Build your holiday wish list with our inspiring collection of piano teaching resources! From expert repertoire guides and diverse repertoire collections to practical teaching tools and personal essays by leading educators, our publications make the perfect gift to enrich your studio and spark creativity all year long.

Weaving Sounds: Elementary Piano Pieces by Native and Indigenous Composers

Compiled and Edited by Connor Chee and Renata Yazzie

Weaving Sounds is a collection of beginner piano repertoire written by the vibrant and diverse voices of Native and Indigenous composers from the Diné, Mohawk, Anishinaabe, Cree, Blackfoot, Jicarilla Apache, Choctaw, and Mohican communities. Each piece is a unique expression of the composers’ cultural roots and personal artistry, offering a tapestry of sounds that are both accessible to beginners and deeply meaningful. The pieces are presented in order of progressive difficulty and include information about the composers and their communities.

Dancétudes

By Thomas H. Kerr Jr., edited by Susanna Garcia and William Chapman Nyaho

Dancétudes: 7 Vignettes of Dolls and Pets is a set of seven programmatic piano solos by Thomas Henderson Kerr Jr., composed for his young daughter. Dedicated to her dolls and pets, these pieces develop technical proficiency, familiarity with contemporary idioms, and expressive artistry.

Kerr described the title as “a combination of the words ‘dance’ and ‘étude,’” explaining that he wrote them to encourage his daughter’s interest in playing. Spanning late intermediate to early advanced levels, the études explore twentieth-century styles—including impressionism, postimpressionism, modernism, and jazz—each highlighting a specific technique or musical idiom.

Dancétudes serves as a bridge to advanced impressionist and modernist works, and to works in the jazz idiom.

Easter Monday Swagger

By Thomas H. Kerr Jr., edited by Susanna Garcia and William Chapman Nyaho

Scherzino, Easter Monday Swagger (1970) is a solo piano work by Thomas Henderson Kerr Jr. Subtitled A Fantasy “Romp” on Walk Together, Children, it offers contrasting interpretations of this African American spiritual, blending playful energy with moments of depth and reflection.

Kerr employs imitation, call-and-response, and improvisation, reflecting the performance traditions of the spiritual. By blending these elements into a fantasy-a genre of piano composition known for expressive freedom, improvisatory character, harmonic experimentation, and virtuosity-he creates a distinctive synthesis of African American and European classical elements.

Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?

By Thomas H. Kerr Jr., edited by Susanna Garcia and William Chapman Nyaho

Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?: Concert Scherzo for Two Pianos, Four Hands is a set of six variations and a coda based on the Negro spiritual. Composed in 1940 by pianist and composer Thomas Henderson Kerr Jr. for his performances on the Black College Circuit during the 1940s, it is an effective showpiece for advanced pianists.

Kerr described it this way: “The piece sets forth the theme transparently and saucily then plunges into querulous, propulsive and percussive ostinato (Allegro Barbaro), with a surprise ending. After a breathing pause (for both players and listeners) comes a slow expressive section (Andante Sognando)…There are two brittle, playful variations (Scherzando) and a ‘Tempo Grandioso’ which leads to a coda which sweeps the players off the stage.”