One of the basic tenets of improving as a musician — and keeping your playing fun — is to continue to learn and play new music and avoid playing the same songs over and over. But to play new songs you have to find new music to play. There’s a lot of music publishers out there, and a lot of piano music, so we thought we would help by offering a few options from publishers we work with.
Here’s a few piano music books from beginner to advanced levels, written by various musicians and printed by various music publishers. Of course, this is just a flavor of all the possible music and books available to eager pianists, so if anything interests you hit the accompanying links under each book and you’ll find an entire website of individual music publishers’ works.
Simple Songs – The Easiest Easy Piano Songs
Play 50 of your favorite songs in the easiest of arrangements — Enjoy pop hits, Broadway showstoppers, movie themes, jazz standards, folk tunes, and classical melodies presented simply, with lyrics. Songs include: “Beyond the Sea,” “Castle on a Cloud,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Happy Birthday to You,” “Hey Jude,” “Let It Go,” “Linus and Lucy,” “Moon River,” ‘Ode to Joy,” “Over the Rainbow,” “Puff the Magic Dragon,” “Smile,” “Star Wars (Main Theme),” “Tomorrow,” “When I Fall in Love,” “Yesterday,” and more.
Hal Leonard. www.halleonard.com.
Sequential Christmas Piano Songs
26 Holiday Favorites Carefully Selected and Arranged in Order of Difficulty
Players of all levels can enjoy holiday favorites with Sequential Christmas Piano Songs. Starting with the easiest arrangements (hands alone, very simple rhythms), and continuing in order of difficulty (including hands together, syncopated rhythms, and moving around the keyboard), players can find songs that fit their particular skill level and play right away. Beginners can use these books to improve their music reading and piano skills from the very first page while playing the pop songs they love. This collection features 26 songs, including: “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth,” “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),” “Frosty the Snow Man,” “It’s Beginning to Look like Christmas,” “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “White Christmas,” “Mary, Did You Know?” and more.
Hal Leonard. www.halleonard.com.
Blues in Two & More
(for intermediate-level piano players)
By Mike Cornick
Blues in Two by Mike Cornick centers around a piece by that name which was originally published in 1994. It appeared in Easy Jazzy Piano and was such an immediate hit that it soon appeared on piano examination syllabuses in both the UK and Australia. This edition offers that original work complemented by 11 further pieces in a variety of lighter styles, including swing, blues, ragtime, Latin, and calypso. All are suitable for intermediate level players.
Universal Edition. www.universaledition.com.
4 Afro-Caribbean Pieces for 3 players at 1 piano
By Mike Cornick
In this volume, 4 Afro-Caribbean Pieces for 6 hands, Cornick offers three traditional pieces, “Jamaica Farewell,” “Mary Anne,” and “Yellow Bird,” plus a piece of his own which captures the stylistic mannerisms of this very musical region. Cornick has suggested fingerings to help avoid the collisions inevitable with three players at one keyboard but he adds “it’s all part of the fun!” The second and terzo parts can be downloaded (free of charge) from the publisher’s website to aid private practice.
Universal Edition. www.universaledition.com.
Tableaux de Peintres Russes (pour piano)
By Igor Shamo
Tableaux de Peintres Russes (The Pictures of Russian Painters) is one of the most popular compositions for piano of prominent 20th century Ukrainian composer Igor Shamo. The pieces burst with rich imagery, poetry, lyricism and humor, drama and energy. They highlight the characteristic features of Shamo’s musical style: beautiful melodic lines, enriched by suave harmonies, create subtle polyphony with countermelodies over playful ever-changing accompaniment. Refined and inventive, Igor Shamo’s piano writing is colorful, diverse and perfectly crafted. For intermediate to advanced players.
Gerard Billaudot. www.billaudot.com
Music in a Bottle (for piano)
By Miguel Del Aguila
Tracing the journey of a bottle carrying music, Miguel del Aguilas Music in a Bottle is exhilarating and ravishing, yet equally poignant with sadness. The work portrays the symbolic journey of a bottle carrying a message across the oceans and finally sinking without its message ever having been delivered. The 10-minute composition draws inspiration from post-minimalist textures and rich harmony. It is technically within the reach of intermediate to advanced students, as well as enticing for professional recitals.
Theodore Presser Company. www.presser.com.
Keyboard of the Winds
By Stacy Garrop
This piece is a tribute to the Keyboard of the Winds, a collection of rock formations in Rocky Mountain National Park. The fast, whirling gestures depict swirling clouds, and the musical high points represent a hiker reaching the peaks of the Keyboard. Garrop has contrasted these sections with quiet, introspective material; these embody the hiker quietly surveying the grandeur and beauty of the valley below (on a cloudless day), as well as the soaring pinnacles of Longs Peak and Pagoda Mountain overhead. For advanced players.
Theodore Presser Company. www.presser.com.
Mother Popcorn revisted (for piano trio)
By Lee Hyla
The title of Mother Popcorn Revisited comes from James Brown s 1969 tune “Mother Popcorn,” and the piece is infused with the energetic rhythms and pointed articulations found in funk music. Brown was one of Lee Hyla s strongest non-classical influences. The rhythms in Hyla’s music are essential to his aesthetic, as in funk music; Brown once wrote that the strength of his style was not in the horns, it was in the rhythm. Mother Popcorn Revisited is more than a simple recreation of funk — Hyla captures the driving rhythmic energy within frequent tempo changes and time signature, present in much of his music. For advanced players.
Carl Fischer Chamber Music Edition. www.carlfischer.com.
