Florence Price: Music Teacher

Florence Price taught piano for most of her adult life. Because she was a composer, it’s no surprise that she wrote music for beginning piano players.

Reportedly, there are two volumes of beginner piano music. The pieces range in difficulty from beginner to more advanced beginner. Some pieces are only a few measures long. Many give limited musical directions, allowing the teacher to customize them for each student’s needs. Most are complete musical compositions that don’t sound like a learning exercise.

If this is true, why are so many beginner piano books filled with boring, barely-musical exercises? I’m not a pianist, but the description of these volumes makes me want to own them.

According to musicologist Samantha Ege, there are many works by Price that are yet to be published. I wonder what teaching pieces are hidden in these archives?

Based on the description of the music in the Beginning Pieces volumes, maybe one day a piano studio will give a recital where each student plays a Florence Price composition. I think I’d like to hear that.

Sources
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“Florence Price Biography” by Randye Jones on Afrocentric Voices in “Classical” Music. Accessed 2023, August 31. 

“Florence Price: Composer, Teacher…” by Elizabeth Busch on The Catoctin School of Music. Accessed 2023, August 31.

“Florence Price: Forgotten Work…” by Mark Savage on BBC.com (2021, March 8). Accessed 2023, August 31.

“Florence Price’s Piano Teaching Music” by Dr. Lillie Gardner on Music by Women (Winter 2022). Accessed 2023, August 31. 

“Florence Price, Teacher,” by Michael Cooper on Linkedin (2020, August 17). Accessed 2023, August 31.