Reviews

The Minibooks transform very young non-readers into readers. They are equally effective at changing faltering older beginning readers into confident, delighted readers. The Minibooks are a marvelous resource for teachers and a boon to students. Brava!

I love these little books!! What a fantastic tool!! Because there is no little kid art in them, I can use them with even teen beginners. The light green staff which sits behind the black keys made a lot of sense to one of my older kids who was struggling – he was fascinated by it – it unlocked some kind of a door for him!

These books are so motivating, and well-designed, they can zip through a book and they’re done before they know it. There’s no grumbling about sight-reading or learning to read now!

I have a transfer student who could not successfully read any but the first 3-4 pieces of her primer, which she had been working out of for a whole year. She zipped through a new Minibook in just over a minute and went on to play through her lesson which included a duet part, the 4 pieces she had in another primer, and sight-read the next 4 pieces very well – a huge switch from just two weeks ago! Another beaming child – she was so happy she gave me a hug on the way out!

For sure, your Minibooks set is one of the very best investments I have made for my students. Thanks again for such a great product. See what you’re responsible for? Wow!! You make me look good! “How do I love it? Let me count the ways…

As you know, Kris, I am the greatest fan of your SUPERLATIVE Minibooks series. All my students begin their reading adventures with your Minibooks.

These books are so popular that I do not allow the kids to take them home … especially the precious Teeny Book. The flash cards have been invaluable and I keep a careful list of who in the studio has done what cards. Tappers is particularly great for group class when I can put 2 or 3 kids on each rhythm. Be sure you add Australia to your list of countries. A couple of years ago I taught a child whose father was here on sabbatical. She so adored the Minibooks that her mother bought the entire set to take back home.

It was so neat to set the first two Minibooks in front of a student who has been struggling with reading and have her play right through them. Her confidence soared. What a great idea! Thank you!

The Minibooks have been absolutely amazing! Both my parents and kids adore them. They have been fighting over them all year. They are sheer genius, and I hope that you are trying your darndest to market them.

I believe the Minibooks Reading Series is the best method of starting reading I’ve ever had! I use it with all my beginning students and it is working miracles! Thank you with all my heart!

Your pages RELATE to each other sequentially. Not only do they relate, each page provides the knowledge necessary for each succeeding page! The student is MAKING CONNECTIONS (commonly known as “thinking”) from one page to the next. Therefore the student is actually LEARNING something as he or she goes along!

And, with the connections being made by the student, the learning process does not require constant interruption by the teacher. In other words, the brilliance in your books is in the COMBINING of a few ideas (perhaps simple ones, but ones that in combination seem to have eluded absolutely everyone else!) that make a HUGE difference in the success of the learning process!

Hi Kris – I want to tell you that the Minibooks have come in very handy during new student interviews! I’ve used them for prospective little ones, all of whom have had from a few months to a year of lessons. We love them! I also use them for motivation with students and make a game out of it. I love the patterning – they’re learning quickly that they can guess what comes on the next page.

These are absolutely brilliant books for young children! Because there is only one thing on each page, the students move quickly and are therefore highly motivated by their own success.

I want to let you know how impressed I was with the entire package…! I immediately got their names on the Wallcharts and got things moving quickly. This is now the third week and without fail the first thing they want to do in a lesson is sight read your Minibooks!

They are loving them! What fun! I love how it’s designed to keep talking at a minimum – great time saver! My thanks for making my job regarding sight reading a lot easier – I will be passing this on to other teachers, that’s for sure.

One of my students had always despaired of ever learning to read music, until I put the Minibooks in front of her. She LOVES using them–and she CAN read. Another student asked to borrow one of your books again because she remembered how much fun they were. What a discovery!

I now have all of my reading level students using the Minibooks and what great readers they are turning out to be! I couldn’t survive without them.

The Minibooks are the absolute best tool for teaching students how to read music. My students love them, their parents love them, and I love them! They allow the student to read at his or her own pace, focus simply on the notes, and progress in a sequential manner. In addition, my students actually enjoy reading from the Minibooks and are always asking me if they can “read more pages”. A wonderful teaching tool! Thank you, Kristine!

Truly fine sight-reading materials are hard to come by. When you have only thirty to forty-five minutes to juggle all aspects of a student’s music study, what’s needed is a quick, efficient solution. Kristine Gore’s Minibooks Music Reading Series is just that – an efficient way to include weekly sight-reading exercises in the lesson plan.

Playing monotonous exercises can quickly become routine and uninspiring. Enter Gore’s Minibooks! They are exciting, motivating, brilliantly sequenced books that can be used by beginner-through-intermediate pianists.

The sheer brilliance of the reading sequence is a tribute to Gore’s insightful and thoughtful creativity, plus her canny instinct for knowing how students learn to see and understand notated music. The short note patterns build upon the previous page’s note sequence and lead into the next page cleverly and naturally. Reading becomes fluid, and pattern recognition is reinforced.

In short, Gore has found a delightful way to make sight-reading an almost addictive challenge for students. Each reading segment is very short, logical, and, therefore, attainable. That is the key. Students feel capable because they see only a few notes at a time, and speedily turn the pages to find out what comes next. Gore’s Minibooks are like the best video games: you need to focus on the task at hand and rely on rapid eye-hand coordination and response. You feel super-motivated to keep going through a book because the rewards are within your grasp – or at least within reach. And the reward is to go on to the next level. Cue the endorphins!

Since my students use the Minibooks only at their lessons, the books are even more intriguing and special. They routinely beg me to work in these books! With great anticipation, they plead, “Can I do the Red Books today, please?”