Piano Ensemble and Lab Resources
List of Resources Needed to Create New Classes Including Materials and Supplies
Chaplin, Amy. “Piano Ensemble Repertoire.” Piano Pantry, 2022. https://pianopantry.com/piano-ensemble-repertoire/.
In this resource, the author describes how she runs piano ensembles work for her studio. These ideas could easily be transferred to a secondary group piano class. She reviews 4 different ensemble curriculums and shares the pro’s and con’s of each. The author has a Master’s degree in Piano Pedagogy and runs “The Piano Pantry” Podcast where she discusses all things studio piano related. Educators could get ideas for group piano teaching from this podcast, with information on how to listen to the podcast at https://pianopantry.com/podcast-home/.
Hansen, Aaron. “Setting up a Keyboard Lab.” West Music, 2023. https://content.westmusic.com/setting-up-a-keyboard-lab/.
This article explores considerations for teachers when setting up a keyboard lab in a classroom. This resource poses good questions regarding space and budget for equipment purchases and educates teachers on different level keyboards features. The article also addresses power needs and room setup advice, with guidelines for how much space is needed for each workstation. A phone number for West Music is listed for consultative services when setting up a piano lab. This is a good resource to consult as teachers begin to set up a new piano lab.
Spencer, Melissa. “Piano Lab Setups.” Self-published, 2026. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fp_Y2ahNRO8z-29atqr6-CPDFoxm3jIM/view?usp=drive_link.
This document has pictures of three different classrooms with digital piano labs. Some are dedicated spaces for piano labs, and some spaces have different functions each class period. These serve as a reference for what different educators have done with space and power needs in their classrooms.
Literature on this topic for educators
(coming soon)
Curriculum, Method Books, and Lesson plans structured around national music standards
***Consider using a variety of curriculums to meet everyone’s different learning needs and pacing preferences, taking into account previous experience. Each curriculum has different strengths and crafting a piano course to accommodate different students learning and speeds can be helpful.***
***For students who need slower paced piano curricula, don’t use an adult or teen (accelerated) program. Use the standard curricula used for younger beginners, as that might be a better fit and won’t overwhelm some students. A well-recommended series for this is the Faber Piano Adventures.***
Alexander, Dennis et al. Premier Piano Express, Book 1: All-In-One Accelerated Course, Book, CD-ROM & Online Audio & Software. USA: Alfred Music, 2016. https://a.co/d/08kMErSC
This piano curriculum resource is designed for students who need a fast-paced approach to piano study. It begins slowly and has students playing music reading notes without a staff, then moves onto reading with standard notation. This is an “All-In-One" Course that includes Lesson, Theory, Technique, and Performance pages with worksheets integrated into units, so there is no need to purchase additional books. There is included media is available online and features audio performances on acoustic piano, orchestrated accompaniments for selected pieces, and software that allows you to practice in different tempos. Most of the songs in the book have optional duets to be played with the teacher or other advanced students in the class. Students do not stay in the same 5-finger positions in this curriculum, but rather uses a guide note plus an interval method. This forces students to read the music and decipher their hand position. Some students struggle initially with this, as every song is in a different hand position. However, some argue that this method can help students become better music readers sooner. Students learn to position anywhere on the keys right away so they aren't confused when things start moving beyond C position.
Faber, Nancy, and Randall Faber. Accelerated Piano Adventures for the Older Beginner. Fort Lauderdale, FL: FJH Music, 1998. https://a.co/d/08idaGr2
The Faber piano books are a great piano curriculum for young adult beginners. The material is carefully sequenced to help students feel they’re making progress. Some teachers feel that the Faber book moves faster than the Kreader “Piano Lessons” curriculum listed here, which may be helpful for some learners. Many consider these song fun to play and they appeal well to high school students. The book is easy to follow and has a clear page layout. This curriculum is good for private lessons, group classes, or independent study, and helps students build a strong foundation in music reading, rhythm, and technique. This book helps students become familiar with C and G positions. Most of the songs are original compositions, not “canon” repertoire. This series, designed for students ages 11-17, consists of two main levels (1 and 2), with each level featuring 4 core books: Lesson (which has 96-pages in the first book), Theory, Technique & Artistry, and Performance. Supplementary books like Popular Repertoire, Christmas, and Sightreading are also available for these levels. This curriculum received the most reviews and held the highest ratings on Amazon by 10-fold compared to the other curriculums listed here.
Kern, Fred. Adult Piano Method: Lessons, Solos, Technique & Theory. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2005. https://a.co/d/01VgA2TG
This book is good for older students who are complete beginners, and it’s fairly slow paced. There are many CD tracks to go along with this book, which greatly assist in the learning process. This is a clear, structured, and enjoyable way to play piano. Perfect for self-learners, teachers, and returning musicians, this method combines lessons, solos, technique, and theory into one all-in-one course that builds confidence from the very first note. This book assumes you have no experience reading music whatsoever. Notes are introduced initially without staff lines to get the reader used to associating notes with keys on the piano. Many reviewers mentions that the songs are less engaging or memorable than those in the Adult Piano Adventures series. Overall this would be a good choice for students in a group piano class.
