Before you read the post in its entirety, do know that there are giveaways for PianoBookClub’ers and non-PianoBookClub’ers alike 🙂
If you’re a member of PianoBookClub, then you already know that Trevor and I release a new piano book to our members every single month.
Which means that, just last year, we released 12 different piano books for kids and teens, for a total of 80+ piano pieces!
Now, as is the case with our children, Trevor and I love all of our PianoBookClub books equally. But we often wonder… what are your favorites? Or, if you’re not already a member, which ones would most likely be your favourites?
So we figured… we might as well ask!
And since it’s the season of award shows we decided to ask you to vote for your favorite PianoBookClub books from 2015 in a series of “Award” categories.
Why this is much more than an “Awards” Post…
As you probably guessed, this post isn’t so much about the awards as it is about getting your feedback and using it to guide the direction of PianoBookClub through 2016 and beyond.
And when we say beyond, we mean waaaaay beyond. The coming years of PianoBookClub will see the release of some of our most inventive titles to date (our “brainstorm book” currently has 173 potential titles just waiting to be brought to life!)
But right now… let’s get on with the voting!
Below we have included the title page images of each of the 12 books that we released in 2015. In the comments section at the very bottom of this post, we would like you to tell us these three things:
- Which book from 2015 was your favorite?
- Which book from 2015 was your students’ favorite?
- Which book from 2015 was most useful to your piano students’ development?
And hey! If you’re not already a PianoBookClub member you can still participate! In the comments section below tell us…
- Which book would get the most use in your studio?
From all of the people who comment, five current PianoBookClub’ers and three not-yet-PianoBookClub’ers will be selected at random to receive their choice of three PianoBookClub books published within the last two years (and if you already have them all… we’ll find three different Teach Piano Today products for you!) 🙂
And the Nominees Are:
Note: The books below were released in 2015 and are now retired. However, every month (in addition to a new release) we bring one book out of retirement and make it available for purchase by current PianoBookClub members only.
I’m not yet a pianobookclub member, but really enjoy and benefit from your blog posts! I think I’d be most interested in checking out Beatbox Manifesto or Nuts about Notereading.
I’m not a member, but I think the ninja one, mutterwamp, and intergalactic ones would be the most used in my studio.
I am thrilled with everything I have purchased from you! I just joined Piano Book Club and see many titles that I wish were still available to purchase. I have almost all beginning students, so Nuts About Note Reading and others like it would be perfect (I saw the preview of Nuts on your website). For my teens, Intervalactic, Silver Screen Playbook and Guardians of Arranmore would have been great. Love the games of Piano Game Club – I play a game with each student at each lesson, so keep it comin’! Love that you guys make me a “Hero” and “the most fun teacher” for my students!
Not yet a member, but the Guardians book would be popular among my fantasy-loving students. Mutterwump and Vamp Battles would also be appealing (based just on the titles and theme ideas!
I am not yet a member, but this post is making really tempted… I think I’ll try it out!
I’ve heard a lot from other comments on your other posts that people really like the Silver Screen Playbook. Personally, I think the Guardians of Arranmore look perfect for the 2 older boys I have that always seem hard to find exciting music for.
Thanks for all you guys do!
My favorite is whatever is newest as I love all your ideas but to pick one i guess Beatbox. I loved using metronome as part of performance. Useful Ninja. Appreciated being able to have students drill sections without distraction of whole song. Students favorite has been guardian’s really got teen students playing, some well beyond where they had been.
1. My favorite was The Silver Screen Playbook.
2. My students’ favorite is Nuts about Note Reading.
3. My Piano Teacher Thinks She’s a Ninja was most useful to my piano students’ development.
OK, I give up. Please sign me up for the book club! : ) How to decide between all of these wonderful sounding books for my students? I read a lot of the reviews, so based on them I will select Mutterwumps, Intervalactic, and Nuts about Reading ….or should it be Pop Waltz? But Golden Screen is appealing to me and so is Arranmore, as well. I have invested a little over 1600 in music this year and only have 13 students so have been trying to hold off. I love piano music and the fun of trying to select just the right pieces for each student. These all sound like I couldn’t go wrong with any of them!
