WARNING TO SCHOOLS AND THE TEACHING SYSTEM
The commonly accepted traditional methods of teaching beginners to play the piano are about as dangerous for the mentality of our children as throwing them alone into the middle of the ocean to teach them to swim. They are as painful as pulling teeth without anesthesia. Even though we love music and have an endless desire to learn the music language, the majority of the existing methods of teaching music instruments is a waste of time, money and energy for most people. This is because they were primarily designed for the low percentage of musically gifted people. As for the average person- these lessons aren't only useless, but may cause incurable wounds, and as a result could negatively affect the character of the learner and his/her perception of life in general.
The Old System and School System Kill Music Learning - FACT!
The system of teaching theory brings more chaos to our children's minds. For example, the mnemonically based formula 'Every Good Boy Does Fine' slows the development of the recognition, differentiation and reading of music notes. The sounds of music move up and down in the forwards and backwards directions freely, and the preset sequence of English words (FACE) or sentences (All Cows Eat Grass) loses impact when flipped around. In fact, it prevents the development of fluent reading in beginners' minds. 'Good does boy every fine', 'fine every does good boy,' or 'ECAF,' just does not make any sense to students, who are aligned to the logic of speech.
On the other hand, it is absolutely necessarily for every beginner to know the order of music sounds and music keys back and forth, from any point on the Grand Staff the way we know our own room's plan enough to move through it in total darkness. We need to know this sequence in order to possess an awareness of music space and to be able to freely move in it. This is exactly why even when pressing only one key, a beginner has to picture which keys are around, in one step or in 2 steps, etc., in order to feel free to deliberately move in any direction and group the hands' muscles before the fingers can hit them precisely. But 'Every Good Boy Does Fine' does not give the child freedom to shift freely because it ties the child's mind to the short leash of the English phrase. This ploy is like a single, unstable rope over a precipice that music teachers use as a bridge for students who never developed the ability to balance.
I do not teach this method in any of my lessons and explain to all my students as to why. Those that have been taught this method know only too well the damage caused by their previous teachers or the school system.
If your child is using this method, please stop and find a teacher willing to teach them correctly.