Selected and Reviewed by ANDREW EALES
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Since its launch in 2018, the Australian animated series Bluey has conquered the pre-school world, while winning multiple awards, critical acclaim, and praise for its positive messages, wholesome family values, and focus on playful childhood learning.
Created and written by Joe Brumm, Bluey has spawned a stage show, video game, upcoming feature length movie, and an avalanche of merchandising that includes toys, books, an album of music from the show, and now the Bluey First Ever Piano Book, written by the show’s music supervisor and composer Joff Bush, and published by Faber Music.
The Bluey First Ever Piano Book is, like the television show, aimed at pre-school children, designed for early informal learning without an instructor, and for shared enjoyment by children with their parents. As Faber put it,
“This book is for beginners to play with their favourite grown-up. No musical know-how is required. You’ll be helped along the way by Busker (AKA Bluey composer, Joff Bush). Have fun making Bluey music magic together!”
Bluey First Ever Piano Book is unlike anything I have previously reviewed, so I began by watching a few episodes of the show (purely for research purposes, of course). But as a piano educator, what’s my opinion of the book?
Learning through play
Regular readers may remember that I have frequently championed the importance of learning through play. And if this is important in formal music education, how much more so for the informal learning that precedes tuition with a professional.
While many children have followed their curiosity to the family piano at a young age, it’s fair to say that parents are often at a loss when it comes to how they might introduce musical learning to their children.
And this is precisely where this book steps in. As Joff Bush writes in his introductory page, A Letter To The Grown-Up:
“If you are both new to the piano, a very warm welcome indeed. We made this book to be a shared experience for both grown-ups and kids, so you can discover the magic of playing the piano together. Each kiddo is unique and may find different things challenging. Don’t worry about being perfect or ‘fixing’ every mistake. The most important thing is not that they learn piano but that they learn to fall in love with music. Music is fun, beautiful, and awesome!”
Bush goes on to provide a short but helpful checklist of tips that will not only help parents get the best out of the book, but further support their kiddos as piano learners once they (hopefully!) go on to take formal lessons.
The fun of learning
The Bluey First Ever Piano Book appears in landscape format, and is lavishly illustrated in full colour throughout.
There are 40 pages, which are crammed with immersive, playful content to inspire musical learning. There’s even a bunch of colourful stickers to use alongside the material.
Over the course of the book, Bush introduces many of the important fundamentals of piano playing, such as:
- physical warming up
- singing, and aural development
- high and low pitch across the whole piano
- imaginative, creative exploration of sounds
- finger independence, along with numbering
- keyboard geography, finding the keys/notes
- note letter names, duration and rhythm
- hand-drawing music notation (shown to aid reading)
- playing simple melodies in the Middle C position
- intervallic reading (steps and jumps)
- using both hands equally
Importantly, these are all introduced in the context of games, puzzles, and the vivid colour images of the Bluey universe and characters.
Encouragingly, the book credits a range of educational experts for their direct involvement, including a small team of composers, writers and contributing editors, an early childhood music consultant, a music therapist, and a list of official testers from different childhood educational and parenting backgrounds. Clearly a lot of work went into deciding what learning to include here, and how.
Everything here is so simple that I have no doubt most parents, even those with absolutely no musical knowledge, will be able to lead their child through the easy, fun material. The most dogmatic pedagogues among us might (with sad predictability) get uppity about some aspects of the content, but I would argue they are missing the point.
Of course a good teacher, once formal tuition starts, will approach concepts and skills with a more careful and circumspect methodology, but for those earliest informal escapades at the keys, the Bluey First Ever Piano Book is unusually good, better than any app I have seen, and will open a doorway of curiosity that I suspect many, many young children will want to walk through in search of lessons.
The Bluey First Ever Piano Book culminates, inevitably, with the child learning to play Bush’s irrepressibly catchy Bluey Theme Tune, having previously had a go at various other tunes (including the ubiquitous Ode to Joy, which also features in the animated show). For children and parents exploring this superb book, it is the best payoff imaginable!
Closing Thoughts
The Bluey First Ever Piano Book is one of the most impressive educational resources I have seen this year, not least because it establishes its own, entirely new niche in the music publishing market. The imaginative marriage between musical learning and established animated sensation is undeniably innovative, and works brilliantly.
The book can be easily and effectively used by both parents and children, promoting family bonding and shared fun. This is all great in itself, but I also have no doubt that it will encourage more children to start playing, practising, and learning the piano, which is sensational news.
I cannot think of a better gift for the young kiddos in your life this Christmas. Beyond the wonderful book itself, the Bluey First Ever Piano Book offers the gift of music, which is one to cherish for a lifetime. How brilliant!
PIANODAO MUSIC CLUB members receive 15% discount on sheet music from Musicroom. Retail links are directly sponsored, and to protect your privacy, this site does not use affiliate links or tracking code.
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