Music to motivate beginners
Piano teachers are always on the lookout for new and inspiring music for their students, especially those at the earliest stages when establishing a solid foundation is of vital importance. Yet truly stimulating material can at times be a little thin on the ground. Which makes Pauline Hall's hugely successful Piano Time series, which has just been completely revised and updated, and Stephen Baron's Piano Explorer so warmly welcome.
From the outset, Baron's Piano Explorer series takes the young pianist (approximately Grade 1-3) into a world of musical discovery. Interesting both rhythmically and harmonically, the challenging pieces in the series (you need a confident youngster to play some of the trickier pieces in Book 1, for instance) offer an early insight into pianistic techniques from pedals and crossing of hands to unusual time signatures and harmonics. These books will most definitely, as the blurb states, 'awaken the ear and incite the musical curiosity of every beginner'.

Tim Stein, Pianist, October-November 2004

Stephen Baron is Head of Piano at the 'Colourstrings Centre' in North London, where he is in charge of a group of piano teachers being trained in this interesting system of education which includes musicianship classes in the Kodaly principles prior to, then parallel with, instrumental teaching.
Baron's four Books of original piano music include 26 solo pieces for beginners covering black keys, jazz idioms, whole-tone scales, a further 14 pieces with pairs in each of the modes, 10 Duets and six Trios for Six Hands as well as the novelty of a Duet Piano Concerto. Each book is earmarked for the use of piano beginners but, in reality, the range extends to about Grade 3 level. Baron certainly knows how to exploit the instrument and enlist pupils' enthusiasm with this stimulating collection of solos and ensembles which covers so many aspects of piano technique as well as developing aural awareness - the children learning to listen to their partners in the 'multipiano' repertoire. A most interesting and original collection, highly recommended to teachers in search of exceptional piano teaching material.

Piano Journal, Summer 2004

John York skims the cream off the top of a very full barrel
Far too much new and reissued material this time - I can only really dip in and point to the best whilst steering readers away from the worst. The very best, suitably for this months issue, is all in the pedagogic field and comes from Faber Music, Boosey and Hawkes and Nymet Music, all of these houses strong advocates of resourceful, entertaining and productive teaching material...
Nymet Music next - not yet one of those names that come to mind immediately but well worth investigating. Being smaller means their product gets less hype and costs more - that's only to be expected - but I'd recommend you check out Stephen Baron's series entitled Piano Explorer, four sets priced (vols one and three) £6.50 and (vols two and four) £4.99 - solo pieces, 4-hand duets, 6-hand trios, even a miniature concerto for the younger player, up to about grade three. All manner of contemporary thinking here, modal harmony, pedal effects, dissonance, melody, patterns, folk-song - a well-nigh limitless resource that should be tried out by teachers and pupils. It sets a standard to which other, bigger houses should aspire!.

Piano, May/June 2004

We featured one of Stephen Baron's duets in Piano Professional last year and Nymet has now published four books of similarly inventive pieces by him in the Piano Explorer series. Baron resolutely avoids the 'thumbs on middle C' approach, instead exploring the full range of the piano, using clapping, harmonics, uneven rhythms, pedalling, crossing of hands and various modes and styles to produce creative and attractive works for children (around Grades 1 - 3). The first two books contain solos, with the second using all the modes; book three consists of duets and trios, with melodic interest well distributed between all players and the fourth is an original 'duet piano concerto', cheekily attributed to Antonio Vivaldi Baron ... These books will encourage a more adventurous approach to both physical and creative aspects of piano-playing.

Pamela Lidiard, Piano Professional, September 2004