Review: Venturing Beyond

While searching for suitable repertoire for several of her older beginning students and realizing that the literature she was seeking was not available, Nicole DiPaolo developed the pieces that make up, Venturing Beyond.

Venturing Beyond is a collection of Baroque, Classical, and Romantic-style compositions in uncommon keys for late novice to early intermediate pianists of all ages. The collection includes 10 pieces written in sharp keys and 10 pieces written in flat keys.

Nicole was looking for musically rich, yet listener friendly repertoire with very modest technical demands. Because many of her beginners had previous experience with other instruments she wanted pieces in various tonalities that would challenge their already strong reading skills.

In 2013, Nicole began her present collection and received positive feedback and encouragement from her teenage/adult beginner students to continue. In 2014, Venturing Beyond was officially published.

It was a pleasant experience playing through the Venturing Beyond collection. The collection is true to the Baroque, Classical and Romantic style of compositions. I always appreciate it when a collection of music includes notes from the composer on each piece. I think it is very helpful to know what the composer had in mind when they wrote a piece. Nicole gives a brief background on how the piece should be played and also includes the skills that are used in this piece. This is especially helpful for teachers.

I included a sample of a few pieces so you can get a feel of the level of this collection. All the pieces in Venturing Beyond begin with 3 or more sharps or flats.

Please take a moment to visit Nicole’s website here.  Venturing Beyond is available for your students to enjoy by purchasing on SheetMusicPlus.

Nicole has graciously offered all my readers a free copy of two pieces that she has written that did not quite make the collection. You can download Prelude in G and Waltz in F# minor at the links below.

Prelude in G-N.DiPaolo

Waltz in F#minor-N.DiPaolo

In addition Nicole is giving away one copy of Venturing Beyond to a lucky teacher! Thank you Nicole! To enter, please leave a comment below. Deadline to enter is by this Tuesday, July 29th, 10:00pm (AZ Mountain Standard). For an extra entry, follow me on TPT and just leave a comment that you follow. GIVEAWAY HAS EXPIRED

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