Pianodao

Welcome to Pianodao!

Pianodao is the piano music, education, and wellbeing site of teacher, writer, consultant, and composer Andrew Eales.

As Halloween approaches, many teachers and players ask about top choices of easy, but spooky, piano music to enjoy on these darker evenings. When it comes to whole collections dedicated to exploring the ghoulish and macabre, here are my top choices.

Autumn Repertoire Project

Autumn is a time of dynamic change and possibility, the old giving way to the new. As the ‘fall’ approaches, let’s take another look at our Active Repertoire and reflect on our piano goals for the coming months.

ADHD • Insights for Pianists

This page is the gateway to Pianodao’s acclaimed ADHD series of articles, which bring together expert clinical insight and piano education advice to support learners, performers, and teachers.

Essential Piano Education Resources 2026-7

Discover the best new releases and classic piano education resources to support your teaching studio in 2026. Here’s the annual round up…

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Garreth Brooke • A Piano Journey

The Pianodao Guest Book
Interviews • Opinions • Guest Posts

GARRETH BROOKE is a British/German musician whose original music has been released on several labels and has received millions of streams. He has performed live all over Europe, and his compositions have been published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Faber Music, and Editions Musica Ferrum.

Garreth’s exclusive UK live date for 2026 will be his upcoming appearance at the Milton Keynes Piano Celebration (Book Tickets here).

In this moving and inspiring interview, we discuss how Garreth’s musical journey has been shaped by love, loss, healing, and the pathway that has ultimately led to his music touching listeners around the world…

Disney • Graded Pieces for Piano

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Last year at around this time I reviewed the very-specifically-named Calming Christmas Carols for Graded Piano (read the review) and noted,

“Cleverly, and rather uniquely positioned as the progressive collection to which learners can reliably return each year throughout their Elementary to Intermediate piano journey, and thus maximising the book’s continuing value to teachers, learners, and parents, the concept is certainly attractive.”

At the time I wondered whether publisher Hal Leonard might extend the graded concept to other popular collections, and sure enough, earlier this year they launched the excellent Beatles Graded Pieces for Piano (reviewed here), and hot on its heels a Disney collection, again for Grades 1-5, and the subject of the review.

In common with the Beatles Graded Pieces for Piano collection, this new release includes new arrangements by Christopher Hussey, along with appropriate introductory exercises suitable for learning the pieces at each grade level. Read on to find out more…

Edition Peters Graded Anthologies 2027-28

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Looking back, 2026 has been a year of graded anthologies, with new syllabus publications from LCME (reviewed here), from ABRSM (reviewed here), and the latter’s recent Encore Plus series (reviewed here).

Whether one is committed to exam preparation or not, these are useful collections of music which (one hopes) will be suitably levelled, offering diversity and variety for players and, for those taking grades, alternative repertoire selections and ‘own choice’ pieces.

Reviewing the 2027-28 ABRSM syllabus and Piano Exam Pieces books (with some disappointment). I noted:

“I think that few will argue with the point that, across every grade, the alternative selections offer several easier and more appealing options. I suspect these lists may therefore prove a more attractive repertoire focus for teachers wishing to maximise motivation and confidence.”

Right on time, Edition Peters have now published their own Grade Piano Anthology collections based on the ABRSM 2027-28 syllabus, further swelling our options. In common with their previous series reviewed here, they offer books for each of Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8.

So do they offer a more tempting and balanced selection of music than the rather lacklustre ABRSM 2027-28 books, and might these collections have wider appeal? Here’s my review…

The Natural Musician

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

I really believe that it’s imperative for us all to reawaken to the natural world around us, and to rediscover our place within it. Recognising and following the changing seasons, and making adjustments which bring our inner journey into harmony with the natural world is fundamental to our true wellbeing.

Throughout history, the Daoist philosophers and teachers emphasised this point. Alongside that, they were keen musicians and artists who demonstrated in their works that far from adding to our sense of separation from the natural world, our artistic expression can provide an avenue by which we can come much closer to it.

