Simply Brickman: Piano Book

This collection gives adult pianists and serious students access to music they actually want to play. Brickman's melodies are memorable and emotionally satisfying without requiring advanced technique, and Dan Coates' arrangement work ensures that fingering, dynamics, and phrasing guidance support clear musical interpretation from the first reading. The large print and 80-page format make this an ideal resource for building confidence and sustaining motivation over an extended practice cycle.

These pieces inhabit the tender middle ground between classical sophistication and contemporary accessibility. Brickman's melodies sing with a quiet urgency, often built on simple chord progressions that create space for genuine feeling. The music speaks to memory, longing, and love without sentimentality, offering the pianist a chance to express something genuine within a framework that never feels overly complex.

This book serves adult recreational pianists returning to music after years away, as well as intermediate students who want to build a performance repertoire of music that satisfies both player and listener. Teachers seeking teaching pieces that maintain student engagement because the melodies are genuinely appealing will find immediate use here.

• Honor the phrase markings as structural roadmaps rather than arbitrary notation. These pieces reward singing through the keyboard, so listen for where Brickman naturally breathes within each melodic line and let those breath points shape your rubato.
• Balance melody and accompaniment texture carefully. Even though these arrangements are accessible, clarity between right and left hand depends on maintaining independence in your touch. The left hand supports but never competes.
• Explore the emotional specificity of each title before you play. "Remembrance" and "Destiny" carry different internal energy; letting that distinction shape your tempo choices and pedal decisions prevents the collection from sounding homogeneous across multiple pieces.
• Trust Brickman's harmonic vocabulary. His progressions often move in unexpected directions, but they move with purpose. Rather than forcing pieces into familiar chord patterns, listen for how each harmonic shift supports the emotional arc.

Brickman's music works beautifully as solo recital material or as pairings within a mixed concert program. Several titles function well as encores, especially pieces like "Simple Things" and "Valentine," which have immediate warmth. For studio teachers, the collection's 18 titles provide a semester's worth of varied, rewarding solo repertoire across different moods and technical demands.

• Expressive use of dynamics and tempo flexibility within a single-voice melody line
• Left-hand accompaniment patterns that support rather than distract from melodic content
• Interpretation of phrase markings and articulation in contemporary repertoire
• Pedal control for sustaining harmonic warmth without muddying texture
• Sight-reading fluency at easy piano level through exposure to 18 contrasting pieces