I’m Tetiana Afanasenko, a piano teacher, Candidate in the Study of Art (PhD), and author of songs and pieces for piano. I was born in the city of Dnipropetrovsk in a family of musicians and ever since childhood I’ve dreamed of becoming either a musician or a designer. It so happened that both my dreams came true in a certain sense, because now I create music collections!
I’ve been teaching the piano for 14 years. During this time, my students included both four-year-old children and adult amateurs. Each time I selected the pieces individually according to the ability, needs and interest of the student. I was constantly looking for something interesting, modern, logical and easy to understand. Later, I began to make arrangements of well-known songs for beginners and compose pieces for students by myself. A lot of things were born while I was improvising in a duet with a student, a practice that I consider to be the most natural tool for imparting music-making knowledge! This experience was reflected in the TOP 10 DUETS book series.
While teaching, I always tried to shape the process in such a way that the result came out of the student’s interest and not from the teacher’s coercion. In my arsenal were colored cards with notes and other musical signs, coloring pages that I used when listening to music with children, bright illustrations for pieces, etc. Now this arsenal has been joined by a magnetic board and my books, the pieces of which I have tested out with my students. It seems to me that the main thing in the process of learning music is to bring a moment of joy, to play and to enjoy creative communication. Bright, beautiful materials can be good assistants on this path!
I personally believe that the classics are the best basis for starting musical studies, though jazz and pop-style pieces definitely also have their place. I see from experience that children are interested in such a variety of styles, and I always explain in detail what the differences in performance will be for each style.We listen to performers and try to reproduce their manner of performance. Swing, blues, jazz-waltz, bossa nova, rumba, reggae, pop ballad, new age – these are the styles that you will find in my books in adapted versions for beginners.
All my books are made with love for music, children and learning! I have tried to perform them succinctly and stylishly, with interesting illustrations and situations that are more relevant to modern children. The books are published in English and Ukrainian, and pieces from them have already been performed in many countries. I hope that you will also find inspiration in them!
