Hi All

I am fairly new to teaching (just over a year now) and teach a brother and sister the piano. She has just taken her Grade 1 (awaiting results) and he will take his Grade one at the end of the year. I am looking for any recommendations for Christmas Carol books? Does anyone have any favourites for this sort of Grade?

Also, I will be starting with and adult learner in the next few weeks and have only taught children so far - can anyone recommend a good book to start off with?

Thanks

Sarahp

Hi Sarah.
There are lots of Christmas books around for that level - Pauline Hall's Piano Time Carols, Fanny Waterman's Christmas Carol Time, Christmas Carols by Pike, Chester's Easiest Christmas Music, A Feast of Easy Christmas Carols by Carol Barratt, Easy to Play Carols by Alan Ridout, Christmas Fun Club by Alan Haughton & Christmas Carols for Beginners by Jessie Blake & Hilda Capp. I have all of these in my cupboard. The favourite is probably Piano Time Carols. There are also some good duet books, but I can't think of their titles offhand - maybe someone else can help?
Hope this helps.

Thanks Jenny

Any advice gratefully received - I only have my old christmas books that I learnt with and considering that was about 30 years ago I thought there must be someone out there who has more recent books that I do!!! Will go and browse in the music shop.

Sarahp

"The Best Christmas Piano Duet Book Ever" by Emma Coulthard is a good duet book. It has some of the more traditional carols such as Hark The Herald and Silent Night etc.. with some more modern ones like Santa Baby, Mistletoe and Wine, and Wonderful Christmastime etc... When I used it, if a pupil wasn't able to manage both hands I suggested they just played the tune. Also for some of the pieces with ledger lines I've put it down an octave (depending on the pupil and what they can manage).


I use this book a lot too with the younger ones. It's good because there are a mixture of duets and solo pieces.

Good luck in your search

Hi Sarah,

I agree with the Christmas Carol suggestions other people have made. I've taught a few adults and my favourite book is John Thompson's Adult Begginer book (a green one!). It's better for those with natural ability though, it flies through the basic lessons and gets them playing pieces, hands together, about a month after starting.

Enjoy teaching!

I've mostly given up on trying to sort out Christmas books.
Most of my students don't know any carols so using this as a time to have fun playing things they know and enloy for christmas doesn't work.