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

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Spring Repertoire Project

There’s perhaps no better time than the Spring months for embarking on exciting new piano projects, but let’s also remember to give our perennial ‘Active Repertoire’ a timely spring clean…

Written in partnership with musician and broadcaster Jack Pepper, with a foreword by Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, ‘Music We Might Have Played’ brings together nineteen stunning piano solos for early advanced players.

The Three-Dimensional Pianist

Understanding the importance of the three dimensions of musical learning, Musical Mind, Body, and Soul, empowers us to teach, learn and practise music holistically, making effective and lasting progress.

ADHD • Insights for Pianists

Bringing together expert clinical insight and piano education advice to support pianists and educators.

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Why not share student images and videos?

Pianodao Articles • Full Archive

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

Scroll through your social media feeds, and if you’ve ever taken an interest in piano education it’s likely you will come across videos of children receiving tuition, students performing in events, and celebratory photos of them with certificates or trophies.

The desire to share images of players young and old is understandable from a number of angles. Firstly, and most obviously, it seems entirely appropriate for parents to celebrate their children’s musical achievements on their private page in this way, and potentially for teachers and schools to do the same.

As the NSPCC put it,

“It’s important that children and young people feel happy about their achievements and have images of their special moments for themselves and their families to look back on. This might include photos and videos taken by teachers during school performances and special events, or by staff and volunteers delivering events and activities outside of school.”

Secondly, there are good reasons for teachers to share videos on forums when seeking advice from colleagues: what better way to explain a technical challenge or developmental issue when seeking an expert second opinion?

Thirdly, some teachers use pupil videos to promote their teaching. I am less comfortable with this, concerned it could skew our attitude towards learners who don’t enjoy performing, and lead to prescriptive teaching in which we tend towards cloning ourselves. Nevertheless, as a colleague explained to me recently, she sees videos of pupils as her “professional portfolio”.

We must at this point distinguish between public publishing (for example, on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or a teacher’s public website) and private sharing (such as in a secure, password-protected web space, or a private WhatsApp group). This article pertains particularly to the former: publishing on a public platform.

So why are many professionals opposed to the practice of sharing photos and videos of piano students publicly online? And importantly, what legal, ethical, and professional concerns should teachers and parents consider, and reflect on with care before sharing media online?

These are questions that I have had to grapple with and look into from a number of angles: as a teacher, business owner, and forum moderator. Here’s what I’ve found…

LCME Piano Syllabus 2026

Educational Resources

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

In the rapidly changing landscape of graded piano exams, the regular appearance of new syllabus and varied repertoire publications has remained a positive constant, so when LCME’s 2021-24 piano specifications expired, it was a surprise that they were extended pending a replacement.

This appears to be because the board has undergone considerable change during and since the pandemic. With new leadership and systems now in place, LCME are firmly back, and have this week published the long awaited new piano syllabus, wisely billed as being “valid for examinations from 2026 until further notice”.

Although the new syllabus is immediately valid from 1st September 2026, the previous 2021 syllabus will also remain valid until 31st July 2027 (but mixing the two is not allowed).

In this extended review, I will consider the new repertoire selections and ‘Piano Handbook’ publications, offer insight into other significant syllabus changes and options, and reflect on LCME’s continuing place within the piano exam market.

So to answer the big question many will have, has the wait for the new LCME piano syllabus been worth it? Let’s find out…

Phillip Keveren • Jazz Preludes

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

The Phillip Keveren Series remains one of Hal Leonard’s notably popular successes, bursting at the seams with his collections of jazz and popular piano arrangements as well as original and fresh educational music.

The latest addition to the series is Jazz Preludes for Piano, which offers:

“15 concise preludes designed to introduce a traditional pianist to the spices that season the language of jazz.”

The book is suitable for late intermediate players, around UK Grades 5-6, and delivers an enjoyable introduction to playing in a variety of jazz styles, all cunningly embedded in attractive new pieces that leave the player wanting more!

So if you (or a student you teach) have an interest in developing a more instinctive grasp of jazz grooves and repertoire, this publication is very much aimed in your direction. Let’s find out more about it…

Who really needs mnemonics?

