Grand Melody

Melody Bober has wrote many great pieces, and she's put together a series of Grand Solos for the Piano.  In Book 1, you'll find ten pieces with optional duet accompaniment.

Inside the front cover, Melody has included a note about why she wrote Grand Solos for Piano.  The aim of this book is to encourage students by offering them unique and challenging, yet fun to practice and perform.  The music in this book is also in a variety of keys, and styles to encourage the student's continued progress.

In my personal teaching, I have found that to be true of this series.  It has great appeal to many students because of the accessible nature, fun pieces, and varied styles.


Here's a video of Summer Afternoon and Blarney Stone Jig, played with teacher duet.



This book includes several pieces that would be appropriate for many different events, the jiving Snowboard Boogie for winter, melodic Summer Afternoon for warmer weather, the Tiptoe in the Dark and Sneakin' Around for suspenseful moments, as well as the Black Cat Waltz and A Frightful Night for Halloween.

I appreciate how varied the repertoire is, a jig, a waltz, a boogie, smoothly melodic, sharp staccato, and all of the pieces hold their own charm.  Melody Bober does a great job here putting together solos that beginning students enjoy playing.  These songs are also accessible to students, there are only a few hand movements, the melody split between the hands with a few harmony notes included.

A full list of what is in this book can be found here, as well as a few pages of songs.

Quick Look:
4/4, 3/4
quarter, half, dotted half, whole notes and rests
p, mp, mf, f, crescendo, diminuendo
8va, fermata, pedal, slur, staccato, repeat, rit., crossing left hand over, crossing 2 over 1, D.C. al Coda, accidental, accent,

This book is available at Sheet Music Plus for  $6.95.