Keys to Success, Book 3: Piano Book

This book refuses to treat technique, ear training, and composition as separate subjects. By anchoring everything to a single key each unit, Olson creates a genuinely integrated curriculum where transposition becomes intuitive, improvisation feels natural, and sight-reading strengthens alongside technique work. Teachers find the progression manageable because students aren't juggling disparate skills; they're deepening understanding of familiar harmonic territory.

Structured yet exploratory. Each new key opens with freshness but builds on solid ground. The combination of technique exercises, original compositions, and open-ended improvisation creates a sense of mastery as students move through the circle of keys.

Pianists working through the intermediate stage of technique development who are ready to understand harmony beyond single pieces. Students benefit from explicit connections between what they're learning in scales, theory, and performance, and teachers appreciate material that doesn't require constant supplementation.

• Cycle through the different activity types within each unit rather than blocking them together. Moving between technique work, ear training, and improvisation keeps students engaged and prevents fatigue.
• Use the transposition activities to reinforce muscle memory. Playing the same passage in multiple keys embeds patterns physically, not just intellectually.
• Encourage students to create their own improvisations before exploring Olson's composed pieces in each key. This builds ownership and makes the original repertoire feel like a natural extension of their own ideas.
• Record student sight-reading attempts across units to build confidence. Tracking visible improvement motivates continued engagement with keys that felt foreign at first.

Assign one unit per two to three weeks as the backbone of piano lessons, letting the varied activities structure your practice assignments naturally. The original repertoire within each unit provides performance material for student recitals without requiring you to source additional pieces at matching levels.

• Major key centers and harmonic function across the circle of fifths
• Transposing melodies and passages between related keys
• Intervallic and harmonic ear training within key
• Sight-reading fluency in keys beyond the most common
• Improvisation grounded in diatonic harmony
• Technical facility through integrated scale and chord work