At the end of last year, my fourth publication, featuring original piano duets and trios for students, was released. The Snapchats Duets (four hands at one keyboard) & Trios (six hands at one keyboard) series began in 2016 with just one book containing mainly elementary level duets plus a few trios which are from Initial to Grade 2/3 levels in difficulty.

The volume proved popular and in 2019 it was republished by 80 Days Publishing: if you’ve yet to check out this flourishing music publishing company, you can do so by clicking here. 80 Days is spearheaded by renowned composer Christopher Norton and editor Andrew Jones. Their company now houses a large and varied selection of classical and jazz sheet music composed by many new composers.

During 2023, we added to my series with Snapchats Duets & Trios Book 2 and 3. Book 2 introduces original music for Grade 2 – 4 level pianists, and Book 3, approximately Grade 4 – 6 standard. I had intended to add a book of Grade 7 – 8 level duets and trios, but an event happened at the end of last year which persuaded me to think again.

I’m often invited to present workshops at various schools and this provides the opportunity to work with students of all abilities at ‘grassroots’ level. One such event last year was a case in point. I worked with a group of young pianists who had all taken a Grade 5 – 7 level piano exam. My task was to coach four students on easy piano duets. After an hour’s lesson, in which we prepared a duet where the students played two pianos together, two on each instrument (in effect, doubling the parts), these pupils then performed it informally as part of a short concert for their parents.

The duet was selected from my Snapchats Duets & Trios Book 1, and the piece chosen would be considered ‘initial’ or pre-Grade 1 level. Rather surprisingly, none of the students could play their parts. Note reading and rhythmic issues prevailed, and it took a considerable effort to encourage a good outcome, that of playing the duet in the concert.

This issue might sound surprising, but it transpired that most of the students had taken an online piano exam for their respective grade, therefore avoiding any technical tests, including sight-reading. Are online exams, especially those which forgo technical tests, a bad idea? Not at all, in fact, I like them, but as teachers we must be prepared to continue working on reading skills outside the exam room.

With this in mind, I wanted to produce a book of duets and trios of an extremely easy level and I hope I’ve achieved that with this new volume, Snapchats Duets & Trios for Beginners. I like students to work in a group or ensemble, especially when honing sight-reading skills, as it can be a fun and engaging way to improve, and the dreaded ‘hesitations’ simply aren’t an option because one has to keep playing when others are playing alongside us!

This volume contains 25 pieces in total: 20 duets and 5 trios. Most of the duets are for separate hands only, that is, each pianist uses just one hand at a time. And three of the trios are for separate hands too, allowing less confident students to play one hand at a time, encouraging them to keep their focus purely on one musical line, assimilating the note and rhythmic patterns. I also suggest that once a pupil has played one part, they then swap with their fellow pianist, or pianists for trios, and play the other part(s), with the aim of learning both/all clefs and hand positions thoroughly.

These pieces are tonal, tuneful, and are perfect for school concerts, recitals, exams, and festivals. They will be beneficial for beginner adult pianists as well, namely those who want to explore ensemble playing at an early stage in their piano journey.

Christopher Norton has kindly recorded all parts of the 25 duets and trios, and you can hear them by clicking on the links below:

Find out more about the other three books in this series by clicking here.

Purchase the scores for all the books in this series from any good online music stores and websites including musicroom.com and prestomusic.com. Alternatively, purchase direct from publisher 80 Days Publishing by clicking on the link below:

Teachers and students have enjoyed playing the duets and trios in this series, and in my quest to prove that sight-reading classes can be fun, below is a video of a trio from Snapchats Book 1, Joyful, played by 54 piano teachers on 18 pianos (who were all sight-reading) in Singapore on one of my trips to the Far East a couple of years ago!