Best of In Recital Solos, Book 6: Late Intermediate Piano Book

This collection assembles nine different composers in a single book, which means students encounter genuine stylistic variety rather than variations on one voice. The inclusion of jazz, blues, and Latin idioms alongside lyrical writing gives your students permission to develop taste across genres while the complementary audio downloads let them hear how these pieces breathe before they tackle the interpretation themselves.

This book sounds like a record collection rather than a textbook. You'll move from a swinging boogie-woogie number into introspective lyricism, then shift to a groove that makes you want to move. There's urgency and color throughout, a deliberate refusal to stay in one emotional or stylistic lane.

High school pianists who need repertoire that engages them beyond the standard classical canon. Students who practice more willingly when they see themselves in the music they're learning will gravitate toward this collection, especially if they're exploring jazz or popular music on their own.

• Work backwards from the audio. Have students listen first, identify what caught their ear about the interpretation, then translate those observations into fingering and pedal choices.
• Assign the stylistically distinct pieces to different practice blocks rather than sequentially. A student's approach to a boogie-woogie groove requires entirely different muscle memory than a lyrical passage, so clustering similar pieces helps build focused technique.
• Use the Latin and jazz pieces as entry points to conversation about rhythm notation and feel. These aren't exercises; they're professionally written styles, so students develop respect for the compositional craft beyond classical tradition.
• Pair pieces from this book with your ensemble repertoire. If your band is performing a contemporary work with blues elements, your pianists are primed to understand that language.

Build a late-winter or spring recital around contrasting pieces pulled from this collection. Students performing across the concert can each showcase a different style, creating a showcase of the varied ways composers write for piano at this level. Alternatively, draw a single piece to pair with an orchestral work in a classical concert; the stylistic contrast often heightens both.

• Jazz comping and swing rhythm feel
• Blues form and harmonic progression
• Latin rhythmic patterns and syncopation
• Voicing contemporary harmonic structures
• Dynamic control and tone coloring across genres
• Reading and interpreting notation in non-classical contexts