Piano method books and études

A first study book: short exercises that add one new skill at a time, from five-finger playing to quick scale runs.

Fifty short studies dedicated to young pupils. Most work one pattern, such as a scale or a broken chord, all the way through.

Twenty-five elementary studies with real tunes in them: legato five-finger playing, broken chords and a melody over an accompaniment.

Each exercise is eight bars long and works on one figure, so a student can focus on a single skill at a time.

Short character pieces with titles, each built around one technical idea, from smooth five-finger playing to quick repeated figures.

Finger exercises from Hanon's method, first published in Boulogne in 1873. Parts I and II run each pattern up the keyboard and back with both hands an octave apart, then turn to the thumb, scales and arpeggios. Part III adds repeated notes, trills, thirds and octaves.

Short dances from the Bach family notebook of 1725. The two minuets in G major and G minor are now credited to Christian Petzold, and Anh. 122, 124 and 125 are usually attributed to Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel.

Schumann wrote these 43 pieces in 1848 for his children. The first part, Nos. 1-18, is meant for younger players.

Twenty-four short pieces, from a morning prayer to games, dances and songs from several countries.

Small classical sonatas: a clear melody over a simple left hand, and a first look at how a sonata movement is built.

Often the next sonatinas after Clementi's Op. 36, in the same classical style.

Studies for speed and evenness: long running passages that stay light and steady at a quicker tempo.

Bach wrote these fifteen pieces to teach playing two independent voices, one in each hand, with a singing tone.

Bach dated this book 1722 and wrote it for students and for players who already knew the craft. It has a prelude and a fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys, rising from C major to B minor.

A second set of 24 preludes and fugues, put together about twenty years after Book I, around 1742 in Leipzig. It goes through all 24 keys in the same order.

Fifty advanced studies, each headed with the skill it trains, from a quiet hand with busy fingers to passing the thumb under at speed.