Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical What piano songs do teen girls like -- played by a teen boy?

HI there! first timer here.

my 16yr old son likes to play the piano. His teacher is absolutely ECCENTRIC but cool. He has basically learned classical music; his last recital piece was by rachmaninoff. (spelling??)

His friends have told him he needs to learn some pieces that girls will like. We have a 500-best-rock-songs book; but its basically a book with the lyrics, guitar chords and piano accompanist.

We are stumped on good songs for girls.

And where to find PIANO music, not accompanianst music.

Any thoughts? songs in the last 15 years? Have any of you had any success with this??

this forum is great -- glad to have found it.

~~from Omaha

I've had plenty of success, LOL.

But for teenage girls.... I have no clue, maybe Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, or Lady Gaga? (although they're getting old really fast). The other day I was on a train and the teenage girl next to me spend three hours singing along very loud to Jennifer Lopez on her iPhone.

But why not find some teenage girls and ask them directly? Music is weird, sometimes a really old song gets a really popular cover and becomes a hit again. You have to get the info directly from the public, IMHO.

YIRUMA!!!!

I know a girl (18yo) who plays the piano. She normally plays pieces from Musicals ("Show Boat", "Man of La Mancha", etc.)
, from Disney movies ("Hercules", "Tarzan", "Aladdin", etc.), and from "The Phantom of the Opera (2004)" (especially "Music of the Night" ).

Songs from the 60's, such as those by Simon and Garfunkel or by The Beatles can also be popular.

Movie themes can also be a good choice; John Williams and Hanz Zimmer (not James Horner, though), if you can find good piano arrangements.

Of course, different people like different music, so it's possible none of these suggestions are useful.

Kyle Landry has some free sheet music for the piano on his site. For everything else, I suggest Google.

I think girls like beautiful music they are familiar with and seem impressive to play. Kyle Landry has extremely impressive arrangements of Disney music and other kinds Disney has amazing music and great thought be hide it by talented composers. I also suggest some pop music covers that girls listen too except certain artists like Justin Bieber or somebody like that because that would be awkward lol.

One Direction.
Does he know how to play triads ?

I think the main thing is to play decently and to project some gregariousness. I don't think it matters that much exactly what gets played.

It probably helps to be playing what we love, whatever that may be. But mainly, see above.

One more thing: Don't play so loud that everybody leaves the room.

Google VKGOESWILD. Vika does transcriptions of Metal, Goth and Emo songs. She is a fully fledged Russian trained pianist. She has 400+ Videos on Youtube and you can get sheet music from her for a small donation. Many of her transcriptions are very challenging but there are some easier ones. If your son has been playing Rachmaninov, then this may well be ideal.

Depends on what sort of girl he's after...

Me, I'd stick with Elton John, The Beatles, that sort of thing.

I'll second the support for Yiruma and Kyle Landry.

Also, any song from the Twilight movies would be good. The popular show Glee features many modern songs, so that would be a good source too.

If I was a teenage female, I'd probably swoon for those youtube kids playing video-game music on the piano, like Super Mario Bros and whatnot, but overall I think your son would be happier finding a girl who likes Rachmaninoff.

If the girl likes the boy, it won't matter what he's playing.

Forrest

yes, i agree. My son has not figured this out yet though! these things take time to learn!

to: Hidden son of terry wilson --- thank you for this idea. the kid took a notebook to school and asked some girls what they like! twilight theme was mentioned, along with some very current pop stuff.

gotta give it to him, he's trying!

to JPDelmore: his friends say not to play the older stuff like the beetles. ??? but i like it and recognize it all . . .

AND: to Custard Apple: TRIADS are mentioned. I do not personally know what they are. Can you explain? and why did you ask?? is it related to chords? he does not do much chord work . . . but if you would point us in that direction he could figure it out . . .

thanks to all for the ideas. I think this summer he'll start building up his repertoire of songs and use youtube for ideas examples.

we appreciated your feedback!!!

Maybe songs featured on the TV show "Glee" would be good.

Hey there! Check some of these songs:
https://sites.google.com/site/learnpianovideos/play-pop-music-by-chords

These are aimed at that audience. Bruno Mars songs are particularly good...

100 Years by Five For Fighting
Clocks by Coldplay
Poker Face by Lady Gaga

Falling Slowly from Once
Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are
Yiruma

Removed post, and member

Dear F,

Somehow I don't really think you were worried about joining "this place".

So now we'll see if the mods think you were - particularly after reading all (currently) 3 of your posts.

At least you're on the radar.

Cathy

What does that mean? Radar???


Cathy if you couldn't tell there was some sarcasim in my post.