1. I loved Silver Screen and Popwaltz
2. My students who played these most looooved Arranmore. So dramatic and romantic!
3. Popwaltz was really useful for classical prep and I have a few boys who gained serious dexterity by working on the Ninja pieces.
I love this repertoire so much. Keep it coming!
This is super hard!!!
2015 Teacher Favorite: Silver Screen Playbook
2015 Student Favorite: Silver Screen Playbook and Guardians of Arranmore (tie)
2015 Piano Students’ Development: Beat Box Manifesto
I’ve been a Piano Book Club member for 6 months and have LOVED every minute of it! I joined the month you released Tinker, and it’s been one of my favorites thus far. I’ve actually designed a composing piano camp around it (and I hope to do the same with Muttzart & Ratmaninoff!). Having had little composing experience myself, I found it to be a great way to introduce composing to kids. Tied for 2nd place is Vamp Battles. I really believe that duets are a powerful teaching aid, and these songs are so ridiculously epic that my students (and I) fell in love with this book immediately.
My students’ favorite was definitely Nuts About Note-Reading. I have a lot of beginners, so this book has already seen a lot of mileage. It’s a great way to get kids excited about note-reading, and I always use the game to really lock in the concepts. It’s a huge hit!
I think the last category will also be a tie. Nuts About Note-Reading has already done a lot for my students’ development, but I think Ruby Wrigglesworth will also be very beneficial as my beginners progress to more difficult rhythms. I haven’t had the opportunity to use Ruby with many of my kids, yet, but I love the way it presents rhythmic concepts in story format.
One last thing, I’m SUPER excited to hear that your other books will eventually be available for purchase! As soon as I joined Piano Book Club, I was kicking myself for not joining sooner. I can’t wait to start using Arranmore, Silver Screen Playbook, Beatbox Manifesto, and Mutterwumps with my students! Keep up the astounding, inspiring work you two!
Hi Leah – you can purchase re-released books already! Check the bottom of the email that delivers your new book of the month each month for the password 🙂
Thanks for all your kind words!
1. The Silver Screen Playbook is my favorite because it is exciting for me to play.
2. I would have to say my students’ favorite is the Silver Screen Playbook because it has gotten the most use in my studio. I have been a member since June, and I have several of your books just waiting for the perfect opportunity to be presented. (If I had a bigger studio, they would have been used by now.) But “Nuts About Note Reading” has been a big hit too, “Pop Waltz Prophecy” looks like it will be a favorite.
3. The Silver Screen Playbook has been most helpful for my students’ development because it has gotten them excited to play. The “movie poster artwork” inspires their imagination and makes it meaningful to “tell a story” as they play the awesome songs.
As a game club member, I know how fantastic (and useful) your musical products are. I’ve been thinking about trying the book club for a while but I have just been more focused on getting my game box built. But, reading these comments makes me want to move on! Your book “Nuts about Note Reading” sounds like something my studio needs to drag students away from Zoo Food and back onto the piano 🙂
Hi Andrea – you know I always rave about the resources for teens haha- so the Silver Screen Playbook and the Arranmore books were definitely my highlights, and several of my teen students have played or are working on the both books in their entirety. They’ve been particularly helpful for one student who had come out of method books but had had a hard time finding music he connected with, so those two books both rank as “student savers” for me, and as the favourites for at least three of my teen students. I also really like the books for the young beginners, so Sheldon was another favourite, and really a lot of fun for two of my little guys as extra note reading practice. I tend to use the books on both ends of the age spectrum the most. I have a number of skeptical middle schoolers who are not quite ready to play Arranmore and I’ve had more trouble connecting them to a Piano Book Club book. I think I may have some luck with Pop Waltz Prophecy for them. 🙂
I am new to the book club, so the only book I have so far is the PopWaltz Prophecy. My teenage students are loving it! It has brought a new enthusiasm to piano and they LOVE the pieces. It is a great way to teach some of those classical concepts.
As I read what others have said about the previous material, I want them all:) Thank you for sharing with us!!
