Can someone recommend me a good book for a piano beginner ?

I know of a few books. I am self-taught who learned from "Alfred`s Basic Adult Piano Course." There`s levels One, Two, and Three. I just did the first one for the basics and that was good enough for me. But it`s easy to understand and I had no problems with it.

I started with J.W. Shaum books when i was 7. The first book is the green book (beginner) and goes all the way up.

I am 13, and am currently using `Alfred`s Basic Piano Library`, a great course to elarn piano with .

Jessie

Hi - It depends on how old you are, what type of learner you are (aural, visual etc). If you`re an adult, a GREAT book to read (not a learning book, but a book written by an adult learning to play piano) is "Piano Lessons, Music, Love and True Adventures" by Noah Adams. You`ll love it! Mr. Adams talks about his struggles to teach himself, to find a teacher, to find time to practice, to find an instrument etc- a great book!

Re method books, I personally love teaching with the Faber and Faber series, but also use Hal Leonard (these are also great for students with disc-drive instruments - they have midi discs, as do the Faber & Faber series now, although I believe they also come with CDs for the technology challenged!) For very young children I love Music for Little Mozarts as well as Piano Discoveries. For older kids or adults I`ve used the Alfred`s methods. For adults, the Faber and Faber adult series is just great, and probably fairly "do-able" for self teaching.

Two more non-method book I`d highly recommend are "Making Music for the Joy of It" (A guide for adult beginning and amateur musicians) by Stephanie Judy (ISBN 0-87477-593-0) (extremely motivating and an absolute joy to read!), and "Sound Choices, Guiding Your Child`s Musical Experiences" by Wilma Machover and Marienne Usler (a FANTASTIC resource!)(ISBN 0-19-509208-2)

Best of luck to you, and please to try to find a really good teacher for at least a short period of time, to get you started with a really solid foundation. You`ll end up as good as your foundation, and if that`s not too great, you`ll have a lot of remedial work to do sometime in the future. (Obviously, I teach!)
Carol