This is a great title for children who are interested in playing instruments. The lessons build upon each other in a fun way. When given to younger children, the scaffolding of the lessons and the way they are presented created a strong desire to keep going to see what happened next.
Compared with similar books aimed at this age range, the children who reviewed it with me seemed to have more interest in this title and following along.
The illustrations are just enough to go with the music notations.

This was the cutest book! I have taught myself piano and wanted to see this book to see what they are teaching the young readers. This was so easy to learn! You could tell they really knew what they were talking about when they wrote this book. I loved how detailed they were during every step. They explained every step very well then had them do it so it sticks with them. Which also means there are lots to practice. I think this is such a great book to teach kids piano!

I love it! Very interactive book for kids, colorful and easy to read and to follow along. Maybe I’ll try it too and learn some piano! I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

Cute first piano book for children that are interested in learning how to play the piano. It shows you proper finger placement and goes from teaching how to play simple songs with one hand to adding the second hand.

There’s a lot to like in this book but at times it feels like a lot of information for the target age range. This will be a good library resource. Parents may want to preview it to see if it’s a good fit for their children.

**received in exchange for review. opinions my own**

I could have so benefited from this 20+ years ago. Instead, I followed black-and-white sheets to learn how to play the piano, at least somewhat. Reading music still feels foreign to me, like I'm probably never going to understand it (it's not a special interest). This guide takes the learner from basic songs to more complex ones, using both hands. It teaches the foundation to learning piano.

An excellent introduction to the piano. it is easy to follow, fantastic for young children and honestly, anyone that is wanting to learn. it puts things in a way that is easy to comprehend and absorb. A perfect intro to a lifelong love!

This book, along with the author’s My First Piano Sheet Music, are good resources for kids who want to play the piano. This title introduces music concepts like the Treble and Bass Clefs, types of notes, staffs and more.. There are many songs to practice including Alouette, The Wheels on the Bus and more. Each is tied to the concept of a lesson.

This book is a good resource for little learners. Hopefully, it will make learning to play the piano fun.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Zeitgeist for this title. All opinions are my own.

This book is great for kids learning piano (ages 4 - 6). The visuals are self-explanatory and can be used by parents who have no prior musical training.

Beautiful illustrations to help with the basic instructions on how to play the piano. Every piano and music teachers should have this for any age student. It is simple and explains the basics. Good resource.

This was a great first piano books for middle age kids (7+). G-Sharp the giraffe, with his musical note spot covers the building blocks of piano playing in an easy to understand way. The skills build on one another and in no time new piano players will be surprising themselves with what they are playing.

Recommended for: parents who want an easier path to self-teaching piano to their kids; piano teachers who want a fun mascot to help teach the basics with some familiar songs.

This books was a great informational book. It told about different techniques which was great. The fun facts about the piano were nice too. My only concern was there was no actual songs to practice in the book. With that being said I do think it’s a great technical book that will help with learning technique. I can honestly say I’ll buy it for the children I know are learning piano.

Mt First Piano Lessons is a good book introducing music notes and the basics of piano playing to anyone who has not played before. While it was clearly written for a younger age range, it can be used with older people as well. The illustrations are great and instructions were easy to follow. For my younger child, we needed to look over the lessons several times for him to understand, but my 10 year old sufficiently accepted the knowledge after each lesson. We did not read the book all in one setting, but rather over about a week. We will still continue to use it as the youngest gets better acquainted with the lessons.

Thank you to Emily Norris, Zeitgeist and NetGalley for allowing myself and my son the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Simple and easy to follow. I am an adult new to playing and reading music. I had a few light bulb moments while looking through this ‘childrens’ book. Yes, it is for very young children. But I think, being past sixty and not as quick on the up take as I once was, if I got learned some good music theory from this book then it’s pitched just right for a child. Wish I’d started to play the piano years ago!

G-sharp the Giraffe leads the way to teach beginners how to play the piano. G-sharp addresses the students in text form, so most of the book would have to be read to younger students.