Let’s explore this idea of becoming a more natural musician, in tune with the seasons and the living world around us…

The Piano Stool: a safe harbour

The Pianodao Guest Book
Interviews • Opinions • Guest Posts

In this new guest post for Pianodao, best-selling author KAREN MARSHALL points to the importance of helping students feel welcome, seen, and ready to learn…

Years ago, my late teacher Eric Leveridge told me,

“Karen, remember that a piano teacher can actually be providing a service to the community. Supporting parents and young people as they make their way in life.”

I have never forgotten those words. Instrumental educators enjoy the rare privilege of spending years of consistent, one-to-one time with a child. Sometimes for up to twelve years, or more. We are not just teaching an instrument; we form part of that child’s long-term developmental support team.

Attachment theory offers a helpful lens through which we can understand this connection. Borrowing John Bowlby’s concept of a “secure base”, we can see how music teachers can create a predictable, encouraging environment where children feel safe enough to take creative risks.

This is not to suggest we replace parents or act as therapists, but rather to recognise the meaningful difference a trusted, consistent adult can make.

Many of us notice students arriving at lessons with limited attention, heightened anxiety, or low resilience. Modern stressors, disrupted routines, and educational pressures profoundly impact confidence. The piano stool can become a reassuring space, a place to rebuild resilience and rediscover potential.

Did I play it right?

Fermata • The Pianodao Blog
Short Reflections by Andrew Eales

It’s shocking, really, this thought that the way we play a piece of music can be regarded as either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. And I’m talking about attitude of course, not outcome, because basic accuracy, precision and technical control have always mattered, and always will. But they are far from the whole story. And nor is there only one ‘correct’, valid interpretation of a piece.

We all want to play the best we can, and help students hone their ability and understanding. But where did we get the idea that talking about piano playing in such a binary way, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, is appropriate? Certainly, the overstated opinions of teachers have played their part; the more esteemed the expert, the more authoritatively correct their views are supposed to be.

Exams, competitions, and ‘masterclasses’ further instil a sense that music has to be played in a certain way, points and prizes typically awarded according to how successfully a performance meets a set of prescribed criteria, how well it conforms to received wisdom, or how closely it resembles the judge’s or examiner’s own interpretation.

Curiosity, the playful spark of original thinking and creative exploration, is easy enough for anyone to appreciate and enjoy, but perhaps harder to codify and quantify in an agreed mark scheme.

Florence Price • Concert Works

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Interest in the music of Florence Price (1887–1953) has grown considerably in the last few years, with her music becoming a regular feature in concert halls and recording studios, and her piano music firmly reestablishing its place in music education.

Price’s music has appeared in several piano compilations that I have reviewed here, including my own Joy of Graded Piano Grade 4 book, and a couple of years ago the Hal Leonard publication Florence Price: Rediscovered Gems for intermediate pianists was widely heralded as a publishing success.

In the Pianodao review of that book, I concluded:

“These are pieces of substance and quality that will universally delight, motivate, inspire, and win over players and audiences everywhere. They are indeed rediscovered gems!”

Florence Price: Rediscovered Gems was the work of editor and Price expert Michael Clark, who has subsequently compiled a new anthology for late intermediate to early advanced pianists, with a nucleus of repertoire that, in my estimation, would suit players around UK Grade 6-7 level, and simply called Price Piano Works. This new collection is published by Edition Peters.

Also newly available, author, pianist and music historian Dr. Samantha Ege has delivered a stunning new edition, published by OUP Music, of Price’s celebrated Fantasie Nègre: Four Fantasies for Piano.

This is arguably among the most important scholarly critical performing editions I have ever been sent for review, offering as it does four milestone concert pieces, presented in complete editions for the first time, that will suit diploma recitalists and professional pianists.

In this review, I will consider each of these two new publications in turn…

Autumn Repertoire Project

Active Repertoire Project
Written by Andrew Eales

Pianodao’s popular Active Repertoire Project nudges and reminds us to develop a set of three or four pieces which we can play with confidence, fluency, and expression, for our own and others’ enjoyment, and preferably from memory.

By making this a top priority, we can:

start our practice sessions positively, with music we enjoy
more quickly memorise our favourite pieces
overcome our anxiety and feel more at ease playing to others

The Autumn Repertoire Sheet is FREE to download, and includes the regular spaces to list pieces to continue enjoying, as well as space to keep track of new projects and core technical work. Click here for the download:

Autumn Repertoire Project Sheet