Piano Notes were published in early 2017. They offer students and teachers a wealth of practical advice. This advice covers the entire ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music examination board) piano syllabus. The syllabus spans from Grade 1 through to Grade 8 and it started in January 2017 and goes through to Spring 2019. The notes include all alternative pieces. They also cover those printed in each graded book which makes them a very beneficial and handy guide. This is true irrespective of your standard or ability. They are great to keep by the piano as a reference.

Rhinegold publishes Piano Notes. They are the leading music education publishers. Rhinegold also organises the Music and Drama Education Expo Event, which was held in February 2017 at Olympia in London. A team of five writers, all of whom are experienced teachers, have written Piano Notes; Fiona Lau, Katharine May, Michael Round, Murray McLachlan, and myself. We wrote around 200-350 words on each piece (depending on the grade), detailing the most important elements, advocating various practice tips and performance suggestions.

My contribution was to write notes for all list C pieces from Grades 1 – 6. I was pleased to find a fairly widespread selection of works. These range from masters such as Kabalevsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Bartók. There are also vibrant piano arrangements and many works by contemporary composers too. Although for my taste, there is probably too much emphasis on the ‘jazz’ inspired style, and not enough on contemporary classical music, which I believe should be introduced to students from the beginning.