Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Best way towards Einaudi?

I just listened to cgyan's Einaudi piece in this months Piano Bar, and I'd love to be able to play that kind of music.

My teacher teaches (almost) exclusively classical, which I really like. But I'd like to get to a point where I can play Einaudi's pieces as well. These pieces would fall in my category of 'for fun' pieces, which I practice alongside my assigned pieces.

What would be the best way to start with Einaudi and the likes? Any particular exercises, or a specific skill set one should develop before tackling a specific piece?

I'm not an expert, but Einaudi's music has lots of repeats of arpeggios and similar figures inherent in his music. So I'd say dive right in, pick an easier piece and get to work

I don't think it makes much sense to start doing arpeggio studies in C,D,G,F etc only to find out your favorite piece has endless arpeggios in Ab and Eb, which you could've practiced as part of your learning process anyway.

2 years of study with a teacher should be plenty experience to get started on Einaudi. Crucial techniques are clean pedalling and arpeggios, at least. There's a huge thread around that can give you some recommendations for starting pieces. And there's Monica, who's way more knowledgeable about all things Einaudi than me

Thanks Bunneh,

Up until now, most of the stuff I have played did not use pedal, so that's an area that will need work. Good to see the arpeggios, Solfeggietto which I'm currently practicing fits right in. My teacher doesn't stress scale and arpeggio studies as exercises of themselves, mostly I encounter these in etudes. Scales are something I do myself, after I was assigned some scales to practice a few weak spots (one hand dotted 8th + 16th, other hand quarter notes). So all in all I should be on the right track. Hopefully my teacher will support me as well (no doubt about it).

Yes, that's the way.
I think every piece of Einaudi has something different to learn. I don't have a teacher and I've already sended two recordings for the recital with Einaudi music (check the link in my signature). I can say that with the (little) experience I have I didn't found it difficult.

edit: Beware of pedal works. It realy makes difference.

Hi Oudeis,

strange to me to hear in two years of lessons you didn't learn to play with the pedal. I have started playing in Sept. 2010 because of Einaudi pieces, and I just did it by myself. I learnt to use the pedal in a couple of weeks, and I was able to play almost entirely "Giorni dispari" just by practicing in November.

I think with 2 years of lessons you should be able to learn it (or any other mid-leve Einaudi piece) in few days. As for the pedal, it is just an automatic thing. So automatic that now when I listen to a piano piece at my desk, sometimes my foot starts doing what it would do at the piano pedal independently of my brain

A.

Two routes for this goal ... have your classical piano teacher help you with Einaudi or learn how to play chords and actually understand what Einaudi is doing - a much quicker way!

Hi Oudeis, I'm absolutely delighted to see another Einaudi fan! I agree 100% with the others: You almost certainly already have the skills necessary to dive right in and start playing right now.

I recommend you buy the "Best of Einaudi: Piano Solos" sheet music collection (amazon US sells it for only $23). It has a huge number of pieces, and some of the easier pieces, in it. Start with "Limbo" or "I due fiumi." One of the things you will discover as you progress is that Einaudi repeats certain right-hand arpeggio and left-hand bass patterns in many of his pieces, so once you learn one piece, it can be easy to generalize to others.

But you've got to use the pedal, otherwise it will sound very sterile and, well, Just Not Good. With Einaudi, I pedal on chord changes almost always.

There is a big Einaudi mega-thread that seems to have fallen off the first page of topics, but you can find a link to it in the "Important Topics for AB Forum" thread stickied at the top of the page. It will take you a long time to read, but there are all sorts of helpful discussion in there including various people's attempted rank ordering of difficulty of the pieces, and lots of links to various YouTube clips.

Have fun! I don't think I will ever tire of Einaudi. Somewhat more depressingly, I may not be able to learn everything he ever wrote.

Thank you for all your comments!

@eweiss; I think there is a third way: let my teacher help me with chords and understanding what Einaudi is doing. We're currently working on chord progressions/cadences and some simple modulation techniques using these cadences, so I guess that forms the basis of the required understanding. I think my teacher will be very happy to help with that.

