It’s a new academic year and this means new piano repertoire. Today’s post focuses on educational piano repertoire which you may be interested in acquiring either for yourself or for your students.
Earlier this month a new volume of Christmas music was released by US company Willis Music. I started working with Willis last year. In February 2022, we published my two-book piano course, First Repertoire For Little Pianists, which is a progressive series intended for young beginners. The Willis Music Company are renowned for publishing the complete John Thompson Piano Tutor Series. They also publish Edna May Burnham’s ever-popular collection A Dozen A Day. Additionally, they offer a large catalogue of piano music written by educational composer William Gillock, amongst many other great titles. Do check them out here!
This Christmas volume, entitled Christmas Pop Favourites, contains 18 piano arrangements. Yuletide selections include ‘Blue Christmas’ and ‘Sleigh Ride’. They also cover ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ and ‘Christmas Time Is Here’. The tunes are intended for intermediate standard pianists. They suit those of approximately Grade 5 – 7 of the British examination board levels and have been written in a ‘pop’ style. In my opinion, they lie very comfortably under the fingers. Some of Willis’ highly regarded stable of composers have transformed the pop favourites for piano solo. These composers include Glenda Austin, Eric Baumgartner, Melody Bober, Randall Hartsell, Naoko Ikeda, Carolyn Miller, Carolyn Setliff, Jason Sifford, and me! I have arranged two pieces; Blue Christmas and Somewhere In My Memory. I am relatively new to arranging, however, I thoroughly enjoyed working through these lovely little tunes. It was mid-April at the time. However, I thoroughly enjoyed working through these lovely little tunes. It was mid-April at the time.
This volume would be a great addition to your piano library. It’s useful for those who need a Christmas tune for a student concert or school recital and would be perfect for that ‘singalong’ around the piano on Christmas Eve. You can find out much more and purchase a copy, here.
Pianist Magazine have published a series of ‘special editions’ for their readers. They fall into three categories: beginner, intermediate and advanced level. Each book contains a wide selection of pieces. Some books have practice tips and suggestions and they are written in a similar manner to those found in the magazine. I have written the tips for the Beginner volume. Find out more here.
I’d also like to highlight a series of piano pieces which I composed especially for Pianist Magazine. Over the past year, I have regularly written the ‘How-To-Play’ article. In it, I offer performance and practice tips on an elementary level piece. I have also contributed a composition of comparable difficulty. For those unfamiliar with this magazine, it offers over 40 pages of sheet music in every edition and it also provides a recording of all the printed music, which is played by concert pianist Chenyin Li. If you are an elementary pianist (approximately Grade 1 – 3 level), you might consider subscribing; you will find an interesting array of easier pieces to play and study, and will be able to hear them played by a professional.
To hear my compositions featured in Pianist Magazine, click on the links below. To obtain the score, you can subscribe to the magazine here. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel, here.
