In September, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) launched two new piano books, in partnership with publishers Hal Leonard, containing arrangements of popular pop music. As a piano teacher who has a pragmatic approach and is happy to embrace all musical genres, I eagerly ordered both books and have been using them for the past six weeks with a variety of my own students. The books come with accompanying audio (with excellent performances). There are 20 pieces in the first collection and 16 in the next. The chart-topping tunes are all listed below, and arrangers include known composers such as Nikki Iles but also experienced teachers, pianists and examiners such as Andrew Dunlop. David AT Önaç (who appears on this year's ABRSM syllabus) composes a number of them, plus there's one piece from Alan Bullard and Pete Churchill each. Other arrangers were not familiar however ABRSM states them to be ‘leading figures in piano and pop pedagogy’, and I am sure they are. So what will you find in these books?
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