The Pianodao Music Library brings together the repertoire and resources which have been reviewed, shared or otherwise featured on the site. As such, it offers a varied, extensive, inclusive, and ever expanding body of carefully curated music.
Late Intermediate music is suitable for players at around UK Grades 5-6 level or equivalent. Selected highlights are showcased below. You can also explore the full archive, and check out the most recent reviews here:
The following selections showcase publications that my regular students have enjoyed and that I frequently recommend. The selections offer a core program of classical, contemporary, and jazz music suitable for each level.
My Publications
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.
Naoko Ikeda Graded Collection
For this publication I have selected and edited 24 of Naoko Ikeda’s best solo works, presenting her pieces in approximate order of difficulty, grouped from Grade 2 to Grade 5 level.
Graded Gillock • Three Essential Collections
William Gillock’ music continues to inspire piano students around the world with its catchy tunes and imaginative content. My three collections deliver 41 of his very best pieces, sorted by level and including my playing tips.
Willis Student Recital Collection
Add a sprinkling of STARDUST to your student performances! These 40 stunning piano recital pieces are sure to steal the show! Suitable from Grades 1-6
Music We Might Have Played
Written in partnership with musician and broadcaster Jack Pepper, and with a foreword by Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, ‘Music We Might Have Played’ brings together nineteen stunning piano solos suitable for early advanced players.
Recommended Anthologies
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.
Piano Music by Women Composers
Immanuela Gruenberg’s two new collections of ‘Piano Music by Women Composers’ are quite simply outstanding, an essential milestone which every intermediate or advanced pianist should rush to welcome…
Piano Player • Classical Chillout
For those who enjoy Faber’s Piano Player series it is an obvious must-have, but for those looking for a lovely collection of more relaxed pieces it also jumps to the top of my pile of recommendations. And in so crowded a market, that’s quite something!…
Schott’s Easy Concert Pieces
Schott Music’s Easy Concert Pieces series offers very traditional, but superbly presented and well edited, selections of core repertoire for elementary to late intermediate players.
Relax with Beautiful Pieces
The “Relax With” series includes excellent, bumper collections of Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionistic and Folk pieces aimed at intermediate to advanced pianists who play “mostly at home for their own enjoyment”.
Explore the Classics
The Intermediate Piano Sonata Collection
A new supplementary addition to Faber Music’s “Piano Trainer” series, The Intermediate Piano Sonata Collection will be warmly welcomed by all who enjoy the classical style…
My First Schubert
I cannot think of a directly competing collection of Schubert miniatures that matches this new volume’s mix of accessible presentation and perfectly curated musical appeal…. superb!
My First Beethoven
My First Beethoven’ is quite simply an outstanding collection, and will undoubtedly become a staple of my own students’ musical diet in the years ahead, replacing numerous other editions and books.
Prokofiev • Musiques d’enfants
Schott Music’s new edition of Prokofiev’s ‘Musiques d’enfants’ is an outstanding edition of a true milestone in our repertoire. And with exemplary and creative Teaching Notes by Monika Twelsiek, this publication also raises the piano education bar…
My First Handel
‘My First Handel’ from Schott Music delivers a superb collection of intermediate pieces by a great keyboard composer whose contribution to the repertoire is often, and too easily, overlooked…
Living Composers
Ludovico Einaudi: Underwater
As a sometime fan of Einaudi’s work, I found his new album “Underwater” a strikingly different listen, as have many others, and have been looking forward to considering the sheet music folio, which has recently been published by Chester Music / Hal Leonard and is the subject of this review…
Yiruma • 20th Anniversary Solo
“In a year of many highlights, these books are unquestionably another publishing triumph, and in the realm of artist folios, Faber Music have very significantly raised the bar here. I have to say… Wow!”
Ola Gjeilo: Night
I have played through a significant number of albums in this general vein before, but Ola Gjeilo’s Night has not only particularly impressed me, but is a collection to which I have absolutely no doubt that I will return for musical and emotional nourishment in the future.
Rachel Portman • Beyond the Screen
Deconstructing these pieces, pruning them to their basics and perfecting them as piano solos, Portman has delivered a very special collection, which many will cherish at the piano.
Piano Day • The Collection
As “Piano Day” celebrates its tenth year, founder Nils Frahm has curated a very special anthology of 35 pieces drawn from the globally popular playlists associated with this grass roots phenomenon…
Jazz • Popular • Contemporary
Peaceful Pop Piano Solos
‘Peaceful Pop Piano Solos’ is an unpretentious publication which perfectly hits its bullseye, delivering an excellent collection of satisfying piano arrangements.
