Selected and Reviewed by ANDREW EALES
Find out more: ABOUT PIANODAO REVIEWS
It can feel overwhelming trying to keep track of all the latest and best piano education resources from one year to the next, so I am happy to publish this year’s annual Pianodao roundup.
Read on for my list of some of the most essential educational resources and piano publications of recent months and years. Between them, these resources deliver the material we rely on to cover core skills development, essential repertoire, and teacher support resources.
For more information and tips on each publication, simply click on the titles. You can also right-click to open in a new tab. And you may want to consider bookmarking this page for future reference.
And to complement these physical publications, my friend Garreth Brooke has kindly written this (soon to be updated) companion piece for Pianodao: Essential Online Piano Education Resources.
NEW for 2025-26:
These recent resources have all been reviewed in depth since last year’s roundup! Discover what’s hot:
Bluey: First Ever Piano Book
The ‘Bluey First Ever Piano Book’ is one of the most impressive educational resources I have seen this year. The imaginative marriage between musical learning and an established animated sensation is undeniably innovative, and works brilliantly!
Christmas for Ten Fingers
OUP Music’s evergreen ‘Piano Time Carols’ book has been given a contemporary redesign, with added downloadable audio, and they have also published the excellent ‘Christmas for Ten Fingers’ for younger learners.
Essential Piano Technique: Levels 2-3
With the latest two additions to her growing series, Penelope Roskell provides a significant resource for ensuring players progressing through Late Elementary to Intermediate level, (Grades 1-4) develop a healthy playing technique.
Tunes for Ten Fingers
The Tunes For Ten Fingers series remains one of the top-selling methods for young beginners with good reason. With these new editions, OUP Music have given this evergreen resource a fresh, more diverse, contemporary look, audio, and many other tweaks…
Junior Performer
Rather boldly describing itself as “The Perfect Resource for Between Piano Grades”, the new ‘Junior Performer’ series from Willis Music clearly has ambitions…
A Dozen a Day • Counting Rhythm
Developing our sense of pulse, pace, and rhythmic timing are fundamental building blocks of piano playing, ‘A Dozen A Day: Counting Rhythm’ is a useful resource with lots of creative potential.
Studio Choice:
These evergreen favourites remain hugely popular with learners, and elevate the teaching and learning of core skills:
Rediscovering Piano Time
With brand new illustrations throughout, a host of fresh new pieces, freely downloadable audio recordings, and gentle tweaks to further facilitate smooth progression, the brand new editions of PIANO TIME offer a very significant update.
Penelope Roskell • Essential Piano Technique
I cannot overstate how highly I recommend these three volumes. Beautifully presented, but modestly priced, they establish a new benchmark for teaching children the foundations for a healthy piano technique.
The Piano Trainer Scales Workbook
A couple of years ago I suggested to author Karen Marshall and publishers Faber Music that it would be really useful to have an all-in-one scales manual within the popular Piano Trainer series. And here it is…
A Dozen A Day • All Year Round
As useful and truly indispensable a resource today as it was when Edna-Mae Burnam first developed the books back in the 1950’s, “A Dozen A Day: All Year Round” is a truly essential classic…
Paul Harris Webinar: A Piece a Week
In this special webinar for Pianodao Music Club members, Paul Harris explains the ethos behind his acclaimed ‘Piece a Week’ series, and introduces the final volume.
Pianodao also has an exclusive free piece for you to download…
Piano Sight Reading: A Progressive Method
Having looked at more than a few sight reading resources over recent years, I find this series especially appealing. Regardless of exams and boards, these are no-fuss publications which can be used as straight-forward course materials with pretty much any student.
Piano Star Theory
I can certainly imagine children aged about seven and upwards becoming truly absorbed in Piano Star Theory…
The First 50 Chords
Wouldn’t it be good if there was a simple primer introducing all the basic chords and chord symbols in a logical sequence, linked to their use in well-known songs? Well now there is…
Discover and download a complete piano curriculum with comprehensive lesson activities from beginner to advanced level. Consider how adult beginners need different material to children. And remember that teaching students how to practise is one of the keys to success:
A Common Approach 2022
FREE to download, and based on input from multiple leading teachers, A Common Approach is the ultimate piano teaching manual: A complete piano curriculum, with extensive lesson activities to use with learners from beginner to Grade 8.
Which Adult Piano Method?
Adults learn differently to children. It follows that they benefits from resources tailored specifically to adult needs. Here are ten top method book choices…
How to Practise Music
Accessible and authoritative, HOW TO PRACTISE MUSIC is Andrew’s highly acclaimed book of tips for anyone who wants to get more out of their practice.
Pianodao: Supporting Teachers
Pianodao’s new support page for piano teachers offers an easy entry point for the training resources the site offers:
- Pianodao’s acclaimed archive of FREE articles
- in-depth reviews of piano music and teaching resources
- access to one-to-one professional mentoring
- professional advice and online feedback.
