PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Introductory offer: buy all 3 volumes for a 20% discount
From the Beginning is a three-volume collection of over a hundred pieces especially composed for starter pianists. It is designed to take beginners from the very first steps to a level at least equivalent to grade two or three.
Although the main purpose of the collection is to provide repertoire, there are also notes detailing the ‘things you need to know’. The collection, therefore, also functions as a tutor.
However, the text only covers the things needed to know in order to play these particular pieces. It is not necessarily designed to be a comprehensive or complete consideration of music theory, nor of the physiology of piano technique.
In general, the music has a contemporary filmic quality with elements of pop, rock and jazz. There is also a strong flavour of Celtic traditional music throughout. Overall, the pieces are designed to encourage musical and expressive playing, as much as developing music reading skills.
Enhancing the filmic nature of some of the music, backing tracks are available to accompany some of these numbers. This is particularly the case for volume 1 from which even the first three-note melodies can sound as if they are in the middle of an orchestral film score.
The aim is to encourage accurate time-keeping, as well as making the very first steps as interesting as possible. At the other end of the collection, Volume 3 includes a miniature Piano Concerto for Beginner and Orchestra!
From the Beginning should appeal to those who enjoy the more melodic contemporary styles that have become popular in recent years.
The three volume collection is divided into twelve stages:
The pieces in Stage 1 only use three notes: A, B, and C. (Above middle C in the right hand and two octaves below in the left hand.) Stages 2 & 3 add octave transpositions of these notes. Each of the following stages typically add a couple more notes until by Stage 12 a range of over four octaves is covered. The purpose is to give learners plenty of practice in reading music as fluently as possible, progressing step by step from a manageable starting point.
From the outset, flat and sharp notes are introduced not as separate entities, or in respect to keys, but as modifications of the natural notes. (Accidentals are used in this collection more extensively than usually found in most music for beginners.)
The pieces, of course, also progress by the gradual addition of various other new features and techniques.
Whilst introducing new pitches so gradually creates the opportunity to practice reading music step by step in a methodical manner, a potential downside is that some pitches don't get used at all until quite late on in the collection. Most relevant in volumes 2 & 3 (by which time many other aspects of notation have been covered), each stage starts with a couple of pieces that are easier than might have been expected at that point. This makes it practical to zig-zag through the collection or simply miss out some of the later pieces in each stage - should that be deemed preferable.
About Volume 3
Volume 3 of From the Beginning completes the pattern established in volume 1 and continued in Volume 2.
There is much less text than in the earlier books simply because most of the ‘things you need to know’ have been covered.
All the pieces in this volume are at least of a difficulty equivalent to grade 1. Many are grade 2, and perhaps a small number even go beyond this towards grade 3 - although that might depend on how fast they are played.
Tempos can be very flexible, and don’t alway have to be as fast (or as slow) as the given metronome markings.
Some of the numbers could be described as ‘character pieces’. In other words, they evoke a particular style or genre and are not necessarily typical of my music as a whole.
Indeed, writing these little pieces I was sometimes reminded of the time, a couple of decades ago, when I was writing or co-writing hundreds of TV sig tunes. Typically they were between 30 secs and a minute long, and like the pieces presented here, the aim was always to be immediate and memorable.
The culmination of the collection is a miniature twelve-minute, three-movement, Piano Concerto for Beginner and Orchestra. This is, of course, designed to be played along with a backing track.
I appreciate that having got to this stage the pianist is not literally a beginner, but relatively, compared to a Rachmaninov concerto…
Finally, in case anyone is wondering, some of titles are drawn from features and landmarks I pass on my walks around Penarth where I live on the South Wales Coast.
Contents of Volume 3
1. Arioso
2. The Fallen Tree
3. Walking by the Grave of Joseph Parry
4. Child's Play
5. Going Electric
6. Nowhere to Park
7. Chewing the Breeze
8. The Seventy Eight Steps
9. Morag's Song
10. Dros y Môr
11. Quiet Vigilance
12. A Little Scottish Minuet
13. The Kite
14. Waltz in A minor
15. Weightless
16. Flying the nest
17. Sisley's Tree
18. Rosewater
19. Flown the Nest
20. Juke Box
21. South American Sneak Away
22. Escape Route
23. Ghosts
24. Shades
25. Weathered Rock
26. The Hidden Path
27. Evening Watch
28. Give the Dog a Treat
29. Dance of the Cross Bones
30. Agent
31. Piano Concerto for Beginner and Orchestra
PRODUCT INFORMATION
- difficulty: Easy (grades 1 - 3)
- ISMN Number: 9790570531783
- Size: 305x225 mm
- number of pages: 56
- Brand: Fieldgate Music
- Product Code: FM 178
- Weight: 0.3kg
