01
Begin simply
Start with the notes of the piano, simple rhythm, and the physical feel of finding your way around the instrument.
A 14-day piano method
Beginner to composer.
A bold, stepping-stone route into composition — taking complete beginners from first notes to a finished piece, a lead sheet, and the confidence to improvise.
Written by Ben Spooner and shaped with Hannah Spooner, the book combines practical musical progression with short vignettes and a strong visual identity of its own.
From the book
Musings from a Somerset punk
The method is practical, but the book is also personal — carrying fragments of musical life, memory, and creative becoming.
14
Outcome
Compose a simple AABBAA piece and improvise over it.
Format
14 chapters, one clear progression, one finished piece.
The book
A complete beginner's route into composing.
This is a piano method built around one simple belief: composition does not need to begin with theory-heavy complexity. It can begin with shape, repetition, variation, and a clear next step.
Across fourteen short chapters, the player moves from first principles toward composing a simple piece of their own — and then improvising over it using a lead sheet.
It is structured, encouraging, and intentionally human in tone.
Sample contents
Day 1
Ebony & Ivory — exploring the notes of the piano
Day 2
Slave To The Rhythm — understanding simple rhythm
Day 6
Take The A Train — creating the A section
Day 8
You Met Your Match — creating the B section
Method
Fourteen days.
Four moves.
02
Build shape
Move step by step through melody, chords, and form until an AABBAA structure begins to emerge.
03
Write your piece
By the end, you are not completing exercises for their own sake — you are composing something of your own.
04
Improvise from it
Finish with a lead sheet and a framework you can return to, vary, and keep playing with.
Inside
More than a workbook.
The book carries method, story, and visual character together. It teaches practically, but it also wants to feel like a book worth keeping.
14 days
A short, structured progression that keeps moving — each chapter doing one clear job before handing you on to the next.
Musings
Reflective vignettes run alongside the method, giving the book warmth, character, and a sense of lived musical life.
A designed object
Carefully written, typeset, and laid out to feel like a complete book — not a rough workbook or a stack of notes.
Buy
Begin by making music.
Beginner to Composer is for complete beginners, returning players, and anyone drawn to a more creative route into piano. Start with the book, work through the fourteen days, and end with a piece of your own.