@Monica; I'll take a look at the thread you mentioned. I've seen it before, but never read it. And 'Best of Einaudi' is on its way

I discovered Einaudi's work just a few weeks ago. Very nice music Favourite piece that I would like to play eventually: Nuvole Bianche. I hope it is not too hard for a beginner. Does anyone know if there sheet music for this piece ?

Thanks

John

Yup! It's in the Una Mattina collection, but you may be able to purchase a digital copy of just that one piece to download (depending on what site you buy it from and where you're located).

The Una Mattina book is a nice one to own, too. I've played several pieces from it, and they're not quite as hard as what you'll find in Divenire and Nightbook.

Most of Nuvole Bianche is not that bad, and it basically repeats, but there's one section that will give you some real hand independence practice.

ah, that's one of my favourite too!
try here:

http://www.sheetzbox.com/piano/sheets/5365/Ludovico_Einaudi-Nuvole_Bianche_PianoScores.html

A.

Great! Thanks Monica Yes, the piece has a lot of repeats and that's why I thought it might be a good beginner piece. It would also make a nice transcribing project because it does not seem too complex. I've already figured out many measures on my keyboard. It would also be good practice to get used to Finale 2011 software.

John

Thank you Ashat, I'm over there at the moment.

J

Hey guys,

I have a question in a similar vein, and have mentioned it over in the Alfred's thread, but thought I'd ask here as it seems more relevant.

I have been playing for only one month ( just under).

I am working my way slowly through Alfred's Level One.

So I am VERY new at this. Spending a fair bit of time practicing, trying to make sure my posture and everything is correct as well as learning the Alfred's pieces. ( I even setup a web cam to video myself playing so i could check my own posture etc against some of the better players I've seen on YouTube and this site.) A teacher is not currently feasable for me. When I do get one they will need to be very flexible on time scales, as I travel a fair bit for a living, with no set schedules.

So back on topic, my inspiration for finally purchasing a Piano and trying seriously to learn the instrument has been the music of Einaudi. IT is stunning, and I can listen to it anywhere. When travelling, stuck on a cramped plane for 9 hours, just listening to it calms me no end.

To that end I purchased the Best Of Einaudi book of sheet music, and have it sat behind my piano as my inspiration and something to strive for.

So my question is, at what point should I open that book and start trying to learn the easiest piece? Would it be detrimental to my learning if i started it too early?

Should I do it when I can sight read? When I have completed level one or level two of Alfreds? When I manage to get a teacher a bit later on? Or should I start looking at it now, and take it very slowly and carefully whilst working on Level One at the same time, to help keep me inspired?

Any opinions would be most welcome. I have read quite a bit of the Einaudi mega-thread and there is some great information there, and some fantastic playing by members of this forum.

-Khen

Welcome to the forum, Khen! I can totally understand your passion for Einaudi's music. And I also understand your eagerness to start learning it. The question of whether to tackle a piece now, before you're "ready" (whatever that means), has been hotly debated here many times. Some say 'absolutely not; it will damage your technique or destroy your motivation.' Others say 'absolutely go for your aspiration pieces, even if you have to grind it out one painful measure at a time.'

I fall somewhere in the middle. I think it is important to work on pieces that you love, and I don't think that any permanent damage can result if you tackle a piece that's too hard for you. The worst that could happen, imo, is that you either put it on hold until later or end up playing it clumsily, and neither of those things are all that bad. I know that my renditions of Einaudi's music are nowhere nearly as musical as his, but it makes me feel *really really good* to play them, even imperfectly.

My advice would be to start with "Limbo." It's got a dead easy left hand, and a repetitive, patterned right hand. If you get nowhere with it after a couple of days, put the book away for a few weeks/months, but I'm guessing you'll be able to make good progress on it even with such a short time on piano.

Thanks Monica, will give Limbo a whirl for a half hour after my Alfred's practice tonight