Graded Keyboard Musicianship provides graded and integrated exercises for developing five core skills at the keyboard: figured bass, score-reading, transposition, harmonization, and improvisation. Book 1 assumes keyboard ability of Grade 1 ABRSM standard and covers up to Grade 5, while Book 2 covers Grades 6 to 8.
There have been many keyboard musicianship tutors over the years, and here now is one for the 21st century. The areas covered are not new - the core skills of figured bass, score-reading, harmonizing, transposing and improvising remain as ever. But the language used, the examples chosen and above all the structure of each book are imaginatively rethought. The eight levels, corresponding to ABRSM grades and therefore ranging from pre-grade 1 to pre-diploma, have five lessons in each, and each lesson includes the five skills - presented in an integrated way. So, as each key is introduced, the transposing and harmonizing examples utilize these, leading at the end of each lesson to improvising exercises derived from the preceding tasks. The structure makes the books suitable for private as well as directed study, and either used alongside conventional organ or piano lessons, or as an intensive keyboard musicianship course.