Guided tour of the Little Peppers – teacher's guide

Guided Tour Of The Little Peppers, by composer and teacher Elissa Milne, is a fantastic teacher's resource that supplements all five books in the Little Peppers Series. The guide outlines the sound pedagogic principles behind each piece in the series, including notes on its structure, suggestions for composition and improvisation, follow-up activities and repertoire. The accompanying CD comprises complete performances of all the pieces in the series – played by the author herself – and is an invaluable teaching resource. This guide is an introduction, not a comprehensive study, and it has been designed for teachers to tune into the areas that interest them most.

The Little Peppers Series provides both performance repertoire for beginner pianists and an introduction to twenty-first century techniques. The pieces in Little Peppers are designed to develop notational literacy, rhythmic sophistication and technical skill, while at the same time acting as a springboard for students’ own creativity.

The pieces in the Little Peppers Series were written for my young piano students, so each piece has a specific educational goal in mind. But just as important was the desire to write music that allowed young pianists to sound grown up and expert right from their earliest performances. The Little Peppers Series is also about giving students opportunities to craft their own musical responses to the world about them, and in this Guided tour I’ve included many composing, improvising, arranging and performing activities.