When one of my piano students arrived in soccer cleats, bouncing a ball from knee to knee as she strode through my studio doors, I became keenly aware that we’ve arrived at that time of year when it gets difficult to keep our “energetic” piano students focused and motivated.
And the fact of the matter is, for many of us who take a bit of a summer break, there are still six to ten weeks of lessons remaining where we need to hammer home some serious educational value.
Which is why a whole bunch of piano teachers will be bringing out repertoire from our newest book, Agent Major and the Misadventures of Professor Pentascalius… a heroic, comic-based resource that will keep your energetic, elementary-level students hyper-motivated until the very last lesson all the while begging to play piano pieces that leave their C position comfort zone!
We have awesome sound samples from the book to follow but before we get to that, click on the image below to preview three of the eight pieces (and the hilarious pentascale practice pages) from Teach Piano Today’s PianoBookClub Book of the Month for April.
Why Your Elementary Level Kiddos Need This Book
Young piano students have a comfort zone… and it’s called C Position. For many kids, the thought of moving beyond the key of C can be a little scary.
So, with this in mind, we created April’s Piano Book of the Month to be a heroic, comic-based adventure that will have your students begging to play piano pieces inspired by the major and minor pentascales of C, D, G, and A. Pieces like…
“Agent Major and the Misadventures of Professor Pentascalius” is a laugh-out-loud supplementary resource that follows the mischievous exploits of a goofy villain who wreaks hilarious havoc on the unsuspecting citizens of Tonic Town.
With exciting, picture-based adventures and 16 creative compositions, this book will engage all of your elementary-level students who are itching for action.
How To Bring Our “Out-of-the-Box” Repertoire To Your Studio
Agent Major and the Misadventures of Professor Pentascalius is April’s Piano Book of the Month from Teach Piano Today’s PianoBookClub. Click here to get your hands on the most exciting piano studio repertoire for just $8 US a month.
How fun! Can’t wait to introduce this book to my students! Thanks, Andrea and Trevor! 🙂
Have lots of fun Denise! 🙂
So energetic and alive! My students love playing Professor Pentascalius fun songs! Thank you!!
So glad to hear they are enjoying the book Diana 🙂
I can’t wait! If you are on the fence about becoming a Book Club member, take it from someone who has taught for 35 years and don’t wait any longer. From kindergarteners to teenagers, all of my students ADORE the songs. An 11 year old boy who has taken lessons for 4 years just begged me to change his recital song to one he had just learned from The Pop Waltz Prophecy. And he loved his original recital song. Then yesterday, after playing Departure during his lesson, my 19 year old son texted me during the lesson (which he knows is exclusively for emergencies) that he wanted to know the name of that awesome song. I have yet to find a book that my 30 students do not connect with. And there are so many added bonuses, like dynamic and articulation markings, that you can use the books for a variety of levels of students. Finally (though I could keep going on) the songs are so refreshing for me to teach, not only because my students love them but because I do, too. It’s a win all the way around AND SO AFFORDABLE! I’m a fan. A huge fan.
I agree with everything you say. The pieces have a huge appeal. There is enough repetition to make them easy to learn quickly, and that leaves the student more free to concentrate on all the brilliant use of dynamics and articulation that brings the piece to life. I haven’t seen the same *spark* in a lot of traditional materials. It is exciting to see even beginning students immediately grasp that they are Making Music ….not just stringing together notes. They relate to the imaginative storylines.
Hi Sandra – so happy to hear that the goals we set out to achieve with our music are working in your studio!
Lisa – we’re blushing! Thank you so much for your kind words 🙂 Happy to be a breath of fresh air in your studio for you and your students!
I’ve been bedridden for several days …lots of time to read/review links …lots of time to think about how to hold the interest of kids this time of year. …They all have their Big recital pieces ‘sort of’ ready (there’s time yet, right?) …but I usually throw in some easy novelty numbers for fun and to motivate them to spend some time at the piano even though they want to be outdoors.
SO ….I was listening to the links above. I have the book and had planned to use it soon. But hearing the clips made me think how great it would be at our end-of-year concert to have the story narrated, and have one student play the mino key ‘crisis’ ….and a different student play the major key ‘rescue’. I think this would be great fun for the kids AND the audience!
This sounds very cool Sandra! We just had a teacher do a concert for the PopWaltz Prophecy book with a narration and she said it was her best recital yet! 🙂
Love this! Perfect for my elementary students. I have a few that would benefit from this.
Love the pieces. Just wish I could get them as a digital download by just paying for pieces instead of a monthly fee of $8.
I wanted to use some of this today, but I can’t print it. Guess my payment hasn’t kicked in yet for this month!
I can change this for you Patsy if you like – just email me so your book can be delivered earlier 🙂 andrea@pianobookclub.com.
Yes, please! That would be great! Thank you, Andrea.
Hello
I’ve been searching for Fearless Fortissimo Book 2 but the link doesn’t work. Has it been removed?
Thank you!
Hi Ellen – not at all! The link is here: https://sites.fastspring.com/teachpiano/instant/fearlessfortissimo2
Thank you! One of my little ones is loving book 1 and asking for book 2.
I just joined last month and am so excited for this months book! My students are going to love it!