The Mary Jo Moore Piano Course is used for teaching students how to play the piano. You may purchase each volume separately or the entire course including audio tapes that explain everything in the volumes. This course includes five volumes: Preparatory, Grades 1, 2, 3, 4 (this means the grade level of the music, not of the student), and it also includes a tape for each book covering every page in the volume.

As you sit down to begin learning, Mary Jo goes over the basics. She shows you how the note looks on the scale, what each symbol means, and it is progressive. You learn enough to play a song and then you learn something new and have a few more songs you can learn. The next step is to play the songs and the practices until you have them down well. Then you may move on to the next section. The volumes are workbook style. There are some practices in each book that allows you to put in measures according to the count of the piece.

This course is geared toward children up to fourth level but certainly could be used by an adult. My daughter, who is seven, and I have been using this course to learn how to play the piano. We have never played piano before but always wanted to learn. Well after the first day we could play a song! It is wonderful. My daughter has since played a song for church and is continuing at her pace. All the music selections in the volumes are God-pleasing songs. Wonderful Words of Life and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross are in the first book. I like to just sit and play them over and over as a way to relax.

I would recommend this course to any homeschoolers that would like to learn the piano. Mary Jo does an exceptional job of explaining everything for you and she plays the songs on the tapes so you can hear how they should sound. I really like having the tapes to explain the lessons. It is like having Mary Jo for a private lesson.

Mary Jo Moore also offers Keyboard Reflections of the Life of Christ Series with Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced levels, which are songbooks with hymns. She offers CD's with great songs on them, recital books and classics for beginners, and books for preschool using flash cards and coloring pages. She offers books that may be used in conjunction with the course also. They also offer an unconditional guarantee so if you are not totally satisfied you may get your money back; there aren't many that do that any more.

-- Product Review by: Trisha White, Maine State Coordinator, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine