Ever feel like this in your studio? After culling excess music in summer, it’s piling up again. It’s a disease. Between the APTA conference and Rideau Music’s closing out sale, music books just keep finding their way back into the studio (and showing up on the credit card statement. Ugh.)

I have found a couple of gems recently – Teresa Richert has a couple of books of elementary piano solos that my students and I really like – Imagination and At Sea. I’m highly recommending these – available at Red Leaf Pianoworks. Click here for score samples and audio clips.

In time for for Christmas – the arrangements in the In Recital Christmas series published by FJH are all good. The book for Early Advanced pianists is especially good, although the Popular Songs version is not as good as the one with the carols. I have advanced students who keep coming back to this book year after year.

I do get a lot of joy out of just reading through my piles of music. Sometimes I end up getting a good laugh. Like last week after I came home with a new Christmas book – early advanced jazz arrangements by a prominent arranger, published by a prominent company. They were so bad, I just laughed. Even got my kids in the studio to share – and they groaned and laughed, too.

Then I realized this was actually the 2nd time I had bought the book. Another copy, unused, of exactly the same book was sitting in my Christmas file. Both copies went straight to the recycling bin. I couldn’t in good conscience even give it away.

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Image: The Undercover Shelf