Like piano methods, there are hundreds of books for piano teachers out there. If you’re looking to gain knowledge, address an issue, or just become the best piano teacher you can be, here are my top 5 recommendations.
These 5 books for piano teachers cover different topics, so I’ll list them by what I think you’ll gain by diving in.
We’ll start with the best book out there (in my opinion) for brand new piano teachers. However, read this section even if you’re an experienced piano teacher, because I think there is something for everyone in this massive resource!
Best Book for Brand New Piano Teachers
My first recommendation is my favorite comprehensive piano pedagogy textbook:
Professional Piano Teaching, Volume 1 & 2 by Jeanine M. Jacobson, 2006
If you are not able to invest in a formal college education in the field of music, this book is a great place to start your self-education journey!
And, actually even if you’ve been teaching for years, you’re bound to be taught and challenged by this comprehensive two-volume series.
New Teacher?
If you’re new on the scene and full of questions, like…
- Which method book do I use?
- What do I say at the first lesson?
- How do I teach rhythm?
- What should I say if a student makes a mistake?
- What should a student actually learn in their first year of lessons?
- What order should I introduce classical pieces?
…this is the book for you! Order Volume 1, and dive in, my piano teacher friend!
Summary
It’s hard to summarize such a thick textbook, but think of Professional Piano Teaching as a comprehensive, well-organized handbook for piano teachers.
These books are a great starting point for developing your own teaching style, exploring different teaching methods and learning styles, and making sure you’re not missing anything as a new teacher.
Topics Covered
There are chapters about teaching rhythm, teaching technique, group lessons, preschoolers, practical business tips and so much more.
What I Like About This Book
I like that, at the end of each chapter, there are actual exercises teachers can complete to drive home the talking points and help them put into action what they’ve learned. These are called Projects and are divided into Projects for New Teachers and Projects for Experienced Teachers.
Although this book didn’t exist when I was in college, I can see it serving as a great piano pedagogy course textbook. So if you feel your pedagogy class was lacking, or you never got to take one, this book is a great place to start!
Buy Professional Piano Teaching
Check out the first volume of this helpful textbook on Amazon:
SHOP FOR Professional Piano Teaching Volume 1 HERE.
Best Book for Teaching All Types of Piano Students
My second recommendation for books for piano teachers is:
Transformational Piano Teaching: Mentoring Students From All Walks of Life by Derek Kealii Polischuk, 2019
For any piano teacher wanting to serve each and every one of these diverse learners, this is a great resource.
Differentiation
We want to meet each student where they’re at and make piano lessons a joyful journey, not a struggle.
This book can help piano teachers approach each new student with an open mind and a toolbox full of options to diversify the way they teach.
By becoming a diversified piano teacher, you can serve a wider range of students and “rescue” transfer students who have been discouraged by a previous teacher’s rigid approach.
Summary
In this book, you’ll find distinct sections about teaching students from all walks of life.
There are chapters on…
- Gifted students
- College students
- Adult students
- Students who are just interested in piano on a recreational level
- Students with mental health struggles
- Neurodivergent students
What I Like About This Book
Since our pedagogical education is mainly focused on building piano proficiency, anything we can do to fill in the gaps on learning how to educate effectively is always welcome!
Every successful piano teacher knows that one size does not fit all. This book helps us get creative, see the world through our diverse students’ eyes, and become adaptable to suit each student’s unique background, needs, and goals.
I would recommend piano teachers purchase and read this book before they “need” it. This will help teachers spot signs that a student may have unique needs even before the first lesson. And the more knowledge we have, the less mistakes and redirects we’ll have to make with a new student who is perhaps from a different background than the rest of our students.
Buy Transformational Piano Teaching
This book is small in size and a perfect take-along book if you’re waiting at the train station, at the beach, or on a plane!
Order this book on Amazon:
SHOP FOR Transformational Piano Teaching HERE.
Best Book for Improving Your Communication as a Piano Teacher
My third recommended book for piano teachers:
Thinking As You Play: Teaching Piano in Individual and Group Lessons by Sylvia Coats, 2006
I expected something different from this book because of its main title: Think As You Play. I thought it would be more of a guide to effective sightreading or thoughtful performance strategies. It is not. But I was in for a real treat (and kick in the pants!). Let me explain.
So Much in One Little Book
The premise of this book is to help piano teachers “raise” self-sufficient lifelong learners at the piano.
The book gets into lesson planning, building a curriculum, teaching class piano (big group lessons), and more.
But what I took away from this book was the insightful look at how our communication may be highly ineffective–and we may not realize we’re doing it!
Communication is Key
Why is communication so important for a piano teacher to master?
Teaching is communicating! We can have all the skills, all the knowledge, all the right method books and all the right lesson plans, but if we cannot communicate in a way that reaches and inspires our students, all of our teaching efforts are useless.
Get Ready to Feel Called Out
This book is a mirror for the piano teacher who thinks they are doing pretty well.
Talk about feeling called out!
Sylvia gets right to the heart of our communication shortcomings.
Here are some specifics I felt called out on:
- Student red flags are actually signs of ineffective communication on the part of the teacher
- Piano teachers sneak in lectures way too often (and don’t realize they’re lecturing)
- Piano teachers throw out criticisms disguised as questions
She also gets into reaching different learning styles and personality types as well.
What I Like About This Piano Teacher Book
The author is not here to hold your hand and tell you you’re doing a good job.
She’s here to challenge your habits despite your intentions and inspire you to get better and better at reaching your students.
