My mom started piano lessons at a very early age…4 I believe.  Practice, practice, practice she did and is to this day a very capable pianist.  Brett and I knew that we wanted our girls to learn to read music and hopefully play an instrument so we researched a bit to find out what age would be optimal to begin lessons.  The consensus we reached was at about age 8 as they are able to read, sit for sufficient length of time and follow directions at that age.  Mom has the piano still at her home but has offered it to us when the girls are ready.  Since P1 will be 8 this fall, we now need to start planning for the cost of lessons.  Recently I was able to review a music program for the computer and found it a good introduction to music.  Almost simultaneously, I received word from Parent Reviewers that I would get to review the award-winning Piano for Preschoolers and I was thrilled!

Piano for Preschoolers is a system that allows parents like Brett and I with minimal or nonexistent musical background to teach our children from as young as 3 beginning piano.  The website describes the program as:

The Piano for Preschoolers beginning piano lessons teach what a child would learn in 6-12 months of a group piano class or private piano lessons.  With this method, a child learns rhythm, counting aloud, finger numbers, finger position, and reading music (including the names of the notes).  The familiar songs in the beginner piano book give a child the opportunity to practice these musical concepts. The 17 songs include Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old MacDonald, Ten Little Indians, etc.  A seven or eight-year-old child will move much quicker through the preschool piano lessons than a three-year-old.  An older child will be very familiar with the songs in the music book.  A caring parent or grandparent is the best judge whether these beginning piano songs will motivate an older child.

The Piano for Preschoolers course includes everything preschoolers need to master beginning piano

Here’s what the Piano for Preschoolers kit includes:

- A beginners piano book containing 17 familiar songs written on color-coded on a traditional music staff
- 17 track CD with voice-over “count aloud” for each song
- Color strip to sit on your piano or keyboard to guide your preschooler to the correct key
- And, a step-by-step Parent/Teacher Guide

I thought this sounded great but might be a little too good to be true.  I was wrong.  Piano for Preschoolers uses color-coded notes written on a traditional musical staff to teach beginning piano. You place a durable color strip behind the keys and it guides the child to the correct key for each note. Since the songs were songs they knew, both P1 and P2 were really interested in trying it out. Piano for Preschoolers teaches the children to read actual notes and play them right on the piano from the very start.  You cannot believe how happy they were when they each picked out the notes and played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

Like I said before, the system included a Parent/Teacher Guide with step-by-step instruction for each song in the child’s book, allowing us as the parents to know how to help our kids, even though we do not play ourselves. The guide goes through the concept each song is teaching so we can understand the concepts ourselves and then be really able help the child as needed.  Yes, it is that well done.

So now the real test, would I buy it?  Absolutely!  We still plan for our girls to take actual lessons but I cannot imagine a better way for them to start out and build great self-esteem in the process.

Piano for Preschoolers is available to order online and retails for $39.95.  Perhaps best of all, it comes with a 30-day 100% satisfaction guarantee.  Yes, it is that good of a program!

Our thanks to Parent Reviewers and the Piano for Preschoolers company for making this review possible.