Piano music for boys | 15 of the best pieces by Daniel McFarlane

Piano Music for Boys

Finding motivating piano music, especially for beginner and intermediate teenage boys, can be difficult. Thankfully, there are a number of composers writing really good music for this demographic around the world. I’ve already blogged about Jo Kochie and Geri Rea; today’s profile is on Brisbane-based composer/teacher Daniel McFarlane, who offers readers of dev.topmusic.co a special offer on his music below.

I’ve been a long-time admirer of Daniel McFarlane’s music. He has an uncanny ability to write catchy, interesting pieces based on simple musical motives and progressions. I’ve found his music has endless appeal in my studio whether students are beginners or advanced, old or young.

Best of all, his digital subscription service means that with an inexpensive yearly subscription, you not only get full access to all his music, but you Multiple Copy Licence which allows you to print as many pieces as you need for use in your studio for a year. In addition, digital subscribers get 50% off any of his printed books if you prefer bound hard copies.

How could you go wrong?

Why does Daniel’s music appeal to boys?

Daniel’s music is especially appealing to boys. In my high school teaching role, I take on many 12/13 year old male beginners who need music that looks and sounds as ‘cool’ as possible if they want to keep motivated through the next 4 – 5 years of high school. In my experience, teen beginners often have the hardest time learning piano. They want to play exciting popular music that their friends will appreciate (and be awestruck by!) but usually don’t have the technique or reading ability to back it up for a number of years. This is where Daniel’s pieces are real pupil-savers.

His music appeals to boys because it:

• Often looks and sounds harder than it is,
• Has very rhythmic and repetitive themes, often low down in the bass,
• Sounds just like film and pop music,
• Uses a wide range use of the piano, and
• Involves big-sounding chords and arpeggios that create a full and thick texture.

Where to find his music

Daniels music is available via a digital subscription or in print at supersonicspiano.com.

The digital products on my site are available with two licenses – “single print” and “studio licensed”. A “single print” is for your own personal use or for the use of a single student. “Studio licensed” pieces and books can be used with as many of your students as you like forever! (Full terms are detailed here.) Thank you for being a great teacher and supporting my work on this website by purchasing the correct license.

If you have purchased any “single print” pieces or books in the past and would like to upgrade (you only pay the difference between the two prices) you can do so here.

I believe that the Studio Licence is going to be the way of sheet music publishing in the future. We all know that music gets scanned, copied and shared around. While most publishers ignore or fight against it, Daniel has accepted the reality and decided to work with it. It is similar to the massive change that happened when Apple started selling individual track downloads on iTunes rather than physical CDs – the music industry’s income model changed forever.

The ability to print multiple copies of pieces is brilliant for those teachers working to increase the amount of repertoire their students play. It’s also great material for sight reading. Best of all, as the music is available as PDFs, you can upload it straight to your iPad without breaking copyright law by scanning!

If you’re interested in reading more about digital publishing, check out my article Finally! Digital sheet music copyright is starting to make sense. It will be interesting to see how this field develops in the coming years.

My top 15 piano pieces for boys by Daniel McFarlane

Here’s a summary of the pieces previewed:

• Supersonics Reloaded Level 1: Going Undercover, Fortress, Winter’s Day
• Supersonics Reloaded Level 2: Truckin’, Urban Beat, Loneliness, Nitro
• Supersonics Reloaded Level 3: Gidget Fights Back, Dominator (missed these in the video!)
• Supersonics Reloaded Level 4: Somewhere Beyond, Out on the Town, The Chase, First Strike
• Soundwaves: Monsoon, Mist

Remember that you can access 12 of his pieces for free just by becoming a subscriber to his mailing list at supersonicspiano.com!

So, what’s your favourite piece of by Daniel? What pieces have you been using in your studio?