I’ve only had two books so far but love the Pop Waltz prophecy as it has those lovely different bass lines to try out. 🙂
I haven’t done all of them yet. But so far my students and I would agree on the Battle of Arranmore. I’m looking forward to doing Vamp Battles as I think that will be a hit too.
Wow, those are hard questions, as there were so many favorites. My favorite is a tie between “Guardians” and “Silver Screen” as they are just fun for me to play when walking past the piano and satisfy the “urge” to make great music on the fly.
Probably the Beginners’ favorite was the “How to Babysit” and the teens’ hands down favorite was “Guardians.” I had 2 girls who did have much time to practice, were getting bored and didn’t want to perform in our recital. Giving them the YouTube clip and 3 choices from this book was the inspiration they needed. While they still didn’t practice a lot more, their practice was WAYYYY more productive because they really wanted to sound like the YouTube clip and they loved the songs.
“Guardians” provided the most to my student’s development – they were playing more dynamically and expressively as there was a tangible character and opportunity to create a story in their minds.
In this next year I hope you are able to continue a blend of what you did last year and the year before (charter member!). That is, focus on something for everyone, pop-style, technical, sneak in something fun with a theory/composition aspect (without announcing it..). I am starting over again in a new part of the country and know I will utilize each collection and look forward to what’s ahead!
I think my kids would love the Pop Waltz Prophecy collection! Loved the sound clips I heard of it! I’m not currently a member of the Book Club but did subscribe in the past and my students love the music! Time for me to re subscribe! 😉
I just started the Piano club and have only experienced the Pop Waltz. My students absolutely loved it and thought I was the beset teacher for bringing in some new & fresh pieces to learn. So I am looking forward to the next month pieces and am so excited to be be able to offer my students something different. Thank You so much! And the $8.00 a month to belong to PainoBookClub is such a DEAL!!!
PopWaltz has gotten the most use so far out of the five books I’ve gotten. It’s a brilliant concept. My personal favorite is the Vamp Battles. As far as my students’ favorite…hmmmm they love everything I put in front of them, but I guess PopWaltz Prophecy. One student told me it was relaxing to listen to me read the story out loud to her. If Fearleas Fortissimo was up for nomination it would be the winner amongst the students for sure.
I’m dying to get my hands on the Guardians of Arranmore. I hope it will be available to buy at some point soon. Pretty pretty pretty please! I have a lot of teen students, and they seem to really respond to everything you guys have come up with.
OK, after considering joining for a while, this post has convinced me to join Piano Book Club. My students all sightread about a book a week and I am running out of fun music for them. It sounds like many of these would fit the bill beautifully for sightreading assignments and for repertoire ideas for some of my early teen students. I’m sold! As for a book that sounds appealing to my students, I think I would have liked the Guardians book.
Which book from 2015 was your favorite?
Vamp Battles was one of my favorites. We will actually be using some of those songs in our next recital.
Which book from 2015 was your students’ favorite?
Beatbox Manifesto was a huge hit with my younger students. They enjoyed using the different beat styles that were on their keyboards to play along with. My older kids enjoyed Guardians of Arranmore.
Which book from 2015 was most useful to your piano students’ development?
Nuts about note reading really helped my beginning students and the Beatbox manifesto helps tremendously on keeping a steady beat.
I’ve been receiving the books from (almost) the very beginning. I love having a “pantry” of music to pull from, to create a recipe for success for each student. The thing I really appreciate about PBC is that you offer a continuously changing array of sounds and concepts. As for favourites from 2015…
Student favourite: Guardians of Arranmore
My Favourite: Silver Screen
Most beneficial: Intervallactic
Looking forward to even more good stuff in the future!
I’d like to become a member. The Tinker book looks fun.
