It will probably be years before I'll be able to play these, but I would really like to learn Rachmaninoff and Debussy.

-April

Well, when I started, I wanted to play jazz. I absolutely HATED, with all the passion in my small five year old body, those monotonous exercises in the little piano books. They are necessary, I know. But still...it would have been nice if I would have had a fun method book to learn from...if there is such a thing. I didn't really start having fun until about two years into my piano playing carreer.

I couldn't stand the lesson books either. I wanted to play "real" classical music very badly, but there was none in the Alfred piano books. ( if there was it was just an arrangement and not the real thing).
I was really excited when I got to a level where I could finally play Fur Elise.

Yeah. I finally got to the level where I could play...hmm...the first real thing I learned to play was Harry Potter music, actually. I loved it, because it wasn't one of those cursed method books. Then I started playing Vince Guaraldi. That was even better, because it was jazz, the style that I most wanted to play.

stuff you can sing to, or accompany another instrument with. It's much more fun to learn an instrument when you don't have to play/learn it alone...

i am not a beginning pianist but i teach beginners. young children love old folk songs(are you going to scarborough fair, amazing grace) and others that evryone knows. And everyone loves Christmas songs

The books were very borin, as you go up the grades the pieces get more and more interesting. i think songs in disney movies would be popular, young children love them and parents could play for their children at bedtime

Yes. If there's simple music that is familiar to students, they have an easier time having a desire to learn. If it's just a bunch of boring exercises with tunes that are also boring/unfamiliar, students give up much, much quicker.

I'm trying to think back that far! I think my favorite was hungarian dance no.5 I would play it over and over again, trying to play it faster and faster. I am so thankful that I had parents that didn't mind a little noise!

I would like to learn how to play jazz like Miles & Charlie Parker and Do Improv like Coltrane.

I was thinking about this some more and was laughing so hard, because another thing I used to really want to play was the music from a toilet tissue commercial!

It was the charmin song...I don't know if they still use it or not (i really don't watch t.v. ---only dvds if anything) but they would play the music and little kids would run around using tissue for all kinds of mischieveous tasks...I love that music! Oh- and I did learn how to play it!

JeannineJordan, I did not receive your comment, but would be interested in reading it should you choose to repost it.

Ok, I get where you are going with that. It actually somewhat reminds me of the Suzuki method, which actually does work quite well. I prefer teaching with a traditional method, however, although I teach trombone, not piano.