Classics Alive!, Book 2: Piano Book

Moving through carefully chosen works from different eras, each revealing something essential about its composer's voice. The variety keeps practicing fresh while the quality ensures every piece has something real to teach about musicianship and technique.

Intermediate pianists ready to study beyond method books but not yet prepared for the technical demands of advanced sonatas and concertos. This collection serves students building their repertoire foundation and teachers seeking diverse, well-crafted material that spans multiple musical periods.

• Study the stylistic context of each piece before diving into technical work. A Baroque minuet and a Romantic character piece demand entirely different approaches to phrasing and tone production.
• Map out hand position shifts and page turns in advance. Intermediate students still develop independence between hands; identifying trouble spots ahead saves rehearsal time.
• Record individual pieces as you progress through the book. Students hear their own growth across the collection and stay motivated through longer-term practice.

Build recital programs around individual pieces from the collection, or assign selections as supplementary repertoire alongside your primary method book to accelerate musical growth. The 96-page scope makes it an ideal year-long resource for intermediate students transitioning toward more independent repertoire choices.

• Sight-reading across multiple compositional styles and periods
• Baroque ornaments and articulation (trills, mordents, appropriate touch)
• Romantic-era rubato and expressive phrasing
• Hand independence and coordination in multi-voice textures
• Pedal technique applied to different harmonic and textural contexts
• Understanding form through small-scale structures (minuets, rondos, character pieces)