right away.

 

The songs in this book are fun, different, and tested and accepted by my own students. For example the ”Pikajuna” ie. ”Express Train” was a legend at birth, almost all my students will surely know it by heart for the rest of their lives! The difficulty level of the book is progressing at a pace that has been ideal for most of my students. Of course, every learner is an individual, so some spend a little more time on the songs and others play them through quite effortlessly. The style is free as long as you embrace what you were supposed to learn in the song. There are  a couple of popular bonus tracks at the end of the book: Harry Potter and Batman! I have arranged them into easier versions, so that you are able to play them with the skills you have after studying this book. If some songs feel too challenging, you can return to them later or play them for example with just the right hand.

​

With my book, I want to share everything I know about learning the basics of playing piano and enable the joy of playing for as many people as possible; share what I’ve been blessed to receive. Personally, I feel that piano playing has been one of the greatest sources of joy in my life; my music path began when I started piano lessons in an acquaintance's living room as a 4-years-old.  I have to say, though, that many of my students have only started classes at the age of 40+ and developed into quite skilled pianists, so age really doesn't matter.

 

I wish you a lot of fun times and  joy of learning with my book! I hope you’ll love it as much as I do.

 

With love,

Hanna"

​

​