Schaum’s Green Book (Pre-A) is the first in the John Schaum Piano Course, designed to be a gradual, fun and progressive introduction to the piano, to turn you in to a well-rounded musician.

A fun introduction to playing the piano

Schaum’s Green Book (Pre-A) contains has over 30 easy songs at a pre-grade 1 standard, with words to sing along and colourful accompanying illustrations. It contains fun titles such as ‘The Dragon’, ‘The Circus’, and some you might know, like ‘Old Macdonald’.  The Green Book introduces notes by finger number first with an activity page to draw around your hands and label your fingers 1-5. This is followed by some easy ‘finger number melodies’ and an introduction to the musical alphabet with some ‘letter name melodies’ to play. Once you have finished this introduction, you then learn how the notes in the ‘musical alphabet’ are written on the musical stave, with some notated short easy pieces to follow. The very easy piano music is marked with fingerings and performance tips, and throughout the book there are hand position charts and keyboard diagrams showing you where to put your fingers. By the end of the book you will be playing with two hands at once!

Musical development and practising tips

John Schaum’s Green Book introduces beginners to a wide range of good background knowledge, techniques and music theory; basic articulation, accidentals, key signatures, different hand positions, the time signatures of 4/4, 3/4 and 2/4, chords, the keys of C, G and F major, ties and crossing hands. It encourages you to practise in three ways: saying the letter names of the notes as you play, counting aloud as you play, and singing the words while you play. Tip boxes before each piece mean you are taught in bite-size chunks, and can practise each concept with a short piece before moving on. You are also gradually introduced to important theory knowledge as you play your way through the book.

Designed for teachers and pupils to work through together

Schaum’s Piano Course Pre-A is designed to work through in your piano lessons; it contains many tips and notes for the teacher, and preparatory drills for teachers to get you started on before new pieces. There is a musical quiz at the end, and when you’ve completed it, your teacher can fill in the certificate at the back of the book saying you’ve officially finished John Schaum’s Piano Course Pre-A!

Contents (A-Z)

• A Riddle
• Bone Sweet Bone
• Chief Thunder Cloud
• Deep Sea Diving
• Donkey Party
• Eskimo Boy
• Gooseberry Goose
• Hot Dog Stand
• Lightning Ranger
• Monkey Business
• Mr. Frog is Full of Hops
• Myrtle the Turtle
• Old MacDonald
• Oscar the Octopus
• Porcupines (adapted from J. Haydn)
• Power Shovel
• Pretty Polly
• Submarine
• The Circus
• The Computer
• The Detective
• The Dragon
• The Eagle
• The Funny Bunny
• The Happy Halibut
• The Ice Cream Cone
• The Jet Plane
• The Speed Boat
• The Streamline Express
• The Wind Sock
• The Wren and the Swan
• Watchman’s Song (adapted from E. Grieg)