My latest book was published last week: ‘Bright Start’ is a collection of educational elementary piano pieces published by Clifton Edition. I have composed an elementary piano piece for every issue of Pianist magazine for over five years. Every issue’s piece focuses on a different technical or musical element, and my challenge is to come up with something new each time. I’ve written over thirty pieces for the magazine to date and this collection features 19 of them.
These one-page pieces are intended for elementary pianists of all ages. They sit nicely between approximately Initial to Grade 2 level of the British music examination board syllabus standards such as those of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM), Trinity College London, London College of Music Examinations, RSL Awards and MTB.
In the book, you can expect to find a smorgasbord of stylistic variety, as well as differing pianistic colours and textures. They are programmatic (or descriptive) pieces, that is, each one has a title relating to the character of the work and there are several sentences devoted to every piece discussing the technical and musical challenges, too. Some works have been written in traditional Baroque or Classical styles, such as the ‘Gigue’, ‘Wispy Waltz’, ‘Majestic Minuet’, and ‘Little Sonatina’. Whilst others have quirky titles, like ‘Blue Funk’, ‘Christmas Rock’, ‘Tubular Chimes’, and ‘Chapelle Royale’, allowing players to use their imagination and create their own story.
An important element for me within this book is that none of the pieces require a large hand stretch: chords never stray beyond the interval of a sixth. Therefore, note patterns should be easily playable for all age groups. As I work with many young and generally small students, I always keep in mind a student’s hand ‘reach’ or ‘stretch’, and this is particularly crucial for advanced young players: there will be more on this topic in future posts as it is something I’m keen to explore and an issue that needs addressing both regarding teaching in general and examination board syllabuses.
All the pieces in ‘Bright Start’ are tonal and tuneful, and they are perfect for those at the start of their journey as they feature simplistic key signatures and time signatures, as well as note and rhythmic patterns. I think they serve as useful sight-reading material for more advanced players as well.
You can hear all 19 pieces recorded by Chenyin Li, Pianist magazine’s resident pianist, by clicking the button below or by scanning the QR code found at the beginning of the book. ‘Bright Start’ can be purchased in both digital download and hard copy format.
