Top Picks for Easy Piano Songs: Best Resources and Books

Learning an instrument is definitely a challenge. However, just like everything else, it is much easier to learn how to play an instrument like piano if we do so with passion and drive. Traditional methods have usually focused on only teaching beginners exercises and simple pieces that have no musicality and are of no interest to learners. 

This causes a lot of starting pianists to lose motivation and passion, and in a lot of cases even leads to quitting the instrument. Thankfully, we live in a world full of options and possibilities. Having access to the internet provides anyone that wants to learn piano with a close to unlimited set of resources and books that can be accessed and used to better the learning process. In this article, the focus is going to be piano song selection for beginners, and we are going to list some of the best online and book resources to find piano songs that are easy to play for beginners and learners.

Best overall online resource(s)

            After doing a lot of research though the vast selection of musical scores’ pages and directories. We decided to qualify two of them as the overall best ones for reasons that we will discuss in the following passages:

• In the first place (and most importantly), the sheet music selection that this two services offer is almost unlimited. Whether you are looking for classical masterpieces, new pop hits, jazz standards, or even contemporary and microtonal pieces, you can find them in these repositories. The extensive catalog of these two services ensures that pianists of all tastes and preferences have access to the music they wish to play. The score of basically any popular song or piece that has ever been created can be found in them. 

• They also offer a great versatility for all levels of students, as besides offering original scores, they also have a lot of adapted versions that are made to be beginner-friendly, which allows novice piano players to learn through playing simplified versions of musical pieces and songs they admire. This positive reinforcement can lead to a more enjoyable and consistent piano learning experience, by encouraging learners to progress to more challenging pieces as their playing level increases and their skillset broadens.

• Last but not least, these platforms feature some additional aids that are very useful, especially for beginners. By providing details such as fingering suggestions, tempo guidance, performance tips, and even accompanying tracks, they help students have the most comfortable and committed experience. 

Best free online resource

The next category is the best free online resource for finding easy piano songs and pieces. Our choice for this category is the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library. This online library offers an insane catalog of public domain music scores. This resource is very known among the musical community and can be a great option for those beginners seeking to find easy piano pieces without an additional cost. 

“What is the favorite website of a classical musician? Of course, it’s IMSLP (aka International Music Score Library Project, aka Petrucci Music Library)!”   ~ states Yuriy Leonovich (Doctor of Musical Arts, cellist, composer and conductor)

Notwithstanding, let’s dive in more deeply into the pros and cons of this platform to understand if it is really for you.

Pros:

• The first thing to consider is that this library has an incredibly extensive catalog of scores and sheet music, including a variety of easy piano pieces that are adequate for users that are just starting to play the piano and do not have a very advanced level.

• One thing that is very interesting about this page, even though it does not directly affect the finding of easy piano songs, is that it offers additional information on the pisces that it contains such as: historical and genre information and composer biographies, which promotes the learning of certain facts and aspects that might be interesting to many people..

• IMSLP has a vibrant user community that contributes to the collection, providing reviews and suggestions.

Cons:

• As it is a website that is provided for completely free to the users, the interface has not been updated too much as it would implicate a high cost, that premium contributors can not cover for. Sometimes navigation through the page can be not the most intuitive and fast and it can suppose a challenge The website’s interface can be somewhat outdated and less intuitive.

• The sheet music and scores are uploaded by users, and they do not undergo a thorough quality check process, meaning that the preciseness compared to the original music, and the formatting can be somewhat inaccurate or uncomfortable to read This causes users to sometimes have to look at multiple versions before finding one that is true-to-the-original or adapted well enough for pianists to play comfortably.

• Another thing worth mentioning is that the only music scores that can be found and accessed here are PUBLIC DOMAIN music scores. This means that a lot of the modern and popular song (especially the ones written in the last 50 years) are not accessible as they have copyright and author’s rights’ policies that do not allow for their music to be uploaded as public domain.

• Lastly, even though access is free, there are certain features that require for payment. Such as immediate access to sheet music (without a 15-second wait time), or access to the usage of their new GPT-4 powered chatbot that facilitates the navigation and search experience.

Best book resources

            After an extensive research on various books to find easy piano songs, we concluded that it is very challenging to select a single one as the best. Books lack the versatility of online platforms and include a limited number of pieces and genres. Nevertheless, we highly recommend any of the books in the “Super Easy Songbook Series” by the Hal Leonard publishing company. 

“Playing piano is now super easy! This series features accessible arrangements for piano, with simple right-hand melody, letter names inside each note, basic left-hand chord diagrams, and no page turns! Perfect for beginning players of all ages.”

This series features a collection of songbooks with very simple and novice-friendly versions of songs and musical pieces from a wide variety of genres and artists. The offered repertoire ranges from classical sonatas to Taylor Swift hits, including jazz standards and Latin essentials. This diversity makes the series an excellent resource for beginners, as it offers the opportunity to play any musical style they like while developing their skills.

To sum up…

            We are lucky to live in a world with so many opportunities. Thankfully for beginners there are plenty of resources out there to find easy piano songs that they can play and enjoy. There is an option out there for everyone: for the lovers of books and physical format, people who are looking for the best online interactive experience, and users who can not or are not willing to do an additional investment to access easy piano songs. So now that there are no more excuses, you should start your journey and learn the wonderful art of piano performance!