I like that this book focuses both on the tactical strategies of planning lessons, as well as the core skill of effective communication.
This book is a mirror that will show you where you can improve as a piano teacher.
Buy Thinking As You Play
This is a quick read, but you’ll want to keep a journal and pen handy as you read!
Order this book on Amazon:
SHOP FOR Thinking As You Play HERE.
Best Book for Helping Advancing Piano Students
And the fourth recommendations in our list of books for piano teachers is:
With Your Own Two Hands: Self-Discovery Through Music by Seymour Bernstein 1986
If you are a newer piano teacher, and all of your students are beginners, put this book on your Christmas list for next year and save it for down the road.
If you are an established piano teacher with late intermediate students and above, order this book today.
Written from Teacher to Student
What’s unique about this book on the list is that it is not written directly to piano teachers. Rather, it is written from the perspective of a piano teacher giving advice to his advancing piano students.
There comes a time in every piano student’s career where they need to form their own strategies for finding repertoire, practicing effectively, preparing for a performance, overcoming obstacles that arise–without the help of a piano teacher! Or at least that is the ultimate goal for our advancing students.
Although this book may be too deep for many high school students to really take full advantage of, you, as the piano teacher, can absorb this information and pass it along in small doses to those advancing students.
Effective Practice & Performance
This book goes very in-depth and specific about strategies for effective practice, particularly the study and mastery of classical literature.
There are sections covering…
- Motivation to practice
- Why we don’t practice
- Practice strategies
- Feelings that go along with the music we’re working on
- Using the whole body properly when working on technique
- How to overcome practice hurdles
- Using your ear
There are so many actual classical excerpts given and specific practice strategies suggested. This isn’t a read-it-once type of book. You’ll want this one on your shelf for future reference.
He also talks a lot about performance and memorization.
What I Like About This Book for Piano Teachers
As a piano teacher, you probably currently feel like you have a full arsenal of strategies for student practice, performance, and memorizing–but this little book will make you feel stupid! And then you’ll read it. And then you’ll keep it on your shelf for future reference.
This book is like having an older, wiser piano teacher mentor to whom you can turn when you have a specific advancing student question. When a student is stuck on a passage of a standard repertoire piece. Or when a student has a big memorization block and you’ve run out of ideas.
And chances are, you’ll pick up some great tips to help your own continuing pianist journey.
Buy With Your Own Two Hands
You can find the updated version of this book on Amazon.
Order this book on Amazon:
SHOP FOR With Your Own Two Hands HERE.
Best Collection of Piano Teacher Tips
And the fifth recommended piano teacher book is:
A Piano Teacher’s Legacy: Selected Writings by Richard Chronister edited by Edward Darling, 2005
This is just one of those books that every piano teacher should read at least once. Yes, it’s a bit dated, but because it goes into the fundamentals of method books and teaching, whether you agree with Richard or not, it will get you thinking and questioning the foundations of how you teach piano lessons.
And if you do agree with the author on his philosophies about introducing staff reading and technique, you’ll find it a helpful reference to come back to year after year.
Telling is Not Teaching
Many of Richard Chronister’s writings center around how the piano teacher communicates with students.
Some of his core idea include:
- Telling is not teaching.
- Make music first. Let accuracy come later.
- Don’t force technique on early learners.
- Repeatedly correcting mistakes in the same way is ineffective.
My favorite quote is as follows:
The main role of the teacher is to make the student want to play the pieces. When a teacher’s mouth is open, learning is probably not going on. The teacher’s words prepare students and help them think, but it is only what the students tell themselves when we are not around that really counts. – Richard Chronister
Method Books
As Richard Chronister developed his own piano method book series which was unique in its time (1970s-1980s), he writes a lot about his philosophies on curriculum.
He believes that a method book curriculum should evolve to meet the student where they’re at, rather than a student being forced into a set curriculum.
He was a pioneer at the time of off-staff notation and speaks extensively about introducing notes on the staff.
If you are in the process of reevaluating your piano method series picks, you may want to check out this book as a starting point to think about the philosophy of how concepts are introduced through a curriculum, the role of the curriculum, the teacher, and the parent.
What I Liked About This Book
This book is a collection of short writings. There is a section of various topics and the book is well-organized.
You can have this book hanging out on your side table and just read a short section here, a short section there and really glean a lot of insight. You don’t have to read it cover to cover in a week!
I found this book very inspiring and it helped me evaluate why I do things, how I do things, and my core philosophies surrounding teaching piano lessons.
Buy A Piano Teacher’s Legacy
This is a bigger book that you’ll want to keep on the shelf to come back to year after year.
You can buy it on Amazon:
SHOP FOR A Piano Teacher’s Legacy HERE.
Bonus Book: On My Reading List
Piano teacher book club, anyone?
Here’s a book that caught my eye. I read the free excerpt available online and I’ve got it on order!
Perhaps you’d like to read it with me?
The book I’m referring to is a newly published book called:
Thinking and Playing Music: Intentional Strategies for Optimal Practice & Performance by Sheryl Iott, 2021
Although I haven’t read this one all the way through, it appears to have a lot of psychology and focuses on supporting good practice skills at every level.
Buy Thinking and Playing Music
If you’d like to join me in reading this book and maybe discuss it further, I would love that book club vibe!
Order this book on Amazon:
SHOP FOR Thinking and Playing Music HERE.
What Did I Miss?
And if there is a life changing piano teacher book I missed, please leave the title in the comments so we can all benefit from each other’s learning path!