This is an introductory book to the piano, focused on those who want to teach another person to play. It has been written to help music teachers, as well as those who already know how to play, and would like to be able to play with family members and friends. The first moment in approaching an instrument is highly important in the process of learning to play that instrument. Although there is plenty of beautiful music written for the piano, there is little that is as beautiful for beginners (and for those who teach it).

In order to stimulate the beginner’s desire to learn, we need music that grabs that person, that stimulates the desire to repeat it – even to play it in front of others – yet without the difficulties that, from the start, can lead to bad habits and postures. I have noted the lack of such pieces for students at this level, and have taken on the task of writing these pieces for my own students. The results have clearly been positive, helping me to attain the desired result. Given the unanimous complaints concerning this issue that I have heard from other piano teachers, I decided to choose some of those pieces and publish them in this book. This effort is my attempt to contribute to the teaching of music – for which I have so much love, and which has given me so much – by making the first steps more enjoyable.

On the one hand, it is a didactic book. The pieces are easy to read, gradually introducing the basic concepts of music notation so that the beginner learns them while practicing. They are also technically easy to play and presented with a growing level of difficulty, such that the beginner incrementally adapts an efficient and comfortable bodily posture. This allows him or her to control the playing movements without stiffening up while avoiding unnecessary effort.

On the other hand, this is a music book that aims at making it enjoyable to play – to gather people around the piano, converting piano playing into a festive and familial occasion. It hopes to present the piano in its most playful aspect – at home or in class – and to create an empathetic atmosphere of wellbeing that makes learning as desirable as possible. Enjoying music provides meaning to the physical and mental effort that is applied. Playing together with someone from the start helps the learner to get used to playing and listening at the same time, transforming the act of playing into a communicative and sociable experience – at once entertaining and stimulating. This is an act that teaches the importance of cooperation, trying to do the best that one can for the achievement of a common good. It also helps to attain the highest level of vigour with the measure and rhythm (when joining with a non-subjective rhythm, something that is shared and beyond oneself – a pleasant place to be) and to inculcate the idea that stopping is the worst mistake one can make, that if one makes a mistake, the game does not stop there. On the contrary, the player must jump right back in and continue in the best way he or she can. “The show must go on”.

This book will prove very useful in schools, for beginners as well as for those at a more advanced level, for sight reading, for transposing (they can also play the accompaniments corresponding to their level), for those who are studying piano as a second instrument, for group classes with varying students and also for student concerts.

The easiest pieces can also be played by people with varying disabilities, given that they do not require a high level of physical ability, thus helping such students to integrate into the group and enjoy the music – something that is quite beneficial at the physical and intellectual level, as well as for their state of mind.