If your students are anything like I was, they probably don’t beg you to learn a duet. And if you’ve taught them one before, they’ve probably complained about how hard it was. Duets can be challenging and because of that, they are very valuable for you to teach and your students to learn.
Here are 5 reasons your students need to learn duets:
1. Duets teach timing.
If their timing is off, the song won’t flow together. Instead, the two parts won’t sound like much of a song at all. Great tempo is everything in a duet.
2. Duets encourage interaction.
After each student learns their part, they will need to practice together. This changes up the monotony of a lesson and gets students learning together.
3. Duets teach teamwork.
Piano is otherwise a very individual activity. Duets require students to work together to complete a song.
4. Duets are impressive.
Audiences love duets (especially parents if their children are playing a duet together). They sound harmonious and are watching two students play in sync together is always an entertaining experience.
5. Duets motivate.
Students like challenges. And most kids don’t like the feeling that someone is “better” than them at something. Duets encourage each student to do their very best and motivate their partner to do well on their part too.
Here is a clip of my students playing the popular duet “Heart and Soul” together. I love this song and I love teaching it and hearing it played.
Here are some places to find other great (free) duet sheet music:
Happy duet playing!
The Passionate Piano Teacher 
online piano lesson
Yes! Hear hear! But duets don’t always have to be tricky. For a long time I have used the Alfred ‘Easy Classical Piano Duets’ with their five finger position, simple rhythms and both hands in unison to encourage beginners to enjoy playing.
I’ve never found any other books comparable to this and I needed more material so I started writing duets for my students.
I have brought out a book of eight of the easiest and most popular duets, two of which you can download free from my website. I’d love to hear your thoughts on these. The book came out last month so this is an exciting new adventure for me.
Best wishes
Rosa Conrad
http://www.rosaconrad.com/piano-duets