The Music Tree: Student's Book, Part 2B: Piano Book

This book refuses to treat early repertoire as mere finger exercises. Clark and her coauthors weave together folk melodies, jazz idioms, and pop styles in ways that keep students engaged while building real musicianship. The emphasis on rearrangement and composition gives students agency over their own learning, turning practice into creative work rather than mechanical repetition.

The pages feel alive with variety. One moment you're playing a folk tune, the next a jazz-inflected piece with syncopation and swing rhythm. The writing respects the student's growing musicianship while keeping the spirit of early learning playful and exploratory.

This book serves students in their second or third year of piano study who are ready for greater independence and stylistic range. It works equally well in private lessons and group piano classes, and it suits students who respond to creative challenges alongside technical development.

• Encourage students to listen to the recorded examples if available, then play what they hear without looking at the page first. This develops ear training alongside reading.
• When working through the transposition exercises, have students write out the transposed version before playing. Writing reinforces interval awareness and prevents careless mistakes.
• Approach the rearrangement and composition segments as real compositional work. Ask students to notate their ideas and discuss their choices for harmony, rhythm, or form.
• Use the blocked intervals and chord studies as preparation for pieces rather than isolated drills. Point out where these techniques appear in the repertoire pieces themselves.

Use this as the primary text for a late-elementary piano student's curriculum, moving through it over a full school year. The mix of styles means you can pair pieces with other repertoire (classical, contemporary, sacred music) or use them as stepping stones toward specific stylistic goals your student is pursuing.

• Reading and playing in multiple keys through transposition
• Blocked intervals and chord voicings in both hands
• Coordinated two-hands-together passages with independent rhythms
• Recognition and performance of folk, jazz, and pop idioms
• Rearrangement and transposition of given musical material
• Basic harmonic awareness through guided creative activities
• Intelligent practice strategies through structured exercises