I first started teaching the piano at the age of fifteen – far too young, many would say, and they’d be right! Encouraged by my teacher, who ran a piano school, I often taught the school’s younger students. I was always interested to discover various beginners’ methods. My first teacher used her own method. Once I became a teacher on my own, I explored many adult and child piano method or tutor books.

John Thompson’s Easiest Piano Course was a favourite. One must remember that this all happened years ago, before the introduction of many current popular piano method books. Over the years, I have encountered many newer tutor books. However, I still like the old-fashioned simplicity of the older courses.

John Thompson’s Easiest Piano Course is published by renowned US music publisher, the Willis Music Company. Willis now publishes in conjunction with Hal Leonard. They also publish Edna Mae Burnham’s ever popular A Dozen A Day Series. Additionally, they publish composer William Gillock’s entire educational piano music catalogue. Other noted composers published by Willis include Glenda Austin, Carolyn Miller, Wendy Stevens and Naoko Ikeda. Against this impressive backdrop, I was delighted to write a new piano series for Willis.

There are numerous beginners’ piano methods on the market today. I recently counted over hundred, many of which we examined on my piano teachers’ course at Chetham’s International Piano Summer School last year. But something I noticed when I taught beginners is the relatively scant repertoire available for this important demographic. I wanted to create a series for the beginner, and specifically the very young beginner. This way, they are able to play other pieces alongside those in their method books.

First Repertoire For Little Pianists is a two-book series featuring fifty very elementary piano pieces. Written during lockdown last year, each book consists of twenty-five original pieces. The books are intended to complement beginners’ methods and I believe you can start using them from the first term of lessons.

Many of the pieces contain a piano teacher accompaniment. This allows young students to enjoy performing securely, knowing that they won’t be alone at the piano. There are also a selection of ‘solo’ pieces, too. Each piece has a page of practice ‘tips’ complete with fun games and activities.

Two aspects of learning to play the piano often cause issues for young students. One problem is reading notation. Another issue is ‘feeling’ the rhythmic pulse. These elements have been addressed quite specifically in both books. Plenty of ‘rhythmic’ focused exercises run through the books, involving ‘tapping’ and clapping for the student. ‘Note’ focuses feature throughout, too, often inviting students to write notes and note patterns, as a means to assimilating them efficiently.

Each piece begins with a diagram of the keyboard, illustrating where the notes in the piece ‘live’.

Book 1

Book 1 showcases very short pieces, often just 8 bars in length. The journey begins hands separately, gradually incorporating hands playing together. This music is intended for young children. In this book, hands generally stay in five-finger positions. There are no wide intervals or stretches. Time signatures 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 are used, as are C major/A minor, G major and F major as well as some pentatonic pieces.

Dynamics, phrase markings, tempo markings, pedalling and fingering have been added. There are also a few rote pieces, to encourage students to move around the instrument and I’ve ensured that black keys are used from the outset.

Book 2

This series is progressive and, therefore, as might be expected, Book 2 is a little more difficult than Book 1. However, every piece is still very short from 8 – 17 bars in length, and the music starts to move out of the five-finger position. All five fingers are called into play in both volumes. Whilst using one or two fingers is often a good idea at the very beginning (there are several works in Book 1 which demand use of just the second or third finger) as students make progress, they must become accustomed to using all five. Tonally, there are more adventurous pieces in Book 2, as well as the use of C, G, and F major, and A, E, and D minor.

It’s my hope that children will enjoy the many illustrations throughout both books, and they are encouraged to ‘colour in’ the simple drawings. Each piece has an imaginative title. The character of these titles is usually mimicked in the music, paving the way for lots of discussion.

Reviews

‘The pieces are all original works by the author and the musical material is sympathetically written for its target user and includes inspirational, creative touches.’

Pianist Magazine

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‘Melanie Spanswick’s First Repertoire for Little Pianists is full of delightful gems that dovetail perfectly with method books. These engaging pieces build technique while nurturing musical development—so many opportunities for student duets and exploring the sounds their instrument can make.  The pieces progressively become more challenging, making the whole collection a valuable and inspiring start for young pianists!’

Carly McDonald – renowned Australian pedagogue, consultant, writer, and presenter

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‘My students just love it when we use First Repertoire for Little Pianists! The melodies are fun using a five finger format, and many are in duet format which they really enjoy as it ‘sounds like a proper piece miss!’ The extra tips are so useful especially when having taught for so long, giving a fresh approach.’

Tala Badri –  Director of the Centre for Musical Arts, Dubai

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I’ve recorded a selection of pieces from each book, and you can hear them by clicking on the links below. The duets are played here with my student, Becky Flisher.

First Repertoire For Little Pianists Book 1

First Repertoire For Little Pianists Book 2

Purchase

You can purchase both books from all good online stores and websites, including musicroom.com, prestomusic.com and Amazon. Alternatively, purchase them by clicking on the link below:

Images Courtesy of The Willis Music Co. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the Publisher.