1. My Favorite – The Silver Screen Playbook & Arranmore tossup.
2. Student’s Favorite – The Silver Screen Playbook
3. Most Useful – The PopWaltz Prophecy & The Silver Screen tie!
It wad difficult to narrow one book down to each questions. Thank you
I am not a piano book club member. I feel like I am just biding my time until I have enough students to “justify” the cost. However, every month that you have a new book come out, I pour over the songs and look and listen to as much as I can. I loved the Vamp Battles book as well as the Pop Waltz book. Duet books are always coveted. A couple of years ago I did a recital that was all duets and trios, and then we ended the recital with a song with four students playing on the piano at once. It was so much fun and so much work to find interesting music! Over the years I have always been scouring for music that the boys will find interesting although right now I have all girl students.
“Notes about Reading” was my students’ favourite as I have many beginner students and they all loved the colourful illustrations and stories to go with all the pieces.
My favourite was “The Silver Screen Playbook”. The music sounds way harder than it actually is and all my older students, especially teenager boys, love the movie-like tunes.
The “Rhythmic Haunting Book …” was the most useful at my studio as it helps students develop a sense of steady beat with the wise lyrics to go along a simple tune.
I’m not a PianoClub member yet, but I really liked the Christmas medley you posted in November or December. It was a beautiful compilation of several songs!
1. My favorite – “The Mutterwump Masterpiece”
2. My student’s fav – “Nuts About Note Reading”
3. Most beneficial – “Nuts About Note Reading”
1) Rhythmic Haunting.
2) Guardians of Arranmore
3) Intervalactic (and Rhythmic Haunting)
(But I LOVE the pictures from Nuts about Note Reading).
Nuts about Note-Reading would probably get the most use right now, since a couple of the beginners could use some creative help in that area. It’s harder to find engaging music for older students that sounds harder than it is, and some of the other titles would really fill the bill! All of the students I’ve given Fearless Fortissimo to really love it. Thanks for everything!
Not a member yet, but I think Nuts about Note Reading would get the most use in my studio. They *all* sound fantastic for a wide range of students’ ages and interests!
Question: What is “In the Woods” that has been mentioned several times?
Hi Barbara – you receive this piece as a freebie when you subscribe to TeachPianoToday 🙂
I would have to have a tie for Student fav..Mutterwump and Sheldon. The stories are charming. My own Fav would be Silver Screen because I adore getting the kids to play with expression by thinking up a story..and they can all do this with movie trailer music..One boy even decide he would cast Jackie Chan (of all people) as the star in Moonshot. Can you hear the lyrics we sang..” here comes our hero Jackie Chan”.(m 14) I think you need another award for art work..it is amazing. Who is the creative force behind all that!?
Thank you Suzanne! Love the idea of Jackie Chan LOL! Trevor is our “graphic guy” – he comes up with the creative visual concept, he designs the layouts, and puts them all together. We work with several different artists from all over the world for the artwork that we use. This is one part of making the books that we really enjoy – it’s so fun to see your concept be brought to life by talented illustrators! 🙂
I love the “Silver Screen Playbook” and “The Guardians of Arranmore”! My teenagers love “Bluestone” out of the “Silver Screen Playbook” and “Faelan’s Theme” from “The Guardians of Arranmore. As for development in regards to teenagers these 2 books are great for development because it keeps them interested and ready to try new challenges because they really want to learn the piece. The “Beat Box Manifesto” is great for the younger children who hate the metronome! This book has helped with their development of rhythm and develop a new appreciation for the metronome. Thank you for all your hard work and your creativity. I always look forward to the new book every month!!
So hard to choose! I don’t have all of these since I joined mid-year. BUT: I would say that my favorite (they are all favorites) is Rhythmic Hauntings. Students favs: Nuts About Notereading & although not on the list: TeddTales. Best for student development: Pop Waltz Prophesy. Can’t wait for an opportunity to try Vamp Battles!
Even though I am a member, I haven’t used any of these yet; however, we have used the previous year’s Halloween one and Christmas Reindeer one A LOT. I have mostly younger students and many of the books this year are just too old or too difficult. However, I plan to look over all of them to see what I can use this Spring. I would love to see more duets or ensembles or maybe a Spring theme, Fall Theme, Winter Theme.
I have just subscribed to the Piano Club and I know that my teens would love the Popwaltz Prophecies and the Guardians of Arramore.
