Christmas Music – Elementary

Christmas for Ten Fingers

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

Over the last two years, OUP Music have done a stellar job of refreshing and updating their enduringly popular Piano Time method series (reviewed here) and Tunes for Ten Fingers (reviewed here) children’s primer books, with a fresh new look, audio files, updated pedagogy, and brand new music.

They haven’t forgotten their evergreen Piano Time Carols book, the long-standing studio essential also now benefiting from a contemporary redesign and downloadable audio, which I will consider below.

Best of all, they have published a brand new Christmas for Ten Fingers, which proves to be a superbly engaging easy collection for younger players, with duet parts, and rich with creative teaching potential.

In the review which follows, I will initially focus on the latter (which is written by Michael Higgins) and then check out the new-look Piano Time Carols.

Pianoworks Christmas

The Christmas Shortlist

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

I am often asked to recommend a fairly basic Christmas piano book, suitable for Elementary players at around Grade 1 to Grade 2 level, with a selection of traditional carols along with a few more contemporary favourites, and in straightforward, well-crafted piano-friendly arrangements.

Within my teaching practice, Pianoworks Christmas has proven to be that perennial chestnut, and in a crowded market remains my all-time top recommendation for a basic, no-frills Christmas piano songbook.

Although part of the superb Pianoworks series of books for older beginners, the collection has no links to the actual method itself other than branding, and of course the fact that it appeals to adult players as much as it does to youngsters.

Pianoworks Christmas has proven to be hugely and consistently popular with players of all ages, year after year. It’s simply a great book, which essentially reviews itself. But here are my thoughts on it, sample pages, and a full list of its contents…

Easy Piano Series: Christmas

The Christmas Shortlist

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

Faber Music’s ‘Easy Piano Series’ has steadily been establishing itself as one of the brightest jewels in the publisher’s sparkling catalogue of educational piano music.

New for 2019, this collection of seasonal favourites sets out to maintain the high standards of the series. Let’s take a quick peek inside…

Get Set! Christmas Crackers

The Christmas Shortlist

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

Seasonal music has long held a special place in peoples’ lives, enriching festivities, underpinning our devotion (both religious and to one another), and fostering community. So it’s no surprise that most piano method series add a Christmas book to their range sooner rather than later.

If Get Set! Piano Christmas Crackers has taken longer to arrive than might have been expected, it is because the authors have taken their time to create more than just another Christmas songbook. Christmas Crackers has ambitious pedagogic aims.

Flicking through the pages of Christmas Crackers, it is immediately apparent that this is a Christmas book with a real difference, including so much more than just the same seasonal classics.