Jane Stavrinoudis

Dr Jane Stavrinoudis is an accomplished Australian musician, educator, composer, and examiner whose career spans more than four decades across performance, teaching, publishing, and arts leadership.

Since being awarded an Honourary Doctor of Arts, she has affectionately come known as Dr Jane. Dr Jane combines deep academic training with extensive real-world experience, holding qualifications in music and education as well as associate diplomas in both piano and violin.

Dr Jane’s work is grounded in a clear and consistent philosophy: to build learning relationships that are supportive, engaging, and accessible to students of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. As a piano and theory specialist, she designs fully individualised programs tailored to each student’s goals, whether they are beginners, advanced performers, or aspiring teachers. Her teaching integrates technique, musicianship, theory, and creative expression, while fostering independence, confidence, and a lifelong appreciation of music. Her aim is for every student—and every teacher she mentors—to develop the skills and understanding needed to become self-sufficient musicians.

Since 1984, Dr Jane has operated a successful private teaching studio, alongside her long-standing role as a piano examiner with the Australian Music Examinations Board. She has also contributed extensively to music education in Queensland state schools, where she established and led piano programs across numerous campuses, including programs supporting students with additional needs.

A prolific composer and publisher, Dr Jane has created a wide range of educational resources, method books, and digital courses for piano and music theory. Her publications span early childhood through to advanced levels and reflect her commitment to practical, engaging, and structured learning. These publications can be found at her website https://www.janestavrinoudispiano.com/ She is also the creator of The Art of Teaching Piano, an accredited professional development course for piano educators.

In addition to her teaching and publishing work, Dr Jane has held leadership roles such as Director of Music and founding director of multiple music education initiatives. Her expertise extends into music technology, online education, and digital content creation, where she continues to develop innovative resources and maintain an active online presence.

Dr Jane remains dedicated to empowering students and educators alike, combining creativity, structure, and decades of experience to nurture confident, capable, and independent musicians.

Grade 1

Music Theory Untangled

by Jane Stavrinoudis

This book offers a clear, step-by-step approach to understanding music theory concepts, making it ideal for both young learners and adult students, and any instrument.

Whether you're just starting out or preparing for formal theory exams this book is your key to mastering music theory with confidence and creativity. With its easy-to-follow lessons, engaging exercises, and practical answers, and video explanations, strengthen your theoretical knowledge.
The first chapter of the book includes concept sheets which has explanations for note and rest values to semiquavers, dotted notes and rests, direction of stems, simple time signatures, treble and bass clefs, tones and semitones, accidentals, rhymes and notes names, leger lines, key signatures to one sharp or flat, scale degree numbers, technical names, semitones in major scales, intervals without qualities, the three primary triads and their positions, transposing a simple melody, terms/signs and their definitions.

The second chapter has the worksheets to explore each concept, and includes a short explanation video, and online quiz and questions.

The third and final chapter has the answers to the questions in the worksheet.

A certificate of completion is included at the end.

More books by Jane Stavrinoudis

Music Theory Untangled

Grade 2

This book offers a clear, step-by-step approach to understanding music theory concepts, making it ideal for both young learners and adult students, and any instrument.

Whether you're just starting out or preparing for formal theory exams this book is your key to mastering music theory with confidence and creativity. With its easy-to-follow lessons, engaging exercises, and practical answers, and video explanations, strengthen your theoretical knowledge.
The first chapter of the book builds on the concepts explored in book 1 and includes concept sheets which has explanations for note and rest values to semiquavers, dotted notes and rests, direction of stems, tuplets, anacrusis, simple and compound time signatures, treble and bass clefs, tones and semitones, accidentals, rhymes and notes names, leger lines, key signatures to one flat or three sharps, working out the key of a melody, adding accents and writing a rhythm to verse, scale degree numbers, technical names, semitones in major and harmonic minor scales , intervals with qualities, the three primary triads and their positions, transposing a simple melody, form (Binary and Ternary), terms/signs and their definitions.

The second chapter has the worksheets to explore each concept, and includes a short explanation video, and online quiz and questions.

The third and final chapter has the answers to the questions in the worksheet.

A certificate of completion is included at the end.

Music Theory Untangled

More books by Jane Stavrinoudis

Music Theory Untangled

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