can u post the songs u are able to play, please. im interested. maybe just name the best and not all as the list gets too long then.
also add for how long you are playing. do you think when starting as an adult its too late to reach advanced level?

i start:

ballade pour adeline (easy version)
forrest gump theme (half way through)
comptine dun autre dete
the entertainer (easy version)
the fleewaltz
lady gaga medley
apologize

playing for half a year and i think yes, you have a big disadvantage when starting late and only a few are able to reach advanced level

I'm retired and been playing for five years.

Although it took me a long time to learn this, IMHO it is not about what songs I can play but improving my technique. Work hard on technique and the songs and speed will just come. All summer has been spent learning scales, inversions, arpeggios, broken arpeggios in twelve major keys, separating the hands, and blues scales. Chords and their inversions, which used to be the stuff of misery are now not a problem. The difference (improvement) in my playing in just over three months makes me smile.

My taste in music is boogie, blues, jazz, and rock. To name a few, I play Lady Madonna (Beatles), a very cool jazzy version of Mary Had a Little Lamb (from my teacher), Autumn Leaves, and Peter Gunn. Working on How Long Blues (Ray Charles), Summertime, Desparado (Eagles), etc.

Nothing wrong w/ starting later in life. Thats what I did. Don't worry about what level you are at or will reach. Just keep plugging away, hour after hour, week after week, year after year. Do the grunt work and the fun stuff will come easily. In another five years, if I keep up the hard work, I hope to have a very big smile as I play.

The c-scale =)

Welcome to the forum, Benjamin86. Yes, you can reach an advanced level even starting as an adult. All it takes is commitment to practice and lots and lots of patience. A good teacher will get you where you want to be sooner, too. My advice would be to focus less on the final destination and concentrate more on enjoying the journey.

As for repertoire, I can play lots and lots of pieces by Ludovico Einaudi and David Nevue and not a whole lot else.

you are really doing good for a year and a half.!! that comptine dun autre dete is really not all that easy.

I can play everything Monica can't. Problem is she can say the same!

By memory, I can play 2 pieces by Vinciguerra (Lila and Verde Smeraldo), Burgmuller's Candore, and I'm working on Doll's Complaint. Danny Boy I can almost do, but still need to work on it.
I have a few short Baroque pieces (Handel, Bach and Purcell) that I can get through fairly smoothly.
A couple of 17th C traditional pieces that are coming along.

Not a big repertoire, but it is coming along....:)

Hi,
I'm playing since December and I can play - all by memory -:
- Cinderella-A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Make (Disney)
- Enya - Watermark
- Scarborough Fair
- Everybody Wants To Be A Cat (Disney)
- Lion King - Can you feel the love tonight (easy piano)
- Attendant, Talle Sylvain.
- Edelweiss
- Pomp and Circumstance - 2nd Theme, by Edward Elgar
- The Entertainer (easy piano)
- Seal - Kiss From A Rose (workinig on this)

And no, I'm not a Disney fanatic , but my kids just ask me to play something they love, so... what to do?

Then I play my own pieces; just for fun.

Nice! This is high up on my to-do list. I can play "No Holly for Miss Quinn" and "Miss Claire Remembers" and love both.

By the way, my kids also ask me to play "Enya - Watermark". I think it's because Enya music is calm and relaxing. I love to play this piece.

+1

When I first re-started piano as a grown-up, I didn't know what to play either, so I looked up the most "popular piano 'songs' of all time" and found this:

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Top-10-Piano-Songs-of-All-Time&id=1934239
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The top 10 piano songs of all time may be more a matter of personal preference than anything. Ask any piano student though, and he'll likely name at least five of these 10. This list contains many of the "staples" of piano instructors worldwide:

1. Beethoven's "Fur Elise." Take piano lessons a few years and you'll certainly encounter this classical piece. Most every young piano student requests Beethoven's "Fur Elise" early in his or her career.

2. Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer." Joplin managed to capture audiences during an era when "Negro music" was still controversial. Classical musicians of the early 20th century would have balked at Joplin's name appearing alongside the likes of Beethoven and Mozart. Today, few would exclude this ragtime song from a top 10 piano songs list.

