Dogs and Birds Bk. 1: Supplementary Notes and Lesson Plans for Parents and Teachers

This book is a guide to teaching children the material in Dogs and Birds on the Keyboard Book 1. The Dogs and Birds approach, allows very young children to learn the piano, even before they know the alphabet. The music is suitable for children between the ages of 3 and 7. The method uses animal symbols to represent the musical notes, for example Cat is C and Dog is D. The animal names are monosyllabic and children are encouraged to sing the names as they play the tunes on the piano or keyboard. These supplementary notes to Book 1 describe all the additional musical games and exercises which form part of the Dogs and Birds method. This book is useful for both parent and teachers, and by using it parents can teach their children the material in book 1. It gives a set of lesson plans which take students through book 1, supplementing the material at all stages with additional musical games. The extra elements of the method include rhythm exercises, sung finger exercises, sight-singing, sight-reading, singing and listening games using a set of wooden animals and a large set of staves, improvisation, composition and telling stories about the illustrations.
These supplementary notes also contain helpful tips for teaching very young children (4 years old and under). It explains all the musical notation necessary for working through book 1, thereby enabling parents without any prior musical knowledge to teach their children the material in book 1. Working through this material can provide a good parent child bonding opportunity, and this provides the child a firm musical foundation for the study of any instrument, including the piano. A CD of all the musical pieces and rhythm exercises in Book 1 is included with these supplementary notes.