We’re delighted to announce that Penelope Roskell’s award-winning series of books for elementary pianists, Essential Piano Technique, is now available from our site in digital format. This series of publications complements the online video course we created with Penelope, Foundations in Piano Technique which covers similar material in video format for adult beginners and returners.
Penelope Roskell is recognised as one of the world’s leading exponents of a natural and healthy piano technique. Her Essential Piano Technique series draws on the principles of her award-winning book, The Complete Pianist, to develop a strong foundation of healthy technique and help young pianists progress rapidly and confidently through the early stages of piano playing.
These carefully curated books offer practical exercises, pieces and tips using appealing imagery to make learning technique effective and fun. Their primary focus is on developing good coordination, a good hand shape, freedom of movement and finger independence. The series can be used alongside any method book and are supported by extensive resources for teachers, including learning objectives, teaching tips and instructional videos.
Publication contents
The set of three books in the series provides a comprehensive and progressive approach to piano learning, emphasising healthy playing habits and technical proficiency:
- Primer A introduces the fundamentals of healthy playing by encouraging warm-ups, good posture, and optimal hand position. It explores the full range of the keyboard, utilising a variety of dynamics, experiments with basic articulation and promotes freedom of movement in all directions.
- Primer B builds on the techniques learned in Primer A, focusing on developing a cantabile sound, phrasing, and articulation. It includes exercises for finger strengthening and introduces scales, broken chords, and glissandi.
- Level 1 further develops the techniques from Primers A and B, with a focus on playing chords, coordinating hands together, and advancing in scale practice, including 2-octave scales and chromatics. It also covers fingering, turning under and over, and leaps.
Approach and features
Each technique is taught first as a fun activity away from the piano followed by a simple exercise at the piano. This then leads to a short piece that focuses almost exclusively on that particular technique.
In contrast to most tutor books, beginners are encouraged to play all exercises and pieces with a detached ‘bobbing’ technique initially, rather than playing legato. This way, the arm supports each finger as it plays, in a well-coordinated movement. Penelope demonstrates how to apply the bobbing technique in this excerpt from her video course for adult beginners and returners, Foundations in Piano Technique:
Most of the earlier exercises and pieces are written off-stave as in Can You Catch a Kangaroo below. This is an ideal way to start to read music and gives students the freedom to explore the whole keyboard and experience full range of piano sound, without being restricted to the notes they can identify on the stave.
Piano-related injuries often begin with imbalances that have been embedded at the earliest stages. These books help children start their piano journey with the best possible hand position, a healthy ergonomic relationship with the keyboard and a well-coordinated arm that allows free movement around the keyboard. Every exercise and piece is repeated in both left hand and right hand. To develop both hands equally from the outset, finger strengthening exercises are also introduced.
Wonderfully imaginative and varied pieces with teacher accompaniments by composer Aaron Burrows give students the opportunity to have a satisfying musical experience while still playing simple pieces hands separately initially. The pattern-based approach used in pieces such as Viennese Whirl has been found to develop excellent sight-reading skills and help with memorising:
How to purchase?
Click here to purchase the full bundle of featuring all three publications in the series and access to over 50 videos for only £22.50 – a saving of over 20% on the combined print price of £29.40! Alternatively you can take advantage of our summer sale to purchase a bundle featuring these three eBooks in addition to Penelope’s course for adult beginners and returners (see further details below).
Summer Sale – Save £30!
As part of our summer sale, we’re offering £30 off a product bundle comprising Penelope Roskell’s Foundations in Piano Technique video course and her her three Essential Piano Technique eBooks. Click here to purchase this bundle for only £70!
“Following the success and acclaim of The Complete Pianist, Penelope Roskell continues to make a vital contribution to piano pedagogy. Her new children’s technique books… lay the crucial foundations for a lifetime of secure technique coupled with immense pleasure at the piano. I cannot recommend them too highly.”
The Cross-eyed Pianist blog
“The series is worth its weight in gold.’ Joanna Garcia, Curious Piano Teachers ‘These will be excellent additions to the material available to teachers working with young students. I especially love the art work and imagery used to help convey musical and technical ideas to the student.”
Gail Berenson, Past President, MTNA
“In terms of its quantity and quality, its detail and depth, I know of no comparable resource.”
Andrew Eales, pianodao.com, writing about Penelope Roskell’s The Complete Pianist
“Any child that heeds Roskell’s advice will develop a solid technical foundation. In sum, this is a fantastic set of beginner technique books.”
Michael McMillan, Pianist Magazine, September 2023