3. Pachelbel's "Canon in D major." Simply referred to as "Pachelbel's Canon," it often gets left off of favorite piano songs lists. That's because it was originally written for stringed instruments. Nevertheless, the piano adaptation is one that most every intermediate to advanced piano student plays during his or her career.

4. Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." Beethoven had one of the most prolific musical careers in history. It's little wonder that his name appears more than once on the popularity list. His "Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor" is probably more widely recognized by its common name, the "Moonlight Sonata."

5. Brahm's "Hungarian Dance." Brahm may be known better in mainstream culture for his "Lullaby." Every piano student learns both his "Lullaby" and the "Hungarian Dance." The "Hungarian Dance" typically refers to his "No. 5 in F sharp minor." The "Hungarian Dance" is actually a series of 21 songs. A great many of them were simply adaptations of existing songs. "No. 5 in F sharp minor" was one of a few originals.

6. Debussy's "Clair de Lune." This song appears as one of four movements in Claude Debussy's "Suite Bergamasque." The suite was probably based on Paul Verlaine's poem of the same name. Its soft, lilting sounds contrast beautifully with the rest of the suite's joyful parts.

7. Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." Ludwig van Beethoven cracks the list again with this song from his last complete symphony: "Symphony No. 9." It was unusual in regard to many of his works, as well as others of the time. It was based on Friedrich Schiller's poem of the same name and included human voices as orchestral instruments.

8. "Minuet in G." This familiar piece is somewhat controversial. It is historically attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, having appeared in Bach's "Notebook for Anna Magdalena." The book was a series of compositions dedicated to Bach's wife. The authorship of "Minuet in G" and another work was called into question hundreds of years later. Many musical historians now attribute it to Bach's contemporary, Christian Petzold. Controversy aside, it remains a loved favorite of pianists everywhere.

9. Mozart's "Turkish March." No top 10 piano songs list would be complete without a nod to Mozart. His "Turkish March" or "Turkish Rondo" is a difficult piece to play, usually only attempted after several years of piano lessons.

10. Billy Joel's "Root Beer Rag." It's fitting to include at least one contemporary artist in a top ten piano songs list. Billy Joel's career is often reduced to his influence on pop music. But soulful ballads like "The Piano Man" only provide a glimpse into his musical talent. Billy Joel is considered one of the most proficient pianists alive today. His "Root Beer Rag" is attempted by many advanced piano students. Most agree, however, that few execute this lightning-fast number quite like the master himself.
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I can play 4 from this list (2 of which are no longer memorized), but then became obsessed with Scott Joplin which has since delayed learning anything else.

"Nocturne" from the "Cold Spring Harbor" album is great but also harder than looks. I learned a bit of the beginning but realized I won't be able to play it smoothly or at tempo for quite some time so I'm not going any further with it right now.

I've been playing about 2 1/2 years with no lessons, erratic practice schedule and a piano with action issues. I've learned mostly bits and pieces of things but I can play 4 things all the way through.
"Martha My Dear" (Beatles) is what I can play best.
"Prelude in C Major" (Bach) not too bad, not great
"Latitude" (Elton John) fairly decent with some problem areas.
"Ego" (Elton John) quality varies widely from day to day. Every once in a while I absolutely, totally, completely nail this one perfect! I think this has something to do with proper alignment of the planets because its definately not my abilities. Most of the time its pretty choppy.

I've been playing for 1.5 yrs, a month or two more, and I can play:
Yann Tiersen:
Comptine d'un autre ete
La Valse d'Amelie
Watching Lara
La demarche
La noyee
Rue des Cascades

debussy - Clair de Lune (ok, still working on this one, but I'm through to the high register arpeggio parts allready

Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah (did my own cover, which I'm very proud of!)

He's a pirate - Klaus Badelt (I simplified the left hand a bit)

Danny Elfman - Ice Dance

Bella's Lullaby - Carter Burwell

Fairytelae from Shrek

Beatles:
Hey Jude
Let it be (both only the background, without the main melody)

John Lennon - Imagine (look above)

Yiruma - River Flows in you (I don't play this anymore, it's a really annoying song)

I'm sure that I've forgotten some, plus there were lots of bits of songs and pieces that I learnde.
Also, some I just can't play anymore...