Pianodao Articles • Full Archive

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

Long established as a memory tool for note reading, well-worn mnemonics such as All Cows Eat Grass and Every Good Boy Deserves Football seem to have fallen out of favour in piano teaching circles these days.

Some suggest mnemonics should be avoided altogether, claiming that they are detrimental because:

they add an extra step for the learner decoding notation
they mitigate against the development of intervallic reading, harmonic understanding, and pattern recognition
they don’t scale for reading ledger lines, different clefs, etc
they can create a level of dependency that makes the transition to fluent reading harder

These are certainly important points to consider.

But when we explore the research into the use of mnemonics, a very different picture emerges. And teachers may notice that they are often recommended for learners who are dyslexic or with neurodiversity such as ADHD.

So what is the truth of the matter: are mnemonics useful, and if so for whom? Perhaps a balanced reassessment of the topic, grounded in academic and scientific research, is overdue. So let’s begin with the science bit…

Piano Tales for Winnie-the-Pooh

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

With the popularity of her OUP collections, and her many contributions to the ABRSM piano and jazz syllabus, Nikki Iles has become a near ubiquitous voice in contemporary music education, her distinctive writing a permeating presence in piano publications.

Fans of her music (of whom I am certainly one) will give a warm welcome to the truly delightful pieces in her latest collection from EVC Music, Piano Tales for Winnie-the-Pooh. The book follows in the footsteps of her previous Piano Tales for Alice (UK Grades 1-3, reviewed here), and Piano Tales for Peter Pan (Grades 3-5, reviewed here).

Rather than rounding off her trilogy with an advanced collection as might have been predicted, Piano Tales for Winnie-the-Pooh delivers a selection of new compositions suitable for elementary to intermediate pianists. Let’s find out more…

Piano Player • Anime

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

Faber Music’s Piano Player series has been a welcome success of recent years, each handsome collection in the growing set showcasing the distinctive artwork of Edward Bawden (1903-1989) while offering an appealing variety of music within.

For information about previous titles, read my reviews here.

The cycle appeared to run its course with the release of all titles originally announced, but now enters a new era with two new collections. These no longer sport Bawden’s artwork, but otherwise retain the series aesthetic.

Likely to be particularly popular, Piano Player: Anime curates nineteen themes from Japanese anime soundtracks, arranged for solo piano…

Echoes of the Orient

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

In the last three years, I have reviewed five collections of intermediate piano music by the UK-based Malaysian piano teacher Angeline Bell, during which time she has quickly established her name as an educational composer. Her accessible pieces have also begun to feature on streaming sites and on the radio, where their warm, relaxing vibe is proving popular.

Bell’s sixth and latest publication is Echoes of the Orient. The score again appears from Editions Musica Ferrum, with cover artwork by Rebecca Harrie to match Bell’s previous Notebooks, but this time there is also a CD recording of the music by upcoming concert artist Katie Yao Morgan on the ARC Music Productions label, distributed by Naxos World.

These pieces were composed with early advanced performers in mind, and evoke Bell’s nostalgic reflections and personal recollections of growing up in East Asia. As such, this is a very different collection to its predecessors, so let’s take a look…

Naoko Ikeda • Kanade

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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When compiling Naoko Ikeda: The Graded Collection three years ago, I had the pleasure of selecting the Japanese composer’s best solo piano pieces from more than thirty publications, popular in her homeland and in the USA, but relatively little known here in the UK.

For those wanting more of Naoko Ikeda’s music to follow that Grade 2-5 anthology, as well as fans of her music everywhere, her latest collection from The Willis Music Company is Kanade, and offers “14 Beautiful Piano Solos”. I would suggest that the pieces here would suit Late Intermediate players, around UK Grades 5-6.

Two of these pieces, Foggy Blues and Manhattan Swing, were previously published internationally as single sheets, and I included both in The Graded Collection. The rest are new, with 11 fresh solo compositions, and an arrangement of Bellini’s Vaga luna, che inargenti.