Pre-grade 1 repertoire

It is not difficult to find an abundance of intermediate and advanced-level piano repertoire. However, it can be a challenge to find engaging repertoire for younger piano students who have been learning for a little while – and have perhaps progressed beyond their first tutor book or completed a pre-grade 1 exam – but haven't quite reached grade 1 standard. When a young piano student reaches this stage in their lessons, they want to play music that is exciting and fun. Of course, their teacher's aim is to introduce them to more complex musical features and techniques in order to progress to increasingly challenging repertoire. Easy Peasy Piano sheet music provides the perfect balance. It introduces students to key musical elements (such as chords, accidentals and compound time signatures) through repertoire pieces that are genuinely great fun to play! Here are some examples: The King and Queen ‘The King and Queen’ is a Classical-style piece, based around different variations in dynamics and articulation. It also features an Alberti bass - an important compositional device. However, despite its advanced musical features, it is surprisingly easy to master; it’s fairly repetitive and doesn’t require the pianist to move from one position on the keys.

The Storm Another popular Easy Peasy Piano piece is ‘The Storm’, a dramatic piece that features a repetitive, ostinato-like right hand part and a striking bass clef melody. This piece is a great introduction to music which does not feature a right-hand melody. It is also in 6/8, and is therefore a great piece to use to introduce young students to compound time signatures.

Big Elephant, Little Elephant ‘Big Elephant, Little Elephant’ is based around a 12-bar blues in C. It also features triplets and flatted ‘blue’ notes. This piece provides a great means of introducing blues music, chords and keys to younger piano students.

‘The King and Queen’ and ‘The Storm’ feature in Ten Terrific Tunes: Volume I. ‘Big Elephant, Little Elephant’ is featured in Ten Terrific Tunes: Volume II. Both books can be purchased as digital downloads from the Easy Peasy Piano Sheet Music page.