The Top Preschool Piano Method: Meet ‘Piano Paintbox’!

What would it look like if a preschool method book was not motivated by reading?

That’s not to say I wanted to create a method book without reading. The thought experiment, and what became Piano Paintbox, was about priorities. My objective was to see what came out if I started from playing rather than reading as my number 1 goal.

So, with that being said, let’s talk about how Piano Paintbox works.

The 6 Elements in this piano method book

Element 1: Reading Approach in Piano Paintbox

The whole of level A is pre reading. Level B introduces a one-line stave and then a two-line stave. Level C is on the grand staff.

I want to be clear: This isn’t because young beginners can’t handle the grand staff. It’s because of the limitation the grand staff places on the composer and, subsequently, the pianist. 

When we start right away on the grand staff, we’re forced to make the first pieces sound like, “I am C, middle C, left hand, right hand, middle C.”

No shade to the composers of those pieces. If we want to start reading on the staff from the beginning, we have to do something like that. 

And we will also get stuck somewhere around the middle of the piano, or in specific fixed positions, for quite a while. 

What Piano Paintbox does is put the playing first. Students (especially young ones) need to get comfortable physically playing and navigating the keys – so that when we add on the layer of decoding notation, they’re not also battling to get their finger 4 moving independently of their finger 3, or struggling to find the F key.

The argument normally given for prereading or off-staff pieces is that it introduces students to directional reading and other foundational elements of the staff in a more accessible way. But that’s not the reason I did it. 

Piano Paintbox is written this way because I want students to play right away and move through lots of repertoire in their first few months.

Element 2: Rote Pieces in Piano Paintbox

There is one rote piece for every two reading pieces in levels A and B, and one rote piece per four reading pieces in level C. This is a pretty substantial number of rote pieces, even compared to other method books that include rote teaching. 

This is because little kiddos can thrive with effective rote pieces. These pieces allow them to play things they won’t be able to read for years. 

Through memory pieces, young beginners can learn to find patterns all over the piano, build up their aural memory and develop their listening skills. 

The rote pieces in Piano Paintbox are quite straightforward and quick for students to learn. As we progress through the levels, there are a few more challenging pieces thrown in too which allow them to gain confidence as they level up.

Element 3: Improvisation Patterns in Piano Paintbox

Many method books include some improvisation prompts these days, which I love to see! But I’m always supplementing them, since I believe in improv in nearly every piano lesson. 

The improvisation pages in Piano Paintbox include a description to activate the student’s imagination, a suggested teacher accompaniment and a keyboard map to show students the scale they’re using (if needed).

The teacher duet parts are written for those of us who aren’t comfortable going off the cuff. You can just ignore them if you prefer to play it your way. 

The number of improvisation pages matches the rote pieces. I suggest using these as the warmup at the start of the lesson if you’re not used to improvising in every lesson. That way it’s easy to fit in and you won’t forget. 

Element 4: Composition Prompts in Piano Paintbox

Each unit also includes space for a composition. These have loose parameters to inspire the student but it’s left up to them the shape it takes and how they notate it. These are a great opportunity to spark student curiosity and allow them to have ownership over their music.

Element 5: Written Theory in Piano Paintbox

The included theory pages are super simple, and that’s intentional. I wanted the writing/drawing work to provide a nice change of pace during the lesson, but not to take more than a few minutes. 

You can always add a supplemental theory book if you like (e.g. Thinking Theory Prep Book), but the pages in this preschool piano method are designed to be quickly completed during the lesson time. They often involve the teacher playing examples or discussing the questions with the student.

Element 6: Teacher Duets in Piano Paintbox

One thing that makes Piano Paintbox the top preschool method series is the teacher duets. There are teacher duets to go with every reading piece. These aim to strike that delicate balance between sightread-able for you, easy to play with for the student and just spicy enough to be interesting. 

All the teacher duets start with a two-bar introduction so that you can set the stage for the tempo and style, and your student can get used to feeling the beat before they come in. 

PS All the teacher duets are on the correct side of the page for you. If you’re playing secondo, you won’t be straining your eyes to see the tiny notation on the opposite side of the music stand. 🧐

I have an entire collection about tips, tricks and resources you can use when teaching preschool piano students. Check it out!

A Word About Technique 

There are no technique exercises in the Piano Paintbox books. Does that mean I don’t care about technique or don’t think it’s important for preschoolers? 

Absolutely not. 

What it does mean is that I know young beginners very well. In my opinion, the technique goal for students age 6 and under in the first year of piano lessons should be very simple: 

1. Good posture
2. Strong fingertips
3. Arm weight
4. Rounded hand shape  

That’s it. List complete.

If we achieve these 4 things, we’ve set them up with a great foundation. An older beginner would absolutely get into more nuances pretty soon, but the wee ones don’t need to. 

And, the thing is, you don’t need a book to cover these technique basics. You as the teacher can do this and all you really need is developmentally appropriate repertoire to reinforce it.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t really use those typical posture photos at the front of a method book. I’m going to cover all of that, but a book doesn’t really help me with it.

Clutter-free Preschool Piano method books

Finally, there is lots of white space on the pages in Piano Paintbox so that the student can focus on just the information they need. 

The way I achieved this was to cut out a lot of the extraneous information found in most method books that is actually for the teacher (or even for the self-learning student). There are no info boxes on new symbols or instructions on how to play a piece…because you’re there with your student to explain these things! And you’ll do a much better job than written text ever could of explaining a music concept to a young kiddo. 

However, if you’re a new teacher or you want more guidance, that is available to you. 

There is a teacher edition of the books which includes notes and suggestions throughout to give you more context. There is also a full course inside Vibrant Music Teaching if you’d like me to talk you through every piece in the books, step-by-step. 

The space is there so you can do it your own way if you’d like to. But you don’t have to go it alone if you don’t want to. 

Got more questions about Piano Paintbox?

I’m happy to answer them in the comments. And check out the video below for more on Piano Paintbox.🙂