Simply Standards: 22 Most Requested Songs (Easy Piano) (Simply Series)

Stumbled upon this book as a "suggestion" from Amazon. Glad I bought it.The choice of songs is generally very good overall. The arrangements are generally also very good. While "simple" is a hard word to pin down, these arrangements are not "simplistic", so not for first year students. They are not "difficult" to play, but for players with only a year or so of lessons, these will be very challenging - which can be a good thing, as long as they understand this will not be fluid in just a few plays.As a teacher, I am always looking for good arrangements if I'm not creating them myself. This book fits many criteria in the way of providing a lot of good music both to keep these tunes alive, because they need to be, and as good tunes to learn for the melodic and harmonic content they contain.The arrangements themselves are not spartan, as I said, not simplistic. They are lush enough to sound very full once some degree of flow is achieved. Second year students will struggle a bit, but should not find these too far above their ability if they put in the work. Third year students will find them challenging, but well within their ability.I found only a couple arrangements to be "sub par"; I won't say which because this could be due to my taste, not the quality. The overall quality level of these arrangements is very nice. I would have no problem playing these arrangements in a party environment... or even a paid gig. Yeah, they can pass as quite usable renditions without the complexity of the "actual" arrangements, which are more dense in content.My one kvetch, as others have noted: the binding. Why oh why are they so reticent to use spiral binding for songbooks where you have to turn (multiple) pages? I'd have paid another buck if cost was an issue. As it is, I had to fold back the binding on virtually every page... and am still doing this a bit even after a few passes through the book. Eventually it will settle down.It makes me want to check out the other books in the "Simply" series.

Of all the piano music books I've bought this is by far my favorite. My history/skill level: I played piano as a child, then for 20 years didn't touch a keyboard until this year. I can pick up music fairly quickly, and so far have found all the easy books I grow out of too fast, or are just too simple (and sound simple when played).This book has some really delightful interesting and full sounding songs that are still easy to learn and play. I brought it to my piano lesson, and my teacher played a few of them for me, and he liked it so much he bought a copy.My only complaint (and reason for 4 stars instead of 5) is that the binding is just the worst! It's unusable the way it comes, and I've had to scan all the songs I want to play, so I can print them out again. It won't stay open unless I use clips, and then I can't turn pages and continue playing without considerable pauses. I've considered just tearing out the pages, and putting them in a binder, but I don't want to destroy anything accidentally.Overall I really do love these songs and arrangements.

Nice song selection and very user friendly arrangements. I would consider myself an intermediate reader and I can read thru and sound pretty musical from the get go. (I also have the gershwin book of the same series and it is a bit more challenging to achieve the same results)I really would have loved lead sheet style chords above the bars, but as it was not promised or advertised as such I will not deduct a star, however given the style they really should be there. I am writing handwriting them in, as I tend to play thru 1st time as written, 2nd time with improvised solo, 3rd time as written again. Just my $0.02. Perhaps the people who are coming to this from a 'sight reading/classical' background are not phased by this, I would expect anyone who has worked with a real book would want the chords there, so if you were wondering, they are not.Also, FYI, there are doubles between this and other books in the series. Summertime is in the Gershwin book (the only other of the series I own), but as of right now I like this version a little better (might just be that the key of D min fits pretty nicely on the staff, but also the bass part has a nice groove to it)Overall I am quite pleased with my purchase.

My wife love me serenade her by playing on the piano and singing. We have a Roland F-120 digital grand piano. I can change the volume, since I like it loud and she likes it soft. I even have head phones to play at night and I am the only one who hears the music. I played for her yesterday "Night and Day", :It Had to Be You", "Embraceable You", "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Over the Rainbow", and "When I Fall In Love". These were all easy to play and follow the words in the song. I did slow down to turn the pages and fold back the backing so the book would not flip over the pages, but still kept the music going. This book has 22 songs. Some of the other songs that I haven't played yet, because they are sad or other, are Ain't Misbehavin', Anything Goes, Bye Bye Blackbird, Cry Me a River, Forty-Second Street, It Don't Mean a Thing, I've Got the World on a String, Moonlight in Vermont, Moonlight Serenade, My Funny Valentine, The Second Time Around, Someone to Watch Over Me, Star Dust, Stormy Weather, Summertime, and They Can't Take That Away from Me. There are many songs to play. And you can play them over and over again and not get tired of them.

These are easy to play, yet sound nice. Most of them. A few have some weird sounding harmonies. I took a star off because these are all written for a soprano singer, so if you are trying to sing along, you would need to transpose them down, some as low as a fourth or a fifth if you are going for Ella Fitzgerald or Diana Karl type of sound. I am a contralto singer, have not played piano in 20 years. While it was easy for me to pick it back up, most of them if sung as written are at the higher part of my range, so I have had to transpose them down. If you are just wanting this to play, no singing than this is great!

But the layout and the Spine are hard work. Keeping a page open is almost impossible and turning pages just frustrating.I copy out the pieces I want to play.

Hi I'm using this book, but can't see the correct seller. I just got a refund email from Amazon, but didn't return itGreat book, if a little large in size of print. Prefer music on 2 or 3 pages max, but love the pieces.

First of all ,the songs are great songs.As an older learner of piano it is fun ,after scales and chord practice,to have a go at the Standards.And although it may be called easy piano one still has to work at it . That is were the fun is. Just great stuff.So ,if you like to learn a tune as well learning piano ,this book is SIMPLY for you.

Just what I had in mind. I studied to grade 4-5 in high school and now am a working professional who just wants to come home after work and play something pretty but not have to work too hard. This book was nice in that it doesn't have more than 2 flats. I really enjoy playing these tunes. My only critique is that the font size is quite large and I wish there were even more tunes.

... I'm an early intermediate player, and I think there are some nice arrangements in here. I particularly like Over the Rainbow ....