Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Greatest Hits Book 1: Piano Book & CD

Adult students often struggle with motivation when repertoire feels disconnected from music they actually want to play. This collection pulls directly from Broadway, Hollywood, television, and contemporary recordings, which means your students recognize the melodies immediately and care about learning them. The arrangements respect both the integrity of the originals and the technical realities of early-level pianists, so students experience genuine musical satisfaction rather than frustration.

Playing these arrangements feels like you're performing real music from records and stages you know, not studying in isolation. The familiarity of the melodies combines with the satisfaction of finally being able to play them, creating moments of genuine accomplishment and fun that early-level practice often lacks.

Adult piano students at the beginner through late elementary level who respond better to familiar, engaging repertoire than to traditional etudes and exercises. This book also works well for teachers seeking material that maintains adult students' enthusiasm during the early stages of study, when technical progress can feel slow compared to the music they want to play.

• Use the included CD to hear each arrangement performed professionally before learning the piece. This gives your students a clear sonic target and helps them understand how the harmonic progressions should sound together.
• Work with your students to identify the main melody and any counter-melodies or accompaniment patterns that shift hands. Early-level adult learners benefit from understanding the role each hand plays in creating the full texture.
• Encourage steady tempo over technical perfection in early run-throughs. These are songs your students know well, so they'll naturally want to match the recorded version's tempo, but maintaining consistent rhythm matters more than hitting every note cleanly.
• Transpose selected pieces into different keys once your student has learned the original arrangement. This builds comfort with new key signatures and replicates the kind of transposition work real musicians do.

Weave selections from this book into adult group classes or private lessons as the motivational core of your curriculum. Pair it with supplementary technique and reading exercises that address the specific skills each piece requires, rather than treating it as your entire curriculum. Many teachers find that having a piece from this collection on the practice list each week keeps adult students committed through the technical work needed to reach it.

• Playing melodies across both hands and managing hand independence
• Reading and performing a range of key signatures and time signatures
• Coordinating rhythm between hands in simple accompaniment patterns
• Building finger dexterity and evenness in early-level passage work
• Developing musicality and interpretation using a professional recording as reference