Blues, Boogie, Jazz & more…
Paul Birchall’s “Blues, Boogie, Jazz & More” does not disappoint. There are many resources available for learning to play popular music styles these days, but as is their custom EVC Music have released a winner here..
Peaceful Jazz Piano Solos
The popular and keenly-priced ‘Peaceful Piano Solos’ series has only become more compelling with the arrival of this collection of 30 standards arranged for late intermediate players.
Nikki Iles and Friends
Nikki Iles is back with two new books of jazz, between them bringing 29 new pieces for intermediate to advanced players, composed and arranged by Iles as well as several other stars of the contemporary jazz world.
Ben Crosland’s Jazz Beans!
From beginner to proficient jazzer, the Jazz Beans series offers a delicious mix of styles and catchy melodies which will surely bring much enjoyment, and inspire players of all ages (and especially teenagers) to develop their groove!
Favourite Melodies • Jazz Piano
‘Favourite Melodies for Jazz Piano Solo’ is one of those happy publications which proves as easy to review as it is to highly recommend. These are great tunes, masterfully reimagined in an accessible and very cool way!
Latest Releases
The Mindful Piano Anthology
‘The Faber Music Mindful Piano Anthology’ stands out from the crowd for its especially broad range of repertoire, drawn from several centuries, genres, and musical traditions. Together, these pieces testify to the enduring power of music as a channel for reflection.
Piano Music of the Black Renaissance
With works by eight composers of the early to mid twentieth century, ‘Piano Music of the Black Renaissance’ ranges in level from Early Intermediate to Advanced, and offers a fascinating and useful sourcebook of music that deserves much greater recognition within the classical piano repertoire.
ABRSM • Encore Plus
In a year that has seen some excellent, focussed educational publications, ABRSM’s new ‘Encore Plus” books are another must-have success, offering a range of pieces primed for the exam room which I cannot imagine teachers will want to be without a set
Dora Pejačević • Early Pieces
The Schott Student Edition series continues to deliver outstanding new collections of pedagogy classics and rediscovered gems, the latest of which offers a great way to discover the wonderful piano music of Dora Pejačević…
Arise and Shine
‘Arise and Shine’ offers 28 piano solos by Black composers suitable for intermediate to early advanced players. With such a beautiful addition to the piano pedagogy library, there’s no doubt that this music’s time has come…
Jason Sifford • Here Be Dragons
Here be Dragons is undoubtedly one of the piano education highlights of the year so far, and deserves a place in the music collection of all late intermediate players (and of course their teachers). These are pieces which not only take flight, but which will elevate performers, and enchant their audiences.
Phillip Keveren • Jazz Preludes
I have previously recommended a number of Phillip Keveren’s books, and those who learn with me seem to consistently love them. I am sure that his brilliant ‘Jazz Preludes for Piano’ will be equally well received…
Piano Player • Anime
Anyone for Anime? These accessible solo piano arrangements are fundamentally true to the originals, presented in full, and in key. They can even be played along to the original soundtracks…
Naoko Ikeda • Kanade
Of the many gifted composers of intermediate piano music today, Naoko Ikeda remains a favourite, and it’s great to welcome this new collection of solo pieces, particularly as it is one of her most consistent and enjoyable yet.
The Winter Piano Anthology
With their ‘Winter Piano Anthology’, Faber Music have again hit the bullseye, offering an essential collection that gathers an impressively diverse and inspiring array of evocative pieces to satisfy all tastes, including many that pianists are unlikely to already have elsewhere.
Christmas Imaginations
This selection of arrangements written by composers with very contrasting styles proves to be a collection with genuine educational and musical value, and one to which I expect to return as a teacher, and for my own personal pleasure, for many years to come. Truly superb!
The Eugénie Rocherolle Collection
Eugénie Rocherolle’s name and music remain too little known here in the UK; this beautifully presented valedictory tribute to her genius thus offers both a superb introduction, and a glowing memorial to one of the true greats of the piano pedagogy literature.
Debbie Wiseman • Ten
Debbie Wiseman has been voted the most popular living composer by Classic FM listeners, and it’s easy to understand her wide appeal based on these attractive and winsome piano pieces, suitable for intermediate players. One of the must-have collections of 2025 so far…
A Contemporary Sonatina Collection
The more time that I have spent playing these fresh works, the more certain I have become that this significant publication belongs in the collection of all late intermediate players and their teachers.
Forest and Seaside Notebooks
Angeline Bell’s latest two intermediate collections bring her tally to five in the last three years. In this review I consider what they add, and who these books will best suit…
Piano Player • Movie Soundtracks
The latest addition to Faber Music’s ‘Piano Player’ series offers “21 of the best themes from the biggest films”…
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