Selected and reviewed by ANDREW EALES
Find out more: ABOUT PIANODAO REVIEWS
The Joy of Graded Piano is a set of five new repertoire books from Yorktown Music Press, and heralds the return of one of the most iconic piano series.
The five books cover Grades 1-5, and aim to offer an enjoyable and well-rounded introduction to the riches of the piano repertoire.
24 Pieces for the Grade 1 Pianist
These pieces offer a broad range of music that will consolidate, challenge, and inspire developing players at this level.
For reference, the pieces shown in bold have all been set by one of the five accredited UK boards as exam syllabus pieces at this grade level.
- Henry Purcell: Air in D minor
- Ignatius Sancho: Le Douze de Décembre
- Christian Petzold: Menuet in G Major
- Daniel Gottlob Türk: Happy-Go-Lucky
- Christian Gottlob Neefe: Allegretto in C major
- Theodor Oesten: The Echo
- Robert Schumann: Soldiers’ March
- Feliks Rybicki: Longing
- Janina Garścią: The Goldfishes
- Zenobia Powell Perry: Orrin and Echo
- Walter Carroll: The Little Brook
- June Armstrong: Coral Reef
- Stephen Duro: Calypso Joe
- Andrew Eales: Fresh Air
- Chee-Hwa Tan: The Wind
- Nikolas Sideris: The Clumsy Panda
- Anne Crosby Gaudet: Boogie Woogie Bear
- Ben Andrew: Snowflakes
- Carolyn Miller: Cat and Mouse
- Graham Lynch: North West of Inverness
- Victoria Proudler: Jive O’Clock Jazz
- African American Spiritual, arr. Artina McCain: Don’t You Let Nobody Turn You Around
- Chinese, arr. Joseph Johnson: Wedding Veil
- Korean, arr. Lawrence Lee: You and I
From core classics to contemporary favourites and recent discoveries, The Joy of Graded Piano showcases the strength and diversity of repertoire available for the world’s favourite instrument.
My sincere thanks go to the editorial and marketing team at Hal Leonard Europe, Yorktown’s distributors, for sharing my vision and commitment to the creation of this landmark series. We have carefully considered how we might deliver an outstanding set of physical music books, and to that end each of the publications have:
- colourful covers which build on the continuing appeal of the series
- clear, spacious engraving with a generous music font to help learners develop good reading ability
- luxury cream paper, supporting clarity (and especially important for neurodivergent players)
- carefully researched and engaging background notes for every piece
- practice tips to support effective learning and musical performance
- considered fingering suggestions throughout: the composer’s where available or else my own
- suggested realisations for ornamentation wherever needed
- ranging from 40 to 80 pages, the books have staple binding
Discover other grades in the series:
PIANODAO MUSIC CLUB members receive 15% discount on sheet music from Musicroom. Retail links are directly sponsored, and to protect your privacy, this site does not use affiliate links or tracking code.
PIANODAO includes 700+ FREE articles.
Please DONATE HERE to support the site.
For FREE email notifications SUBSCRIBE HERE.