In twelve years of teaching group piano at four universities, I have used a range of commercial textbooks and online multimedia curricula. Each has excellent ideas and real strengths, and most share similar issues: high prices, one-size-fits-all pacing, and little room for popular music, improvisation, or game-based practice that keeps student skills growing at the keyboard between class sessions. And none of them can offer what matters most to students: a version that costs nothing. So I decided to build my own materials for collegiate group piano, and with support from Joyner Library's Alternative Textbook Program I am publishing them as an open educational resource that any teacher or student can use, with no piano strings attached.

The commitment is simple: students never pay for materials. No $100+ textbook, no semester subscription, no accounts, and everything is FERPA-compliant and protects student anonymity. All apps and games are free to play right in the browser, everything adapts easily to Canvas or any other learning platform, and all content stays available after the semester ends. Best of all, this is an evolving ecosystem, revised and improved every semester with student feedback.

The games and apps work as practice tools and as assessment tools for homework and quizzes. Most are MIDI-native: plug in a keyboard and they respond to what you actually play, note by note, so drilling fundamentals feels like playing music rather than clicking through screens. Each one targets skills from the curriculum at an individualized pace, so class time can go toward making music together, and the experiences range from solo drills to online multiplayer games.

This OER is in its humble beginnings. The pilot year focuses on building a robust ecosystem for the first semester of group piano, supporting skills from keyboard topography, sight-reading, and rhythmic fluency to harmonization, transposition, improvisation, composition, ear training, open score and transposing-instrument reading, and duet and ensemble playing. For students approaching their first year of study, these tools build proficiency and confidence with:

• Playing all major scales, arpeggios, and primary chord progressions with correct fingering
• Sight-reading short pieces in the most common key areas
• Harmonizing melodies and reading simple lead sheets
• Transposing melodies and chords into any key
• Improvising and composing short pieces of their own

None of this replaces good teaching. There is no substitute for a skilled instructor, thoughtful pedagogy, and the steady one-on-one work between teacher and student across a semester, and this OER is built to serve that relationship, not stand in for it. What it does is the heavy lifting on fundamentals, the skills that only grow through repetition and too often stay half-baked, by making that repetition fun enough that students come back on their own to watch their proficiency climb. It also automates the drilling and grading that can be automated, freeing precious class time, always scarce in a course like this, for the things only a teacher can bring: creative direction, interpretation, and making music together. Instructors who adopt these materials keep full freedom to shape the course their own way.

If you teach group piano and want to use any of these materials with your own students, you are welcome to them. And whether you teach or play, if there is a feature or improvement you would love to see as the OER evolves, email me at ginghers23@ecu.edu. I would love to hear from you.

1. Connect a MIDI keyboard. Plug your keyboard into your computer by USB before opening an app. Most apps use your real keyboard as the controller. That's the point!

2. Use Chrome or Edge. These apps run right in the browser using Web MIDI, which is best supported in Chrome and Edge. When the browser asks for MIDI access, click Allow.

3. Click Play and go. Nothing to install and nothing to sign up for. If an app is marked "Coming soon," it's being prepared for release. Check back, or watch for the link in Canvas.

Students in MUSC 1105: your weekly assignments in Canvas link directly to the specific app and mode you need each week.

Keys to Success: An Open Digital Coursepack for Beginning Group Piano is an open educational resource created by Dr. Samuel Gingher for MUSC 1105 (Beginning Group Piano I) at East Carolina University, supported by the ECU Joyner Library Alternative Textbook Program.

Everything on this page is free to use in the browser: no installs, no accounts, and no purchases. The apps and games here include everything students need for the course, and other group piano instructors are welcome to use them with their own classes.

Questions or feedback? Contact Dr. Gingher at ginghers23@ecu.edu.

Found something broken, or have an idea to make an app or game better? The Bug Squashers form takes under two minutes. You can stay completely anonymous, or leave your name if you would like. There is also an optional spot for your email if you would like an occasional note, a few times a year, about big updates and new releases, nothing else.

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