Author Description

Designed for non-music majors who want to learn piano "for the fun of it," Learning Piano: Piece by Piece is also ideal for courses in class piano and for individual instruction. This concise and user-friendly book presents materials in an engaging manner and in a logical piece-by-piece progression of difficulty. Offering a rich and well-rounded solo and ensemble repertoire, it enables students to master basic keyboard skills--through the study of fresh, appealing, and easy-to-play arrangements of both traditional and newly created pieces--and provides them with ample opportunities to improvise, transpose, and harmonize. By encouraging students to play music from different time periods, genres, and cultures, Learning Piano: Piece by Piece also inspires musicality and creativity.FEATURES* Uniquely diverse and global repertoire: Learning Piano: Piece by Piece contains a wealth of musical compositions, from classical (Baroque through the twentieth century) to folk, blues, jazz, boogie, and rock, all in interesting arrangements. It features music that is heard and played around the world, in the United States, France, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Russia, China, Japan, South America, Mexico, and the Middle East. The nine ensemble pieces include such favorites as "Amazing Grace" and Pachelbel's "Canon in D." An entire unit is devoted to twentieth-century pieces.* Accessible yet creative instruction: Laid out in an easy-to-follow, piece-by-piece format, the text also integrates numerous fun exercises, like improvising in various styles--pentatonic (creating music reminiscent of Chinese and Japanese tunes), open-fifth "new age," 12-bar blues, and Dorian mode (jazz style).* Two CDs packaged free with each book, containing almost 100 original orchestrations by renowned composer Phillip Keveren (in both practice and performance tempi) for students to use on their own. These orchestrations are also available on MIDI disks for adopting instructors to use in class.* Marginal icons in the text direct students to the appropriate track with the orchestration accompaniment on the CDs.* "Practice Strategies" sections throughout give students the opportunity to practice theory and techniques immediately after they are introduced in the text.* "On Another Note" boxes provide interesting historical information on the piano, musical styles, and composers, as well as learning tips from performing artists.* An Instructor's Manual containing suggested lesson plans will be available online.