Piano
Piano Magic, Book One
A careful, sequenced start at the keyboard — the music alphabet, hands-crossing technique, and early scales, keys, and solfège, all before students are asked to read traditional notation.
Our curriculum
The Presto! Curriculum.
Mr. Denny’s students learn with the Presto! Curriculum from Presto! It’s Music Magic Publishing — Presto! It’s Piano Magic, Books One and Two, for piano, and Presto! It’s Guitar Magic, Book One, for guitar. All three books are a direct application of the Dennis Frayne Approach to Music Education to their respective instruments.
Three books, one approach
A shared foundation across instruments.
Piano
Piano Magic, Book Two
Building musicianship further — tempo and expression, chords and triads, musical form, cadences, and deeper ear training, rhythm, and technique.
Guitar
Guitar Magic, Book One
The same foundational skills and almost entirely the same repertoire as Piano Magic, Book One — adapted to the guitar, one string at a time.
Piano — Book One
A careful, sequenced start at the keyboard.
Students learn the piano keyboard through the patterns of the black keys and the shapes of the white keys, building a real understanding of the music alphabet and the octave.
Middle C is taught as a helpful anchor note for finding other notes — never as a fixed hand position. From the very first lessons, students move freely across the whole keyboard, cross hands, and play black keys and white keys alike.
Early pieces like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Baa, Baa, Black Sheep build hands-crossing technique and ear-led playing — sound before symbol — before students are asked to read traditional notation.
Students also learn the C Major and A (natural) Minor scales slowly, hands separately, from memory — singing on solfège while they play, so ear and technique grow together, with repertoire drawn from diverse cultures, genres, and styles.
Piano — Book Two
Building musicianship further.
Tempo, dynamics, and expression
Students learn tempo and expression vocabulary (from largo to presto, crescendo to rallentando) alongside dynamics and articulation terms from pianissimo to fortissimo, including legato and staccato.
Chords, triads, and cadences
Building triads, identifying the tonic triad of a key, and labeling chords by Roman numeral lead into chord progressions and cadences, especially the I–IV–V–I progression.
Navigation and musical form
Notation shortcuts and structure — verse, refrain, repeat signs, theme and variations, and AB form — help students read and understand a piece's larger shape.
Rhythm and ear training
Rhythm counting and subdivision continue alongside interval identification and major-versus-minor mode recognition — all trained by name, notation, and ear.
Expanding scales and keys
Students add the first five natural minor scales (A, E, D, G, and C) and additional major and minor scales (F and B), plus transposition between keys.
Refining technique
Triplets, the sustain pedal, the “drop, roll, and lift” touch technique, and further study of accidentals round out a growing, healthy piano technique.
Guitar — Book One
The same foundation, on the guitar.
Presto! It’s Guitar Magic, Book One, uses almost entirely the same repertoire as Piano Magic, Book One. Students learn all the same foundational skills — but by playing melodies on one string at a time instead of in one hand position.
Pitch direction, the music alphabet, and half steps and whole steps are learned on the guitar neck, leading into major and minor scales and sharps and flats.
Students also learn self-accompaniment “rhythm” parts for each of these familiar songs, so they can strum along and sing while they play — building the same sound-before-symbol musicianship as their piano-playing peers.
Hands-on teaching aids
Tools that make learning visible.
Presto’s Piano Keyboard Assistant
A colorful, one-octave keyboard manipulative used in piano lessons to drill and reinforce white-key naming through hands-on games.
Presto’s Grand Staff Assistant
Helps piano students practice note reading on the treble and bass clef and build interval recognition — a visual, interactive alternative to flash cards.
Beyond the three books
More from Presto! It’s Music Magic Publishing.
Piano and guitar students alike can draw on The Wellspring of Repertoire, a set of supplemental volumes offering additional pieces to round out a student’s repertoire alongside the core Presto! Curriculum.
This curriculum is published by Presto! It’s Music Magic Publishing (sometimes called the Presto! Curriculum or Presto Materials). For more information, visit prestoitsmusicmagicpublishing.com.