AMEB PIANO FOR LEISURE SERIES 4

piano for leisure discount

Picture: Adlib Music

About PFL Series 4

Piano for Leisure Series 4, which is only available in Australia, is designed to inspire and motivate students and teachers through well-chosen, sequenced repertoire and creative teaching recommendations and ideas.

Here’s what you’ll get in these books:

  • A series of 9 graded examination repertoire books
  • 12 inspiring pieces in each book with a mix of International and Australian composers and arrangers
  • That’s 108 new pieces of music for your studio with creative teaching ideas provided for around 2/3 of those works

Genres

Each book in the series contains an equal mixture of pieces from the following genres (about 3 of each in each book of 12 pieces):

  1. Jazz
  2. Pop/film
  3. Classical
  4. Contemporary Solos

My hope is this mix of genres will allow teachers to choose a varied selection for examinations and keep students inspired with music that they’ll love.

There are plenty of pieces that tell stories and inspire imagination and each step of the way, if teachers would like to get creative with their students, I’ll be there to hold their hand as they step outside their comfort zone and get “off the page” with the help of the brand-new performance notes.

piano exam repertoire fun

Piano for Leisure teacher packs are available for Levels 1 and 2. Picture: Adlib Music

New Performance Notes

One of the most exciting changes we’ve made to this series is to reconsider the placement and content of the performance notes.

In the past, performance notes for each piece were found at the back of the book and focussed mainly on interpretative and performance directions, with some suggestions about practice ideas.

In Series 4, the performance notes will be found at the end of each piece rather than gathered at the end of the publication. This is a new layout for AMEB publications and it is hoped that it will be more convenient for teachers and students alike.

In creating these performance notes, I’ve drawn on my own teaching experience to present suggestions in four separate categories, although not all categories appear in every entry.

Each category has specific aims according to the subheadings below:

  • Elements and challenges – here, the main focuses and challenges of the work are identified.
  • Notes for the student – these are practice and performance tips aimed at the student.
  • Notes for the teacher – this is aimed at the teacher, and provides some teaching strategies and solutions for teachers first approaching the work or those needing a new angle for a student.
  • Creative practice ideas – here, I offer some extension activities to help teachers and students engage with the piece in new ways, often using improvisation and creative concepts to extend the student and reinforce key concepts related to the style of the work. Note that all pieces must be performed as notated for examination purposes.

I hope that you enjoy the structured framework that these creative teaching ideas present and that you will consider how you can design similarly creative activities for your students when they are learning other works.

I’ll be demonstrating these ideas in action during my AMEB workshop tours around Australia in 2018. Chat to your state AMEB office for details of these events.

Where to buy

Head to printmusicworks.com.au to order today. You can also buy the books from adlibmusic.com.au. Unfortunately, these books are only available in Australia.