Music Will. “Keyboard Archives.” Music Will JamZone, 2023. https://jamzone.musicwill.org/instrument/keyboard/.
This resource is different from the other curriculums listed here, in that the goal is to make music sooner (reflecting a second language pedagogy- we speak, then we read and write). The Modern Band method, created by the organization Music Will, uses iconic notation to teach how to play chords, comping patterns, riffs, melodies and bass lines. Their website offers keyboard lessons through videos, and teaches different accompaniment patterns (called “skill builders”) with iconic notation and videos showing how to play them. They have dozens of charts for modern band instruments to help musicians learn songs. These charts are very clear, contemporary “lead sheets” with chords, a song map, often lyrics, iconic and some standard notation in a concise downloadable format. Some of the songs include drum tracks and videos of how to play the song. Music Will offers downloadable “Jam Cards” for keyboardists to “jam” behind the keys and act as a guide for what notes to play on chords (https://musicwill.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Music-Will-Jam-Cards-Full_April-2024.pdf). Music Will’s method focuses on aural fluency and does it through modern pop songs in a very effective way. All the resources mentioned above are free. There is a printed book that goes along with the other modern band instrument books, which can be purchased at https://a.co/d/0bKf2e3h.
Stevens, Brittany. “Teacher Unit Plan and Resources for Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course.” Self-published, 2026. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16CqXWfz5hFCnqwk7IMacXYXQbsv89F6T?usp=drive_link.
This resource collection was created by a music educator in Washington and shared here freely. Included in the resource are a unit plan, warm-up ideas, extension options, and a progress tracker sheet. The Unit Plan goes along with the Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano course (https://a.co/d/0fBqRzmP). The “Dozen a Day” piano technique book, mentioned in Warm-up Ideas can be found at https://a.co/d/02lBnFRV. The Extension Options include songs a more advanced student could work on, which cover the same skills being learned in each unit. The Progress Tracker Sheet is especially useful, as it tells piano students what the unit covers, what skills they will be quizzed on, what performance skills they should be developing, and what are the song options for the recital at the end of the unit. It also includes space for students to document songs they are learning, their practice goals, and assessments. Self, teacher, end-of-unit reflection assessments help both educator and learner to gauge progress with goals, successes, successes, and struggles. Educators could use this resource as-is, modify it, or use it as an example as they create their own piano class.
Warde, Lou. “Rock Guitar and Beginning Piano Curriculum.” The Guitar Classroom, 2026. https://www.theguitarclassroom.com/rock--piano.html.
This free 37-page resource is a beginning curriculum for secondary piano students available as a digital download. It is a combination lesson and workbook and designed to last one school year for students who don’t practice at home or don’t have access to a piano there. There are ten free second-year, intermediate-level Classical repertoire pieces on the website for students who learn at a faster pace or had prior music experience. In early exercises in the book there are diagrams of the keyboard above the staff reminding students where the notes are located, which is helpful for beginners. The first 20 pages are devoted to playing in a C 5 finger position, and then the book moves students to a G 5 finger position. The songs are interesting and not juvenile sounding. Chords are introduced fairly quickly. The last song in the book is a simplified version of Fur Elise, with many good fingerings. This resource teaches both reading standard music notation as well as how to play the piano. The pages are simple and non-cluttered by graphics, which makes it good for learners who focus better with less on the page. The author includes 3 videos online that teach the songs as well as musical concepts within the music.
Videos
Evans, Zach. “Piano Superhuman Tutorials: Learn Piano Easy.” YouTube, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZdUoB_OStDSidFXp0DC9jw.
Piano Superhuman Tutorials is a YouTube channel that focuses on quick, easy, and effective ways to play popular, recognizable, and beginner-friendly pop songs. These videos feature a view of the keyboard, a player’s hands, simple graphics, easy to follow numbers/letters written on the keys, and voice over instructions by the author Zach Evans. Zach also offers a podcast (https://pianosuperhuman.libsyn.com/), and a free beginner piano course which can be requested via the website bestpianoclass.com/ytpfreecourse. He is a pianist, educator, and entrepreneur who specializes in accelerated learning for piano. He focuses on teaching efficient practice strategies, technique, and music theory through his YouTube channel and his paid subscription website, Piano University (https://www.bestpianoclass.com/). His methods are designed to help piano students, particularly adults, learn faster by breaking down practice into specific, technical sections. He gave a nice Ted Talk titled “A New Verse in Music (and Other) Education: Grab Quick Wins Early” found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D50GZ2dIyWw. He is a trained musician and educator who offers a different way of thinking about piano, with resources to capture learners' attention quickly and help them stay motivated to continue their study.
