Let's Play: the first piano lessons workbook in Armenian published over the past thirty years (video)

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Pianist Ani Baghdasaryan has been smiling since morning. She received her piano lessons workbook from the printing house. This is the first piano lessons workbook in Armenian published over the past thirty years.

“Unfortunately, there are no modern workbooks in Armenian teaching to play the piano. There are outdated workbooks that were published thirty to forty years ago. But if you go abroad, in many countries you can find a variety of workbooks designed for any musical instrument”, Ani Baghdasaryan says.

Ani Baghdasaryan has been working with children for 11 years. Today, students use the same workbooks as years ago, when she began to learn to play piano.

Ani currently works at the Art School after Avet Terteryan։

“I began to learn to play the piano, there was a well-known workbook created by Nikolaev, and children still continue to use it. They learn from the same book, in Russian.” 

The idea of ​​creating a piano lessons workbook came out and evolved over the years. The process was sped up by the lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic։

“I spent joyful days and nights working on the computer, and it took me three months. But the whole process, starting from the first sentence to the printed book, took a year and a half.”

The workbook had not been published yet when Ani presented it to her friends with no musical background. And she was satisfied with the results. Later the Let's Play the Piano workbook will be distributed among music schools, students, and teachers. 

“So far, we have made three hundred copies, and we plan to distribute them in the music schools to get feedback from the teachers. Based on the feedback we will make corrections and print more copies to make it available to a larger audience.”, Ani Baghdasaryan says.

But in order to make it a compulsory workbook for the music schools, a certain process is needed։

“In fact, music schools and teachers have the freedom to choose the books they like. But if we want the book to be officially accepted for the program, ministry approval is required.”

The book is illustrated and the complexity of the topics is gradually increasing.

According to the author, the workbook is designed for both music school students learning to play and independent learners.

“Just as we begin to learn letters from the alphabet, you also begin to learn musical notes from the workbook, starting from the very first steps to playing easy pieces.”, Ani  says.

Ani Baghdasaryan notes with regret that the number of music school students is decreasing year by year. By developing the workbook, she wants to promote a change in the attitude towards music education in our country. The difficulties of studying at a music school should not frighten children.

“Maybe you remember yourself as a child when you probably dreamed of playing the piano, or another instrument, or singing. All children have the desire to create. But sometimes children do not find teachers who can guide them correctly and won’t break their desire to create. And I really hope that this workbook will keep the children interested in music.” , she says.

Let's Play the Piano, the first piano workbook in Armenian developed by Ani Baghdasaryan, is published with funding from the Fortress Foundation and in collaboration on the reArmenia platform.