pageants for piano

A METHOD OF PROGRESSIVE PIECES
FOR THE EARLY YEARS

Since the publication of the Pageant Series by Donald Waxman, thousands of students have learned to play the piano using this unique method that advances beginner students from their very first lesson to early intermediate levels. The books are traditional in moving very gradually to cover all the notes, rhythms, dynamics, articulation, and terms necessary for a solid foundation as well as developing skills of coordination, balance, phrasing and technique; all necessary for a smooth transition to the classical piano literature. The Pageant Series is unconventional in its harmonic and rhythmic language and avoids the cliches so often found in traditional piano method books in favor of an original, contemporary style. 

...The review in the London Musical Times following the initial publication of the Pageant series

Mr. Waxman’s Pageants for Piano is the un- method. The books do not look like or sound like traditional piano method books, past or present. The Pageants have a clean look. The pages are not cluttered with charts, definitions or gratuitous exercises. There is only the music and the witty line drawings of Alice and Martin Provensen. Mr. Waxman shuns I, IV, V chords in favor of a mildly contemporary language that perfectly suits the colorful and imaginative pieces. The Pageants is in many ways an American Mikrokosmos. I wish it had been around when I first learned to play the piano.
...Irwin Freundlich, former piano faculty, the Juilliard School

As long as I have been teaching, the Waxman Introductory Pageants have been my early-training backbone for beginners of all ages. It is as brilliantly fresh today as the day the series debuted. It is both thorough and flexible, giving the creative teacher tremendous freedom to tailor the program of study to the individual student. I use the more advanced volumes as recital and supplementary material and can’t imagine my studio life without these splendid volumes.
...John Lampkin, private teacher and composer, Suffern, New York

The Pageants series has been an important component of our pedagogical repertoire at the Jupiter Academy of Music for over 11 years. From beginning through intermediate levels the Pageants offer a firm foundation and a springboard for solid technique and musical performance. The pieces in the Pageants books, written in a contemporary style, are full of musical surprises, a constant source of pleasure for both teachers and students at the Jupiter Academy.
...Sandra Baran, Director, The Jupiter Academy of Music, Jupiter, Florida

When the Pageants for Piano series by Donald Waxman was first published, the reviewer of the London Musical Times predicted that the series would become a classic. That prediction seems to have come true now that the Pageants are attracting a second generation of enthusiastic piano teachers and their students. It is not difficult to understand why the Waxman series has gained such a loyal following. Pedagogically, the books move carefully in covering the basics of beginning and early grade teaching. The music is charming and highly original; and the illustrations, at once childlike and sophisticated, perfectly match the music. The Pageants are a delight to the ear and the eye.
...Robert Silverman, former Editor, The Piano Quarterly

The Pageants for Piano series by Donald Waxman is the most inspired and inspiring of the piano method books I have used over the past 35 years of teaching. Moving swiftly through the Introductory Pageants, my beginner students have consistently made rapid progress with the series at each level of advancement. The music and illustrations have always given my students and me much pleasure. The creative and imaginative pieces in the Pageants combined with the step-by-step organization of the series are awesome.
...Lucille Straub, independent teacher, Santa Ana, California

The Waxman Pageants for Piano is a delightful piano method. The pieces are charming and just modern enough to pique one’s ears and interest. I have used the Pageants series with great success for many years. The balance between the needs of teaching beginners and the maintaining of musical interest is perfect. Individual pieces such as the lyrical Peter’s Song and the humorous Dance of the Spider and the Fly are absolutely concert worthy. These books are a great treasure. I recommend them often and frequently hum the tunes.
...Bennett Lerner, Professor of Music and Lecturer, Payap University, Thailand

As a young teacher, I used the Pageants series extensively with my early grade students and here at the Manhattan School of Music, and I have observed their success in our piano pedagogy classes. The Pageants books achieve the same goals as traditional method books, advancing students very gradually in learning new notes, rhythms, phrasing and articulation; but they do so in a fresh harmonic and rhythmic language that is uniquely appropriate for 21st century students. A very important advantage of the Pageants series is that students who have completed the second and third year level books can move smoothly into the easy classic piano literature.
...Solomon Mikowsky, piano faculty, The Manhattan School of Music

In my 40 years of teaching piano, I have taught all of Donald Waxman’s pedagogical materials: the six basic Pageants for Piano books, the four Recital Pageants, the four books of Etudes and the five books of Exertudes. In all of these materials there is the same objective: learning the fundamentals of reading, rhythm, expression and technique by way of very imaginative and original music. For example, in the piece Giant and the Dwarf from the Introductory Pageant, the beginner student first learns the note E below middle C. At the same time the student has the challenge of playing alternating piano and forte dynamics (which students love to do). As well, the piece introduces a soft tritone, whose edgy quality suggests the mood of the frightened dwarf. Thus, at the same time that the Pageant books advance students pedagogically, they also expand their sound world.
...Carol Comune, piano and chamber music faculty, Westminster Conservatory of Music, Princeton, New Jersey

In the Pageants for Piano series, Donald Waxman has created a beautiful, fresh and fascinating language of his own, a language in which dissonant/consonant relationships so often enhance the music in an expressive way. In the Pageants pieces beginner students sound expressive simply by playing the notes on the page.
...Alan Mason, Associate Professor of Music, Barry University, Miami

The pieces in A New Pageant, Book 1A, the companion to the original Introductory Pageant, Book 1, are feats of creativity within a five-finger position. I have my favorites in A New Pageant, such as The Riddle, The Hammer, Signals of the Mohawks and Pageantry; however, all of the pieces in this introductory collection have their own unique and interesting characters while bringing new pedagogical elements to the fore.
...Zelda Jensen, past president, the Miami Music Teachers Assn.