While this book includes a good selection of songs that will appeal to young children, I do not recommend this as a piano lesson book. Here is my opinion in three words: Too Many Words.

In a Nutshell: A beginner’s guide to playing the piano. Works nicely as a first piano book because of the range of information and the variety of songs. Might get a bit overwhelming at times.

G-sharp the giraffe is our narrator on this musical journey where kids can understand the basics of piano playing. The book begins with the essentials such as correct posture and positioning, and then moves on to one new concept per chapter, thus covering quite a lot by the time they complete chapter ten.

Every chapter begins with information about a few terms and then illustrates the same with a couple of simple popular songs such as ‘Hot Cross Buns’ or ‘London Bridge is Falling Down.’ The lyrics have been modified in certain cases to avoid complicated notes. Every song in the book is played only with the white keys, thereby skipping out all mention of sharps and flats. The songs begin with three-note tunes and slowly increase in complication until the child can play notes from two staves simultaneously. This approach will work well for beginners, all the more as the initial songs do not use flagged notes.

The book offers many easy tips to remember some essentials such as the length of the notes. (The author’s explanation of time signatures is one of the simplest I have ever seen – excellent handling of this tricky concept!) There are also plenty of fun facts related to pianos (and a few connected to giraffes!) scattered throughout the book. At the end, there is a glossary of all the musical terms used in the book, and some additional resources that parents can use to continue their children’s journey on the pianoforte.

The information provided creates a slight paradox. On one hand, it is comprehensive, covering the two clefs (treble and bass), the middle C, reading the notes on the staves, finger positions and so on. It even goes into not-so-basic territory such as musical dynamics. On the other hand, it skips certain essentials. Basic facts such as there being seven notes (and hence the A-G nomenclature on the white keys) are skipped. The names of the two clefs are written but why they are also called G-Clef and F-Clef and the relevance of their positioning on the staves isn’t explained. Ledger lines are mentioned but the note gap between the two clefs isn’t clarified. Note beaming is mentioned but flags aren’t.

I feel that the range of information will be a bit overwhelming for beginners. The content worked for me as I already know how to read music. But if I were a child, such a plethora of information would have scared me away.

The book will work better if read leisurely, and under adult guidance. Maybe taking a chapter at a time, repeating it until perfected, and only then moving on to the next chapter would be more helpful than completing the ten chapters in ten days.

Recommended as an introductory guidebook to piano playing – this book will set kiddos on the right path of learning to play this delightful instrument, and will hopefully make them want to pursue it further.

Do note that the book follows the American musical notation system such as whole note, half note, and so on. (The British notation finds a little mention in one pop-out box.)

4 stars.


My thanks to Zeitgeist, Z Kids, and NetGalley for the DRC of “My First Piano Lessons”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This book is laid out easily for children learning to play. The book gives information on hand position, how to sit while playing and with each song the hand and key positions are shown. The book is laid out in lessons with each lesson showing what key and song the player will learn. I enjoyed the fun facts throughout and the guidebook in the back.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

G-Sharp the Giraffe takes wannabe musicians on an entertaining journey to learn everything you need to know to start on the piano — including fingering, musical notation, clefs and more. Author Emily Norris does yeoman’s work with both the colorful illustrations and the simple-to-understand language. What this slim book is not is a do-it-yourself guide to young learners; they’ll need an adult to help out, probably one with some musical background. That said, Norris has penned an excellent guide for the youngest learners.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley Zeitgeist and Z Press in exchange for an honest review.

This is an excellent first piano lessons book for the younger reader. Easy to follow words and pictures making it a fun learning experience. I had fun using it too !

As a music educator, I love the approach this book takes to introducing music to students. By only introducing students to what they absolutely need to know (posture, finger numbers, basic notation things), this will help students from becoming overwhelmed. This book also includes a lot of visuals and fun facts about giraffes which I think is. a great touch.