Can anyone recommend any easy music for an adult piano pupil I have? He has been learning for some time, and is making steady progress - but very slowly. I would guess he is approaching Grade 1 level and he likes Baroque or Classical music best. We have been through the majority of pieces from Book 1 of the Classics to Moderns series, most of The Joy of First Classics, and 60 Pieces for Aspiring Players by Turk, although the ones at the end are getting too hard. He also plays Pam Wedgwood for a bit of contrast!

So what I am looking for is another book similar in style and level to the Joy of First Classics, but obviously with different pieces in. It could be by a modern composer but in that sort of style, and mustn't look too childish. Can anyone help?

I would recommend the Alfred 'Masterworks Classics' series, edited by Jane Magrath. I have Level 3 in front of me now and there is a suggested order of study on the first page which is divided into Baroque-Classical and Romantic-Contemporary periods. There is some Turk included but there is a nice mixture of composers. Lots of Kabalevsky in the R-C section. I've also used Level 1-2 (all in one book) which goes from pre- to about Grade One.

They also include a CD, and the lay-out is wonderfully clear with quite large notation.

Hope this might be helpful

Thanks for this, BusyBee. I will have a look. Sounds like it might do.

Carol Matz does some easy arrangements of well known classics in varying degrees of difficulty. They are published by Alfred. The series is called famous & fun.

Hi Alison - I hope you manage to track down a copy - the big well-known music shops should be aware of it. Like Barcarolle says there might be some other Alfred publications that appeal to you as well.

OUP have a really nice new teaching method coming out, called Pianoworks by Alan Bullard, and alongside the method they have a collection of pieces which sound really good. If you get Libretto, the most recent one had an advert for the book in, and if you're subscribed to the OUP Piano Teacher's mailing list, I recieved a poster for the new book a couple of days ago and it had one of the pieces from the collection - really easy arrangement of Schubert's The Trout.

Thanks very much - I'll look in to this one, too.