Willis Music Company

The Easiest Gillock Pieces

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

When I compiled the Graded Gillock series for The Willis Music Company, a decision was made early on to focus on three books covering Grades 1-6, two grades per selection. You can read about those collections here, which have already become popular with teachers and students alike.

William Gillock (1917-1993) also composed a wealth of music for beginners, so it is a special joy to welcome a new collection from Willis Music. The Easiest Gillock Pieces brings together a careful selection of 31 of his pieces for pre-Grade 1 players.

This new collection complements the Graded Gillock series by covering the earlier stages of learning and opening up the prospect of players discovering the composer’s beginner music.

Better still, it includes brand new duet parts: optional accompaniments which have been newly composed by Gillock’s famous protégé Glenda Austin, whose own music I have reviewed here. So is this now an indispensable book for younger beginners?

Jason Sifford • Here Be Dragons

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Jason Sifford has established himself as one of America’s most respected composers of educational piano music, and a jewel in the crown of music publishers The Willis Music Company.

Promoting his music more widely, I wrote a rave review recommending his two KEYBOP books when they appeared, and subsequently selected three of his pieces to appear in my Willis Student Recital Collection.

Introducing Sifford’s lavishly illustrated new collection, Here Be Dragons, Willis Music write,

“Cultures from around the world tell of thrilling tales and legends about magical flying creatures. This intermediate piano collection was inspired by these fantastical beasts and aims to provide performance material and adventurous music-making for all pianists with vivid imagination.”

This new collection is billed as suitable for Intermediate to Early Advanced players, and sounds exciting, so let’s brave ourselves and take a look…

Naoko Ikeda • Kanade

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

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.

Calming Christmas Carols for Graded Piano

The Christmas Shortlist
Selected and reviewed by Andrew Eales

With so many Christmas-themed piano books on the market, and with yet more appearing to challenge our established favourites each year, it takes something quite special and distinctive to stand out from the crowd.

Calming Christmas Carols for Graded Piano, published by The Willis Music Company, is certainly unique, and may prove to be one of those ‘must-have classics’ that we didn’t realise we needed until it appeared.

Delivering “15 Peaceful Pieces for Piano Grades 1-5” freshly arranged by Alistair Watson, with three designated for each level from Grade 1 to Grade 5, the collection obviously has one eye on the education market, the other on appealing to the vogue for music with a relaxed vibe.

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. So let’s find out how well it lives up to its promise…

Carolyn Miller • Piano Expressions

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Carolyn Miller is one of America’s most beloved educational composers, her many collections of original pieces and other educational titles consistent bestsellers in the States.

Miller’s many Willis Music Company titles are not as well known here in the UK, although the recent inclusion of her music in the Joy of Grade 1 Piano book, the Willis Student Recital Collection, and growing interest from the exam boards has begun to increase her visibility.

Selecting music for The Willis Student Recital Collection, I played through several complete collections of Miller’s music, and found myself spoilt for choice. Having become familiar with her previous work, I would say that her latest collection is among her best yet, and for those wanting to discover her music, it is a great place to start.

Piano Expressions has a delightfully imaginative and eye-catching cover, and brings us a generous selection of 17 brand new “captivating solos for the advancing pianist”. Suitable for players at UK Grade 2 to 5 level, they have an appeal that will surely make them popular with players and audiences, and a concise educational logic that will equally appeal to teachers.

Junior Performer

Educational Resources
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Pam Wedgwood’s Up Grade! series from Faber Music has been a fixture of the piano education library for many years, and one of her most understandable successes. Based on a simple concept of offering “light relief between the grades”, the books have proved a popular step in the pianist’s development.

Entering the same space, The Willis Music Company have just released a new set of books from Christopher Hussey which give the concept of “between grades” repertoire a welcome update. Junior Performer includes three books, each covering two grades, thus bridging the gaps from Beginner to Grade 5.

Rather boldly describing itself as “The Perfect Resource for Between Piano Grades”, the series clearly has ambitions, and I have already heard from Pianodao readers keen to know how well it succeeds…

A Dozen a Day • Counting Rhythm

Educational Resources
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Fans of the beloved A Dozen A Day series of piano exercise books from the Willis Music Company (reviewed here) may have noticed the recent arrival of a new title in the series. A Dozen A Day: Counting Rhythm supplements the popular piano books with a slim volume of “pre-practice rhythm exercises for all instruments”.

The book’s writer remains uncredited, but is not Edna Mae Burnam (1907-2007), who created the original classics. Nevertheless, this modest addition to the series respectfully aligns with the look and feel of her originals, as well as progressively matching the concepts, rhythmic values and meters of the first four Dozen A Day books.

I have begun trialling this material with a few elementary learners, and am finding it a distinctive and useful studio addition…

Favourite Melodies • Jazz Piano

Pianodao Music Library
Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales

Eric Baumgartner’s name will be new to many here in the UK. I only came across his work when his excellent Jazz It Up! Christmas collection appeared for review in 2022. Though glancing at his resume, I remained unfamiliar with his other work, but hugely impressed with his seasonal offering.

Writing in my review here I concluded:

“Baumgartner’s writing is wonderfully pianistic, stylistically spot on, and whether played for background entertainment or performed as concert pieces, listeners will be as delighted to hear these arrangements as piano players are to practise and play them.”

It has been a pleasure playing though many of his other publications in the intervening years, in particular while researching and compiling my newly available Willis Student Recital Collection, and it was while exploring these that his latest Favourite Melodies for Jazz Piano Solo also appeared.