Essential Graded Repertoire
Graded Anthologies offer teachers and learners a cost-effective solution for exploring music which has appropriate levelling, is suitable for charting their progress, and developing a full and balanced experience of our wonderful and varied repertoire. These are some of the best:
Edition Peters Piano Classics
This bumper selection of piano masterpieces will undoubtedly and significantly enrich the advancing pianist’s musical diet, bringing depth and understanding to their appreciation of our core literature. Superb!
Edition Peters Piano Anthologies
With little duplication between these and the official ABRSM books, the ‘Edition Peters Piano Anthologies’ are an absolute must for those keen to delve into the many brilliant pieces lurking on the alternative choice lists…
The Gradebusters Series
“Gradebusters” from Hal Leonard, now encompasses five solo piano books, for Grades 1 to 5, each delivering “15 awesome solos”, and together serving up a rich feast of 75 universally popular and neatly arranged songs that piano players everywhere will be keen to play…
The Joy of Graded Piano
These five inspiring collections bring together essential repertoire for players of all ages. The “greatest hits” of the Baroque, Classical and Romantic piano literature appear alongside brilliant newer pieces composed by women and men from all around the world, right up to the present day. Grades 1-5.
ABRSM • Piano Inspiration
With their uniquely comfortable blend of great music by composers from such different backgrounds, these are undoubtedly landmark publications, demonstrating beyond doubt that cultural integration and enrichment go hand in hand.
ABRSM: Pop Performer!
The inclusion of excellent pop song arrangements within the traditional graded piano syllabus has arrived in style!
Find out all about ABSRSM’s Pop Performer books in the full Pianodao review here:
And here’s the PIanodao reviews and advice on using the current syllabus collections from the two main UK boards:
ABRSM Piano Syllabus 2025-26
We live in challenging and changing times. In some respects, it can be argued that with their 2025-26 syllabus, ABRSM have channelled that zeitgeist. Certainly, I have yet to come across a syllabus that is, at one and the same time so assured, and yet so uncertain of its own identity…
Trinity Piano Syllabus 2023
Following their superb, and well received syllabus in 2021, Trinity may have misread the market with this radical follow up, losing sight of core piano education principles and sidelining the great repertoire of the instrument…
Spotlight on Jazz
New jazz piano materials will be reviewed in the coming months, including the forthcoming Grades 6-8 from ABRSM, but in the meantime here are some excellent and proven resources to consider:
Learn to Play Ragtime Piano
This new publication introduces the conventions and musical essence of Ragtime better than any other I am aware of, and with unique authority.
Tim Richards: Beginning Jazz Piano
Tim Richards has yet again outdone himself with these two amazing books. Anyone committing themselves to an in-depth study of jazz piano playing will undoubtedly find that his course offers a superb foundation for learning and improvement.
Jazz Piano for Kids
Richard Michael has delivered the beginner jazz book that as a teacher I’ve been waiting for, seemingly, for decades…
Here’s the in-depth Pianodao review.
Julia Hülsmann: Modern Piano Improvisation
In her Modern Piano Improvisation series Julia Hülsmann presents an easy and inviting introduction to improvising jazz piano…
How to Play Jazz Piano
In succeeding to make jazz playing accessible to that far wider audience of broadly literate musicians, How to Play Jazz Piano is a game-changer and a genuine triumph.
Further Reading for Teachers
With everything from business advice right through to teaching technique, here’s some superb books to support you in your career:
The Piano Teacher’s Survival Guide
Once in a while a book appears which must be considered essential, an instant classic, and this is one such publication. The Piano Teacher’s Survival Guide instantly establishes itself as the very best practical manual available for today’s piano teachers.
More Than Music Lessons
Merlin B. Thompson’s book “More than Music Lessons” is one of those books which could prove to be a game-changer for any instrumental teacher who takes time to absorb and apply the author’s key messages…
Paul Harris: Unconditional Teaching
Paul Harris’s latest book, “Unconditional Teaching”, is without question a profoundly rewarding read.
I simply cannot recommend it highly enough.Here’s the Pianodao review…
Paul Harris • How to Sight Read
Paul Harris’ sight-reading resources have played an important role in my teaching for years. How wonderful to now have this book, which brings us a deeper understanding of this important aspect of musical learning.
Musicians Who Teach
I have no hesitation in recommending this book as an essential primer that should be required reading for all who teach singing or a musical instrument in the UK. Buy it, absorb it, and you will certainly have no regrets!
The Complete Pianist
Penelope Roskell’s ‘The Complete Pianist’ is a monumental achievement, with 560 large format pages, 250 newly-devised exercises and more than 300 supporting online videos. I can well believe that it’s the most comprehensive, and essential book ever written on piano playing!
Wishing you every success with your teaching this year!
PIANODAO includes 700+ FREE articles.
Please DONATE HERE to support the site.
For FREE email notifications SUBSCRIBE HERE.
