Alan Bullard

Joining The Dots Book 1

Joining the Dots offers pianists lots of material to help build confidence and skill in sight-reading. The series brings together a range of activities to help students improve their sense of keyboard geography, helping them to read new music more quickly and easily.

The five books cover the requirements for ABRSM's sight-reading tests at each of Grades 1 to 5, and include:

- many short, characterful pieces to sight-read, in a range of approachable musical styles
- warm-up and technical exercises, to establish basic hand shapes and finger patterns within each key
- simple improvisation exercises in which students can explore musical ideas and familiarise themselves further with the 'feel' of each key
- longer solo pieces and a duet, for additional sight-reading practice or to learn quickly and play through for fun