Piano Time 1 starts at the very beginning, with simple five-finger tunes for hands separately and together, many with duet parts. It gradually adds more notes and techniques to cover sharps and flats, simple scales and keys, and a range of dynamics and symbols.

Pauline Hall graduated from the Royal Academy of Music and then taught in schools and privately. Whilst living and teaching in Harrogate she felt the need for a piano tutor which made learning fun, and which progressed at the pace of her slowest learner. She started by writing little tunes in pupils' notebooks, and these formed the basis of Tunes for Ten Fingers; the Piano Time series developed from this.