Have you ever stood in a music store and stared in dismay at shelves and shelves full of music methods? Have you pondered whether to try this method or that? Have you paged through books, wondering if you could get by with an all-in-one or if you should buy a performance book, a theory book, a technic book, etc., etc., etc.? (We've been watching The King and I, can you tell?)

Voice of experience here. I have looked at more piano books than you can shake a stick at! (Though why you'd want to do that is beyond me.)

The Progressive Pianist is an all-in-one piano course, intertwining piano instruction with related topics in music theory.

The book begins with a pep talk, first encouraging you to keep up your practice after the initial enthusiasm begins to wane. As it most likely will. Self-discipline is hard, but it pays off. This theme, by the way, is reinforced later in the book with song lyrics. (Song titles: “I Will Practice,” “Work the Fingers,” and “Step by Step.”) The introductory material includes notes on technique (using the fingers, hands, wrists, and elbows), errors to look for, dealing with difficulty, encouragement, and exhortation to establish a steady practice schedule. I'm a little leery of using this course to teach your own student if you've had no piano training whatsoever, just because I was taught that hand position is crucial, and incorrect hand position can actually cause nerve damage. If you've had some piano training so that you know something about proper hand position and where to find “Middle C,” I'd say you can easily use this book with your children, to teach them to play piano at a fraction of the cost piano lessons are going for these days.

The forty lessons are short, about two pages each, for the most part a page of music to play and a page of theory practice. There are several written lessons as well distributed at intervals in the book (“Elements of Music,” “Sound,” and “About the Piano” among them). Suggestions and teaching notes appear in boxes on the pages to call your attention to them.

First of all, The Progressive Pianist acquaints you with the basics of written music and the piano keyboard. When rhythm is introduced, there's little indication that counting is a steady beat (I have a child who speeds up and slows down again while counting); again, if you have some rudimentary knowledge you'll be able to work through the material without any problem. You might supplement the introduction of rhythm, measures, and bar lines by putting on a CD of children's music, or downloading and playing the accompaniment tracks (see next paragraph) and walking to the beat, just to get used to the steady, even rhythm of counting.

The Progressive Pianist website offers a big help for the do-it-yourselfer. Downloadable MP3 tracks are available for the performance pieces in the book. You can hear each piece played at speed with a metronome and then with full accompaniment. It might take you some time and practice to work up to the speed on the recording. The songs are very simple to start, but written to please the ear. When I played one of the tracks to check out the music, my littlest one ran into the room and exclaimed, “I like this music, Mommy! It makes me want to dance!” Online support is also available by email.

I like, too, that when the songs have lyrics they are wholesome and even character-building in nature.

Finger exercises are introduced in Lesson 6, serving as a warm-up to your practicing. These are designed to strengthen your fingers and increase dexterity.

By Lesson 8, you're ready to play a simple tune with your right hand, and by the end of the book you're playing “two hands together.” Along the way, you'll be learning about time signatures, notes (pitch and duration) and rests, sharps, flats, and naturals, dynamics and other musical notations.

Part One concludes with a review test, a section containing the 29 finger exercises referred to in the lessons, and an answer key to all theory exercises plus the final review test. Two pages of blank manuscript pages are included for your convenience. The last page in the book is a handsome Certificate of Merit.

Currently three volumes of instruction are available in The Progressive Pianist series. At the Progressive Pianist website you can see a list of the concepts covered in each volume. There are also two books of pieces to play, Hymns and Christmas Favorites (see accompanying review).

The Progressive Pianist is suitable for all ages. It's not too babyish for adults who want to learn to play, but it's also appropriate for young children and everyone in between.