My son (10) is approaching Grade 1 standard and we have the ABRSM book of pieces, but I would really like a collection of similar pieces for him to practise. His teacher tends to give him a lot of 'fun' type music - Disney tunes, songs etc and doesn't have much in the way of simple classical music. Some of these pieces are quite good but he quite likes classical as well.

Can you recommend books with easy classical pieces? Preferably not much higher than grade 1 and melodious and interesting enough to hold the attention of a ten year old who'd rather be on his gameboy!

Thanks,

Steve

Classics to Moderns Book 1 (and More C to M), Keyboard Anthology Book 1, First Second and Third series (3 different books).

The Guildhall Grade 1-2 book has great Grade 1 pieces, though it might be hard to get now, since the new Trinity Guildhall syllabus is out. There are so many nice ones that it's hard to choose. Look in musicroom.com. (N.B. There are two books - "Piano" and "Piano Plus". I mean the former.)

"Great Classics- I Can Play That" from musicsales.com (£7.95) contains 19 or so great classics simplified for young learners. Also good for practising sight reading.

I'd second Andante in C's suggestions - the Classics to Moderns books have a good range of pieces spanning about 300 years, plus
Piano Time Classics (Oxford) in two books, about 40 pieces in each, mostly easy arrangements, and some short enough to tackle and learn in a few days.

The Keyboard Crocodile - this is a German book (with English translations) published by Brietkopf and is very imaginitively produced, with very clear typeset and amusing illustrations. It contains easy classicsand also more modern pieces, approximately grades 1 to 2. It may be difficult to get from you local music shop - I got my copy online from Dot's Camden Music Shop

Definitely would reccommend these books, they are great fun. I find that my students like the books, as a lot of the classical pieces in there are from adverts on tv, so they recognise them instantly and say 'I want to play that' - great for the enthuiasm. Couldn't reccommend the books anymore. Also, the books are good as they start easier and work up to grade 3 level. I'm sure they'd be a lot of fun.

I'd go with Maggie's Piano Time Classics....really simple arrangements and what a choice of pieces in there!

I'm thinking of using them as sightreading aswell for higher grades as it gives the student a good (and accesible) variety of classical music which they will have heard...but maybe don't know the composer of..e.t.c.

Isn't that a duet book?

Thanks for all the advice. Now, just to check prices on the internet and get ordering!

Steve

Oh no. Found it now! Duet book looks lovely BTW. Might order that myself even though I have no need for yet more music.

Can anyone recommend some books to assist me with some aversion therapy. Book buying seems to be an addiction of mine that needs sorting

Can anyone recommend some books to assist me with some aversion therapy. Book buying seems to be an addiction of mine that needs sorting
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Join virtualsheetmusic.com Once you've joined - and it's not too dear - you can download anything free. And there's actually a fair bit that's free anyway. I use this website for sight-reading material. sibeliusmusic.com is good for that too. The trouble is that you end up with sheets of paper all over the place; printing stuff out on thin card is a good idea.

Teehee, I belong to a few of those sites too when I'm desperate, but they never have the pieces I'm after.

I now have more music than the local bookshop. It's official....by about 5,000 books more In fact, they've even taken to phoning me for views on a book before they order it in, or if they have 'one of those customers' who doesn't know what they want.

Still...I can put my hand on pretty much anything at any given time and one day...somewhen soon...I hope I have everything, then I won't need to buy any more.

So, next job will be to write to various publishers asking them not to print anything more for a while.

I can confirm that the duet book (The Four Handed Crocodile) is good too.