Preface

Baylor Piano Basics is an open educational resource for experienced musicians who are beginners at piano. It is designed to support students through Levels I and II of the class piano sequence at Baylor University.

The book begins with an introductory unit addressing posture, hand position, and other fundamentals of technique. It orients students to keyboard topography and relates grand staff notation to the keyboard.

Units 2–10 comprise the heart of the book. Each unit includes musical vocabulary concepts (e.g., scales and chords), melodies to harmonize, excerpts to sight read, and repertoire for study. Units 2–6 present the material for Class Piano I (MUS 1131) and Units 7–10 present the concepts for Class Piano II (MUS 1132).

Musical materials for harmonization, reading, and repertoire study have been selected from public domain sources and composed by the author. Three new repertoire pieces were commissioned by the Baylor School of Music specifically for this text:

• “Variations on Dayung Sampan” by Chee-Hwa Tan
• “Hummingbird’s Gift” by Connor Chee
• “Crossing Over Jordan” by Leah Claiborne

The book concludes with appendices that provide reference images and videos for major and minor scale and arpeggio fingerings.