Best Piano Books on learning to play the piano, keyboards, techniques, music theory, composition & more.
Introduction
I still feel that the best piano book is a piano teacher, in case you’re serious about learning. Once you have taken lessons for a year and more, you can consider augmenting your knowledge through these books.
There are also some good method books that start right from the basics.
Here’s why you need Piano Books
Learning the basic music notes and being able to play simple songs on the piano is not a great deal. The challenge is to improve yourself so that you can accomplish a lot more. Most experienced players don’t own just one or two books; they have a library full of music books from different authors, each focusing on different aspects of music.
Over a period of time, even you’ll need to own a collection of piano books.
But if at all you buy a book, make sure you take the time to read it, and understand what’s written.
Here we take a look at some of the best Piano Music Books (and Magazines) that are packed with some solid and useful lessons.
25 Piano Books for Christmas: All Time Favorites of Piano Players
So here’s a list of the top 25 piano books recommended for beginners and intermediate players.Piano Method Books / Teach Yourself
How to Play Piano Despite Years of Lessons
How to Play Piano Despite Years of Lessons: What Music Is and How to Make It at Home. A great book for adults, especially for the self-taught players.
The book teaches how to simplify things, how to play chords in various ways, use substitutions, and so on. Can be used by students of other musical instruments as well. Read full review.
Piano For Dummies
Piano For Dummies – This is another good piano book for adults, written in a humorous manner with plenty of examples. It starts with the basics and takes you through the advanced stuff, also teaches you how to play in different styles and suggests several patterns for your left hand.
The book touches several different topics, but doesn’t go a lot deep into it. It’s a great book to become aware about a lot of things; it also gives you a good overview on Piano/Keyboards. Recommended for adults.
Alfred’s Adult All-in-One Course
Alfred’s Adult All-in-One Course (Book) (Teach Yourself Series) for the beginning adult (and older children). Alfred series are quite popular among music students. They follow a structured approach and have decent coverage of the various topics.
How to Play Popular Piano in 10 Easy Lessons
How to Play Popular Piano in 10 Easy Lessons: The Fastest, Easiest Way to Learn to Play from Sheet Music or by Ear
Another good book for beginners and for those who are trying to get back to playing after a long break. Quickly takes you through the basics so that you can play some song at the earliest. Easy explanations about the music theory basics, including sight-reading.
Repertoire
The Piano Bench of Classical Music
The Piano Bench of Classical Music: Piano Solo (Piano Collections). Over 125 great masterpieces from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern eras. Great for learning new pieces and building your repertoire.
Scott The Piano Guy’s Favorite Piano Fake Book
Scott The Piano Guy’s Favorite Piano Fake Book
This fake book includes 74 popular song arrangements from Scott Houston. Great for advanced beginners/intermediate pianists and keyboardists alike. starts of with simple songs/arrangements and moves on to the challenging ones.
Finger Exercises
Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist
Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises for the Piano for the Acquirement of Agility, Independence, Strength, and Perfect Evenness: Complete.
This is one of the most popular books for finger exercises. Sooner or later your piano teacher is going to ask you to practice exercises suggested in this book.
Czerny: Art of Finger Dexterity for the Piano
Need something more challenging than Hanon? Get hold of Czerny. Includes several elaborate/lengthy finger exercises.
The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences
The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences: Includes All the Major, Minor (Natural, Harmonic, Melodic) & Chromatic Scales – Plus Additional Instructions on Music Fundamentals. This is more of a reference book, in case you wish to brush up on something.
Music Theory
Alfred’s Essentials of Music Theory:
Alfred’s Essentials of Music Theory: A Complete Self-Study Course for All Musicians. Click here to see price.
Edly’s Music Theory for Practical People:
For anyone desiring a deeper appreciation of music. Click here to see price
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Theory:
Teaches budding musician how to read music
Sight Reading
Super Sight-Reading Secrets
Super Sight-Reading Secrets: An Innovative, Step-By-Step Program for Musical Keyboard Players of All Levels by Howard B. Richman
Music Reading For Keyboard
Music Reading For Keyboard: The Complete Method (Musicians Institute Essential Concepts) by Larry Steelman.
Piano Riffs
Complete Piano Rags – Scott Joplin
Learn to play 38 piano rags, performed by the acknowledged master of the form. Click here to see price.
Ultimate Latin Piano/Keyboard Riffs
Ultimate Latin Piano/Keyboard Riffs Book/audio CD. Click here to see price.
Tons of Runs: For the Contemporary Pianist.
Jazz Riffs for Piano – Mitch Kerper
Learn to play riffs and phrases in the styles of Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and many other major jazz pianists.
Piano Technique
Here are some good books on improving your piano technique.
The Piano Handbook
The Piano Handbook: A Complete Guide for Mastering Piano.
Buy on SheetMusicPlus | Buy on Amazon.
The Piano Improvisation Handbook – Carl Humphries
Learn the practical skills and theoretical issues involved in mastering all forms of piano improvisation, including classical, jazz, rock and blues. Buy on Amazon.
Here are a few more books that piano players have found to be useful for improving piano techniques:
- The art of piano playing (Heinrich Neuhaus)
- Rational Principles of Pianoforte Technique (Alfred Cortot)
- Craft of Piano Playing (Alan Fraser’s Book and DVD)
- Pianism as an Art (S Feĭnberg)
Inside Your Piano
The Piano Book
The Piano Book: Buying & Owning a New or Used Piano
Best Piano Magazines
Find a list of the Best Piano magazines.
Check out the hottest piano music & artists, besides enjoying the master piano classes.The Best Piano Magazines
Books for Beginners
Teaching Little Fingers to Play
Teaching Little Fingers to Play: A Book for the Earliest Beginner (John Thompsons Modern Course for The Piano).
As the name suggests, its for little kids, and a great book for the young beginners. Wonderful first piano book for kids!
Buy on SheetMusicPlus
Good Electronic Keyboard books
Easy to Start LearningIt is comparatively easy to start playing the keyboards from a keyboard book. You will need to focus only on the melody cleff so you can quickly learn a few easy songs; you will then need to learn a few chords and then you are ready to roll.
Recommended Electronic Keyboard Books
Listed below are some of the popular keyboard music books. If possible, visit a music store and try to see there contents. Almost all of them come with a CD to help you learn faster.
- Fasttrack Series by Gary Meisner and Blake Neely
- The Complete Keyboard Player: by Kenneth Baker
- Pop/Rock: Note-for-Note Keyboard Transcriptions: by Hal Leonard Corp
- Rock Keyboard: Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series: by Scott Miller
Books for Intermediate to Advanced Players
- Advanced Piano Solos Christmas Encyclopedia by Tom Roed Very good collection of solo piano Christmas music! This book is more for intermediate level players (difficulty wise) than for very advanced players.
- The Piano Handbook: A Complete Guide for Mastering Piano by Carl Humphries Another great book for advanced players! Comes with a CD! It contains information on all aspects of piano – history, brands, theory, styles, etc. It also gives you hundreds of songs to play.
- Dan Coates Complete / Advanced Piano Solos by Dan Coates Most satisfying Piano music book for advanced players. The songs are challenging and contain some beautiful arrangements.
Style based Books
- Library of piano classics
- The Pop Piano Book – by Mark Harrison
- The Jazz Piano Book: by Mark Levine (Author)
- Funk Piano Method BK/CD: Beginner to Intermediate: – by Peter Gelling
Final Thoughts
The piano books listed here are high-quality teaching resources that cover a range of topics, and its perfect for any new music teacher, or self-taught pianist, or just a piano-player looking for some practice material.
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