Top Piano Method Books For Adults & Teens
Adult Piano Books
If you are brand new to piano and you want to teach yourself or you’ve had lessons and you want to brush up on your skills & continue progressing, then you’re in the right place!
I’ve been teaching piano lessons for over 30 years and I’ve worked with A LOT of teens and adults at various levels. The challenge is helping them learn the important basics of classical training with inspiring music that doesn’t sound babyish.
There are a ton of adult piano books that you can buy. I like to try new music to keep my job interesting, so I honestly have taught out of most of the top-rated method books online, and I’ve only been impressed with a few. Today, my goal is to save you time and money and point you toward the books and software that I love and KNOW will help you progress quickly.
I will provide links to all of the books that I recommend (and tell you how to choose the right level). I’ll also mention some fun supplemental resources you can use in addition to these method books to accelerate your progress. (Some product links are affiliate links, meaning if you buy something, we’ll receive a small commission.)
WHAT ARE PIANO METHOD BOOKS?
Let’s quickly talk about what method books are and why they’re important.
Most piano teachers teach from piano method books because they teach the most important concepts in an organized way and they gradually progress. They contain mostly repertoire (aka pieces or songs) but they also incorporate theory & technique lessons. They are meant to be an all-inclusive way to learn how to play the piano.
PIANO METHOD BOOKS RECOMMENDATION #1
The first adult piano book series I recommend is the ACCELERATED PIANO ADVENTURES For The Older Beginner by Faber This piano method book series has 2 levels and it progresses at a pretty fast pace, so I recommend it for pianists who have taken lessons but have been away from the piano for a little while and want to brush up on their skills. It could also work well for a musician who has played other instruments and can read music. I recommend buying the “learning set” because you get the most bang for your buck. The learning set includes theory, technique and performance pieces in 4 separate books that compliment each other. So when you’re working on a specific piece in the main lesson book, you’ll see a note that tells you to work on specific pages in the other books.
PIANO ADVENTURES PLAYER APP
I recommend getting the Piano Adventures Player App on iOS devices as a supplement to this Accelerated Piano Adventures series so you can play along with the fun background music and listen to the audio recordings as you watch the music to make sure you’re playing the right notes & rhythm.
PIANO METHOD BOOKS RECOMMENDATION #2
The 2nd series I’d like to mention is the ADULT PIANO ADVENTURES ALL-IN-ONE by Faber. This piano method series has 2 levels and the main difference between this and the accelerated piano adventures series above is that this is a thicker all-in-one book that includes theory & technique lessons along with performance pieces, so it’s more affordable because you only need to buy one book.
The coolest thing about this newer series is the free video tutorials that demonstrate the concepts taught in the book. It also has inspiring audio recordings that you can play along with.
You can buy supplemental books to go along with the main course book (like the Christmas book and the Popular book).
PIANO METHOD BOOKS RECOMMENDATION #3
The 3rd series I recommend is PIANO ADVENTURES The Basic Piano Method by Faber. This is the first and original piano method book series that Faber created. I teach this series the most out of all of the series because it’s very thorough & it progresses at a slow pace, which is what most students need. These books work well for beginning to intermediate pianists. If you’re a brand new pianist, start with the Primer Level and gradually work through all of the levels (the last level is 5). If you’ve taken lessons for a few years, check out Level 2A or 2B. If you’ve taken lessons for about 4 years, check out Level 3B or 4.
Even though these books have been around for a long time, Faber updates them and adds new pieces so as of today, you’ll want to buy the 2nd edition of the learning sets to get the newest material.
I recommend that you practice these books with the Piano Adventures Player app for iOS. It will help you to learn the rhythm correctly and make practicing more fun because you can play along with the audio recordings and fun background music.
PIANO METHOD BOOKS RECOMMENDATION #4
Now I’d like to talk about MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE METHOD for teaching beginning-intermediate students. This isn’t a physical product. It’s online software called PIANO MARVEL (for Windows, Macs, Chromebooks & iOS).
You can get 20% off your monthly subscription with code BrillantePianoDuo. This software is for people who have Windows, Macs, Chromebooks & iOS. I’ve been teaching with it for a few years and I can’t tell you how much I love it. I prefer it over any piano method books because I see my students progress incredibly fast with it. In practice mode, it doesn’t allow you to move forward until you’ve played the right note. After you’ve played a piece, it shows the notes & rhythm that you missed (marked in red) so you know what you did wrong. It gives you a score at the end of your playing and tracks your progress, so you work to get 100% on each piece and pass all of the levels (beginning to advanced).
Piano Marvel gives you a well-rounded music education because it includes note reading, technique, rhythm & ear training. It has a continually expanding library with thousands of classical pieces & popular songs. The only supplemental item you’d need to buy separately is a theory book.
HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BOOKS & LEVEL
Most people look on Amazon for every purchase nowadays and it’s a great resource for buying piano music. But unfortunately, it doesn’t always show the inside of the books. One of my favorite sites for researching piano music is sheetmusicplus.com because it includes pictures of the inside of the books so you can get a good idea of the level. So if you want to try the Basic Piano Adventures series, but you’re not sure what level to buy, search a specific level on sheetmusicplus.com and look at the pictures to see if the songs look too easy.
Still curious about adult piano books or prefer video? Click here to watch!
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by Heather Thompson Smits, NCTM of Brillante Piano Duo
