Published on 10/11/2010

"The Picture of Music" by author Lesley Anne Sears teaches children and adults how to read music without naming notes. The reader is taught how to see music as a picture that is paralleled by the piano keyboard. The student is asked to have either an acoustic piano or a keyboard available while progressing through the book for this reason. The book is spiral bound, resting comfortably on the music stand. Great care was taken to insure that this introduction to reading music be completely non-threatening and light, while remaining theoretically sound, without gimmicks. For this reason, the book is appropriate for three audiences: The parent who seeks to reveal the delightful world of reading music to his or her child; the adult who is determined to learn how to read music; and the adult who may have been previously traumatized by harsh music teaching methods as a child, but still longs for personal expression through music.

The Picture of Music: The See C Piano Method by Lesley Anne Sears: Book Review

Raberdash Publishing Company (2010)
ISBN 9780615336459
Reviewed by Kam Aures for Reader Views (08/10)

In the Introduction for the Adult Student section of “The Picture of Music: The See C Piano Method™,” Lesley Anne Sears writes, “The purpose of this book is to enable you to understand the exquisite simplicity of music. From that understanding, you can then direct your ability to translate that basic order into personal expression of your deepest emotions- through music’s written form.” (p.3)

I, personally, was able to read and play music back when I was in middle school. I did not play the piano, I played the clarinet, but the basic overall music knowledge is the same. When my son started to take piano lessons at age five I had a hard time helping him at home because all that I had learned way back when seemed to have disappeared. Without looking them up, I didn’t know the notes or basically anything else that he needed help with.

Lesley Anne Sears’ book fills a much needed void in the music instruction world. She takes music and breaks the components down into straight-forward and easy-to-understand images. My son, now six, and I went through “The Picture of Music: The See C Piano Method™” together. He especially enjoyed all of the animal references, like sitting like a begging dog and hopping like a kangaroo. While he added to his musical knowledge, I relearned mine in a fun and unique way.

We did find some of the wording to be a little confusing though. For instance, it is stated many times that "C is the white key just below each pair of black keys.” This wording, to us, implies that the C would be directly below the pair of black keys which would be the white key in between them (which is actually D). The diagrams throughout the book do correctly show though that the C notes are actually the white key to the left of each pair of two black keys.

Overall, we really enjoyed “The Picture of Music: The See C Piano Method™.” The repetition paired with the wonderful diagrams was very helpful in aiding our learning process. We enjoyed the uniqueness of the method and think that this would be a fun way for anyone to learn to play piano.