I would love to hear your cover. Beautiful song and one of my favorites!

I play now for almost a year and I play musically Beethoven - Fur Elise, Chopin Waltz op 69 no2, and im now working on Chopin Etude op25 . no1 . But I am very sick these weeks so I hardly have the energy to play. Nonetheless I bought myself a Petrof 131 today ^^

Started by books and ear in around 2000 at the age of 28 on a little keyboard, bought a good digital piano in 2002. Played off and on. Could only play a few things, simple things, but enjoyed it. No experience in school band/choir but 1 year age 24 learning chromatic harmonic and sucking at it, and 1 year age 25 learning guitar and having soar calloused fingers and quitting.

I've had piano lessons for exactly one year now and I play the following, all of which I have learned this year except for one:

Linus and Lucy - original version. This took 3 months of 1-4 hours per day. It was very hard to get the fingers coordinated at the right time, but once it clicked the whole thing was easy. I played this at our Christmas recital last year and messed up the middle part due to nerves.

Maple Leaf Rag - original version... first 1/2 and I've been working on it for 1 month and hope to know the rest in another. This is relatively easy because it uses a lot of the same brain synapses as Linus and Lucy

The Way It Is - Bruce Hornsby. Original plus arrangements by me combined with what I've seen on Youtube. This is my favorite song to play because it is pretty and I can do scales and runs and improvise a lot and it always sounds great.

Dream Dream Dream - From a fake book. My first good sounding song I've played for about 8-9 years.

White Hoarse - Taylor Swift. I hate most of her songs but I play a version of mine combined with Calikocat from Youtube and I use octaves and tenths broken up and it sounds really nice.

Misty - An easy version. With some junk thrown in that makes it sound more like the original.

Life in a Northern Town - Dream Academy. Using broken octaves.

Heaven - Brian adams - Youtube tutorial plus my own junk.

Clair De lune - Just the first page original version.

Blue moon - Jazzed up version.

A few other pop and country songs from fake books and original sheet music, but not in my repertoire by ear/memory.

I find the easy songs in books take me longer to learn to the original version because I'm never motivated to practice them because they just often don't sound good or interesting. I play the above songs because I enjoy them and the friends and family all recognize and enjoy them after dinner or in a party setting in the background etc. I'll work on some classical at some point but never listened to it much and haven't found anything that inspires me to work at learning it.

Enya Watermark. I forgot about that song. I'll tackle that next. Thanks for the ideas! Can anyone post their version?

Whatever is on the sheets in front of me, given that it's not too difficult.

I would like to hear your Ballade Pour Adeline. I did that for the latest ABF recital (currently posted in a sticky thread near the top of this forum -- mine is #44 on the list of pieces).

Here are the pieces I currently have memorized and practice at least once every two days:

Inventions 1,2,4,8, and 13 - Bach
Sonata in C - Mozart
Fur Elise - Beethoven
Nostalgy - Senneville/Toussaint
Souvenir d Enfant - Senneville/Toussaint
Maple Leaf Rag (simplified) - Joplin
Swipsy Cakewalk - Joplin
Comptine d'une autre ete - Senneville/Toussaint
I Will - McCartney
When You Say Nothing At All - Overstreet
Georgia On My Mind - Carmichael
St Louis Blues - Handy
Little Prelude in C - Bach
Sonatina in C - Clementi
Sonatina in G - Beethoven
Imagine - Lennon
Angie - Jagger/Richards
Don't Know Why (Nora Jones) - Harris
Misty - Garner
Marriage d Amour - Senneville/Toussaint
Ballade Pour Adeline - Senneville/Toussaint
Gypsy Dance - Lichner
Let It Be - McCartney

Currently in process of learning are:
Invention #3 - Bach
Trill Blues, On-Off Blues, Happy Blues from Tim Richards Improvising Blues Piano Book

I've been playing 4 years and started playing when I early retired at 50.