Its so hard to narrow down a favorite book of mine, I only got about half of them as I had just signed up in the summer. I love the Nuts About Note Reading and the Vamp Battles. I think my students loved those most as well. And I have most used the Nuts About Note Reading this year as I started a ton of new students in September! Like a few others have mentioned I would love to see a duet book for early elementary students as I teach a lot of younger students!
Love getting the book club books every month, its an exciting time when I get to play through a new book and then introduce it to a student!!
My and my various level and age students favorite would be equally Silver screen and Nuts about Note-reading.
I would like to see something adventures for young girls.
thank you for your blog, ideas, games and music. You always boost my energy level 🙂
My favourite by far is silver screen. Trailer music is such an awesome way of engaging everyone. Who doesn’t love trailer music? well kne mature age student didn’t.
The pop waltz portfolio has had much use already with summer holiday students. Much use and much enjoyed. The other books haven’t been used yet in my small studio. I notice you did a Celtic book before I joined. Oh boy I would love that one!!
My older students voted for Silver Screen Playbook by an overwhelming margin. My little ones loved Nuts About Note Reading. My favorite was Silver Screen as well.
1. Which book from 2015 was your favorite? The Guardians of Arranmore—provided a great setting for older students.
2. Which book from 2015 was your students’ favorite? Vamp Battles—they liked the ability to duel.
3. Which book from 2015 was most useful to your piano students’ development? Tinker—it was so easy to get kids into composing with a purpose and have them understand what they were doing.
4. Which book would get the most use in your studio? Probably Rhythmic Haunting because a student can take time off from regular curriculum and do this in a short period of time.One of my students did the whole book in a week.
I am a book club member. My favorite was Vamp Battles. I love the idea, the music, the look…so much fun!
My students favorite was Mutterwump Masteripiece. I have quite a few boys and I hear from many parents that their kids love playing that in their free play time.
Tinker was the most useful for my students this year, and for me as a teacher. I really placed an emphasis on music creation this year. Tinker was very helpful. All my kids got it and it made it easy and fun. Now they are creating away. I’m so happy. They are bringing the joy of music into their homes!
I’d have to say that Nuts about Note Reading is by far my favorite! My students especially love Sheldon Sonatina because it gives them the chance to have their own song to play with their teacher!
I think my favorite is Vamp Battles, my students’ favorite have hands down been The Pop Waltz Prophesy. TPWP is also what I would choose for helping my students development. I’m somewhat new to the club and there’s so many older books that I would love to have ! Thanks so much for your service to the piano teaching world!
Hi, greetings from Ireland! I am not yet a member but am now intrigued and will probably join! The only book of yours I have bought or read so far was Piano Hands shouldn’t Flip Burgers which was (and continues to be) very useful! Let’s see it’s hard to judge these books having not used them yet but i am leaning towards Guardians of Arranmore. Although, like a previous teacher, I have only a few teens yet… most of my kid pupils are on Piano Adventures Level one.. a few on 2A, 2B, and 3, but they’re all progressing fast. But that sounds like a wonderful book. Loving your posts especially the one about decluttering and organising the piano room… Yes I really need to do that! Have ordered some of the aids you mentioned. Keep up the good work 😉
Hi Aine – thanks for your comment! Yes, your students would probably love Guardians of Arranmore as it was based on a fictitious story that takes place in Ireland! We were in Ireland last year and WOW what a beautiful country you have. We left very inspired 🙂
I am not yet a book club member but am very interested in it! It’s hard to tell for sure without seeing inside the books, but I think I would have used the “How to Babysit a Brontosaurus” for some of my younger students. Also, the “Vamp Battles” would have been a great source!
Wow! It is going to take you weeks to get through all these comments!
Personal favourite: Silverscreen Playbook
Student favourite: Guardians of Arranmore for teens, and Nuts About Notereading for beginners.
Most potentially useful: Intervalactic
We’ve been happily reading the comments all day Sandra – can’t tell you how much it means to us to hear all these kind words. We pour our heart and soul into every book (and many, many, many hours) and to hear that they are so appreciated is just bliss! 🙂