No matter what’s going on in the world, three things reliably come around every year: Birthdays, dentist check-up reminders, and Christmas!

Around November and December, the usual calm serenity of Schott London grows to a hubbub of excitement – occasionally tinged with that present-buying-panic! Should this crisis ever hit you, you’ve come to the right place.

This blog series compiles together lists of the most common questions we get asked by mystified gift givers who come to our shop. This guide was collated by the Schott London team, and we hope it’ll inspire you to find the best gifts for the musical people in your life.

So make a cup of tea, and sit down with me while I help you de-stress. This page will be for the piano playing kids and teenagers in your life. 

For the kids

For the little one just starting to learn the piano, you can never go wrong with John Thompson's Easiest Piano series. There's a 4-part course to learn with, plus loads of additional themed books filled with tunes they already know and love. We've been reccomending John Tompson's series for years and it's been a long-standing staple 'first piano book' for toddlers.

The Me and My Piano series is also brilliant, with a 2-part teaching course and some additional books to expand kids' repertoire. All of them come with beautiful hand-drawn illustrations, adding a really lovely touch. 

For the pre-teens and/or teenagers

For the slightly older one who already knows a thing or two about the piano and likes playing fun tunes, we have the Really Easy Piano series. This covers a massive range of songs, all arranged for easy piano: from Disney to James Bond, Abba to Taylor Swift, Mozart to Rachmaninoff and other classical favourites. 

They also might enjoy playing some of the pop albums, musicals and films they love listening to arranged for easy piano. These include Taylor Swift (her most popular for easy piano being folklore and Lover), Six, Wicked, Harry Potter, Frozen and even video game music. 

Then there's the slightly older one who might be a little stuck playing the same pop songs over again, and whom you want to introduce more classical music to. The Classic Experience for easy piano is a fantastic collection of very recognisable tunes from famous pieces of classical music, all arranged for easy piano. It includes the likes of Debussy's 'Clair De Lune', Puccini's 'Nessun Dorma', 'Jupiter' from Holst's The Planets, and Tchaikovsky's 'Romeo & Juliet'. The Classic Experience series also extends to other instruments in the same fashion. 

There's the Classical Piano Anthology that brings players through the Classical period in progressive order of difficulty from grade 1 to 8. The Romantic Piano Anthology does the same for the Romantic period. These are pieces that aren't necesserily on any graded syllabi but they're good for developing skills between grades, expanding players' knowledge, and gently introducing them to more classical music.

Tip: Series that progress in order of difficulty are a great way for students to explore and play pieces outside of their exam syllabi but along a path that they recognise. And if the first was a successful gift, it gurarantees an easy decision on a follow up present next year!

Melanie Spanswick has also created a gorgeous Graded Anthology series exclusively devoted to music written by women composers. This is a three part series that also follows a progression of difficulty. The books all contain small biographies introducing the composers and their work, as most are criminally underappreciated and much lesser known than their male contemporaries. This is one of Spanswick's amazing contributions to recalibrating the gender imbalance in classical music. 

For the teenagers

For the older ones who are stretching their legs and playing more intermediate-advanced pieces, there are some great collections that contain loads of repertoire standards for such levels. The ones we love and always reccomend are: Schott's Best of Piano Classics, the Faber Music Piano Anthology, and the Giant Book of Classical Sheet Music. 

Tip: try to notice if they've been gravitating towards certain styles of music, or talking passionately about specific artists or composers. It's always an amazing feeling when you can tell the person who gave you a gift has really paid attention to your passions. And if you don't know what they like yet, there's no harm in asking!

Henle's At The Piano series is great way of getting to know famous composers and their musical style. The books each contain a selection of a specific composer's work in progressive order of difficulty. Within the books are small biographies about each of the pieces, giving context to the work within the composer's catalogue and its historical context, as well as descriptions and performance notes for each piece. 

The pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason (whom some might recognise as the eldest of the incredibly musical and inspirational Kanneh-Mason family) has compiled lots of insightful piano pieces she loves into 2 volumes called Piano Inspiration.  The books are catergorised into grade groups for ease of use: grades 4-6 (intermediate) and grades 7-8+ (advanced). Both volumes contain classics from Bach, Chopin and Rachmaninoff, as well as underappreciated works by the likes of Beach, Lutosławski, Price and Desplat.

For the teenagers you want to impress (that you know their favourite pop artist), we regularly stock the big hitters of the current popular music industry. We think one of the best collections of pop music can be found in The Faber Music Pop Piano Anthology. It contains an inspired collection of the best songs from the likes of Florence + The Machine, Madonna, Stormzy, Kylie Minogue, Justin Bieber, Loyle Carner, Tori Amos, RAYE, Radiohead, the list goes on! 

The first name that almost always comes up is Taylor Swift, the only artist who's music routinely sells by the album: Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, Reputation, Lover, folklore, evermore, and The Tortured Poet's Department are all available in our shop. Each album is a self-contained pocket of musical themes, stories and expressions, giving hyper-specific identities (and fanbases) for each of her musical 'eras'. Her latest has smash hit, The Life Of A Showgirl, has been released to much excitement. 

Olivia Rodrigo has been making waves since her debut, Sour, and is a big hit with young girls for her relatable and confessional lyrics. Her latest hit Guts further proves her impact and musical capabilities. While Billie Eilish's first album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?  was a massive success, her latest and beautifully devastating Hit Me Hard And Soft album had a big impact on young listeners. 

If the teenager in question has been known to buy a feather bowa and/or cowboy hat at one stage, chances are they attended Harry Style's 'Love On Tour'! And there's an even bigger chance they'd appreciate a copy of his most recent album, Harry's House, so they can recapture the magic in their own home. Sabrina Carpenter's album Short N' Sweet broke records with the infinitely catchy singles Espresso and Please, Please, Please. Chappell Roan's iconic debut album, The Rise & Fall Of A Midwest Princess, brought a much needed sparkled breath of fresh air to the industry, and with it came a passionate fan base. The sheet music book also contains her subsequent hit single Good Luck Babe! Browse all songbooks

For the teenager who plays both video games and the piano, Hal Leonard have been releasing video game music arranged for the piano. The most comprehensive collection is The Greatest Video Game Music (remember the easy piano version also available), but we also stock the music to the popular video games Final Fantasy and Minecraft. 

For the teenager always streaming films and TV shows, the best collection we've come across is Patrik Pietschmann's Movie & TV At The Piano collection. The German YouTube star, famous for his piano arrangements of famous musical moments from film and TV, has compiled the favourites into one book. It is currently the only book that contains Hans Zimmer's iconic (and now viral) 'Cornfield Chase' from Interstellar. See for yourself - along with 105 million other viewers!

If you haven't seen anything on here that fits the person you're buying a present for, make sure to check out the rest of this blog series where I explore in more detail what different people are often interested in and what makes a good musical present. From jazz pianists to opera enthusiasts, from Jane Austen fans to musical theatre singers, from chamber musicians to composers, I try and cover as many different kinds of musicians as possible! 

And if you still can't find the perfect gift or have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to send us an email, ring us, or come to the shop and say hi and we can help you personally. 

Happy shopping!