Nimrod. “OnlinePianist.” App and YouTube channel, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw7Krs0sYKx-tgX_d8A7Bqw.
OnlinePianist is both an app (available on iOS, Android, and the web) and a YouTube channel that is designed to help pianists learn at their own pace with aural/visual falling notes, personalized practice tools and hundreds of tutorials. This tool features an interactive player that allows speed control and see which keys to press at specific times. The content of available repertoire covers both modern and classic pieces. The app gives independent hand practice, and offers the ability to loop sections for repetition. One drawback to the app is that it does not give direct feedback to how accurately the player is following the song. The YouTube channel offers more simple versions of pop songs than the HDPiano YouTube channel. Some of the songs don’t follow correct theory practices (ie spelling notes correctly in the key signature), but this doesn’t affect how the finished product sounds. Strikey is a sister app designed especially for absolute beginners that features short, simplified song tutorials, rich playback, and real-time feedback. This resource is useful for teaching piano and music in different ways than reading standard notation and is better for beginners.
Vosen Lee, Sean, and Dan Collins. “HDpiano.” YouTube Video, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/@HDpiano.
The YouTube channel HDpiano is known for high-quality, step-by-step piano tutorials, offering a large library of popular songs. This method/website focuses on letter-based notation and does not teach comprehensive music literacy. A subscription to their website unlocks full access to 1,500+ songs as well as watch a whole song playthrough for every song. Their videos/arrangers follow a more correct music theory for pop songs based on analyzing them by key signature and chord spellings (i.e. using F# in e minor songs rather than Gb). This method excels in teaching students by ear and by a visual synesthesia “falling note” method. There is a good selection of popular songs and well-known classical songs. While this method doesn’t help students learn to read by standard notation, it is a fun, viable website to supplement piano learning in a different way where students see and hear their results faster than reading via standard notation.
Assessments
Music Team in EPS415. “General Music Rubrics.” University of Illinois, 2013. https://assessmusic.weebly.com/general-music-rubrics.html.
This free source is a digital download of a piano performance rubric, found specifically at https://assessmusic.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/7/4/20749282/piano_performance_rubric_pdf.pdf. This source assesses piano playing accuracy, position of posture and hands, proficiency, and effort and practice. This rubric has a possible 16 points and is simple but effective. It would be easy to modify this rubric to fit your class needs. The source was collected by students in a college music class at the University of Illinois and all rubrics on this site are based off rubrics currently used in the field by in-service teachers.
Other useful resources
Bruce, David. “Free Sheet Music.” 8notes.com, 2020. https://www.8notes.com/.
This resource has sheet music for many instruments, including solo piano and 4-hand piano duets. The songs are categorized and organized by genres including classical, rock and pop, jazz, film, world, wedding, Christmas, children’s, Christian, and traditional. The site also has resources for piano licks and riffs, piano lessons, and piano chord charts. The aim of the site is to keep a large percentage of the site free (currently around 90%). Pieces are graded and organized by beginner, easy, intermediate and advanced levels. The site is run by composer David Bruce, who has Masters and Doctorate degrees in Composition. Many of the arrangements on the site are done by David, and many of the piano sheet music pieces are in the public domain and freely available to print.
Mackey, Annette. “Piano Scales, Chords, and Apeggios.” self-published, 2017. https://annettemackey.com/piano-scales-chords-apeggios/.
This resource contains free PDF files that are notated with standardized fingerings (accepted by most universities) for 1 and 2 octave scales, five finger patterns, primary chord progressions, and tonic chord arpeggios in all twelve major and minor keys. These are very helpful to use as warmups for piano students, as they help teach proper finger patterns. Once these standard fingerings become ingrained in muscle memory students typically automatically transfer these fingerings to repertoire and it improves playing skills.
Meghan The Piano Teacher. “I Tested Every Piano App; Here’s the Ones I’d Actually Use.” YouTube, 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLdCd7zl-NI.
This is a helpful video by a seasoned pianist/teacher with a Master’s degree in Piano Pedogogy. She rates 26 apps for learning piano from the Apple Store based on musicianship, technique, note reading, rhythm, repertoire quality, and long-term musical growth. She created 5 categories for the apps and the top 2 ratings are included here. She rated the following apps as “Legitimate Learning Tools”: Simply Piano, Flowkey, Piano Academy Yokee, Skoove, and Piano by Yousician. She rated the following apps as “Good Resources”: Tenuto, Duolingo Music, Tomplay, Piano Chords & Scales, and Piano for iPhone. In the video description, she lists every app she reviewed with a timestamp and it’s helpful to hear her reviews on specific apps rather than watch the entire 20 minute video. This is a helpful resource for educators who want to bring a digital element of learning into their piano ensembles and classes.