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Joined: Sep 2013
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Hi everyone , so hmm I've been playing for almost 2 months and after I got a grip of the piano am going to start building a solid repertoire. My biggest obstacle is that I cant find motivation when learning a piece I dont like , and most of the pieces I like are intermediate or hard.My favorite composers are Chopin,Tchaikovsky and Debussy . Can you please suggest me some pieces or collection of pieces to learn that sounds similar to those composers or atleast from the romantic era (I know i will be doomed by saying this xD but I dont really enjoy Baroque music).

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hate to say it but.... you want step 100... you're on step 1.. still, yes. i've only been playing 6 months and im on step 1 lol


"Doesn't practicing on the piano suck?!?!"
"The joy is in the practicing. It's like relationships. Yeah, orgasms are awesome, but you can't make love to someone who you have no relationship with!"
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I'm going to agree with Sweet06, you are putting the cart before the horse. You don't want to try to keep a repertoire of pieces forever until you have progressed to the point where the pieces are ones you want to keep forever.

Now I can sight read simpler pieces as well as - perhaps better - I used to be able to play them after studying them for a while a few years ago.

Concentrate on building skills and repertoire will come if you want it. (I've also given up on keeping a repertoire because I just can't afford the practice time to keep old pieces up to scratch; but I can bring them back from the dead pretty quickly if I want to.)


  • Debussy - Le Petit Nègre, L. 114
  • Haydn - Sonata in Gm, Hob. XVI/44

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I agree with Andy & Sweet06 that you have to take small steps at the moment. However as I near the end of my first year the anguish I suffered in the early months is still fresh in my mind. The initial problem with learning piano is we have to constantly downgrade our expectations. This is an incredibly hard thing we are undertaking and we do have to concentrate on the basics otherwise we cannot build a solid foundation for the future.

However it is not all bad there is good material for the beginner so have a look at:

Essential Repertoire of the 17th, 18th, & 19th Centuries by Keith Snell. There is progressive levels of this book and each volume comes with a CD of the piece.

Joy of First Classics by Denes Agay is also worth a look.


Surprisingly easy, barely an inconvenience.

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Do you like building technique? If so, build your technique through quick-ish exercises, so that you can get to pieces you like a little faster.

If not, then what kinds of pieces do you like? You mentioned three composers, but Chopin's scherzos are vastly different that some of his preludes, etc.


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Take a look at Einaudi's stuff, most of his pieces are fairly easy to play, you might like it.

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The piano repertoire is extremely vast; it would take months or years of consecutive listening to hear it all so explore around for some easier repertoire you might like - I guarantee you there's material out there. A good start might be exploring graded lists and making note of what you like and don't like upon first listen. I've done this and, sure enough, after a few listen-throughs, I often end up liking the whole list! Here's a start:

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I have been in exactly the same situation than you and solved it this way:

I was in the library of a public music school and borrowed all(!) beginner method and beginner repertoire books they have had. One after the other, and then was listening by the accompanying CDs or by youtube systematically through them and picked my personal list of pieces. It was an intensive 3 month process in the end. With this list I was searching for my teacher requesting to build up my lessons based on my list, wherever possible.

Well, from the 10 books I found 30 pieces pleasing me. For my classes, we skipped 20 of them, because they didn´t add new value to the class but for learning to play have only been repeats of techniques already tought by other pieces, according to my teacher.

I first thought to anyway practice my other pieces, just for the joy of them, but found out that my skills improved and now I am already busy hunting for a new list of pieces at a slightly higher level. I guess it will go on and on like this wink .

I by the way found out, that if finding a usual book with usually about 40 pieces in it, I usually like only 3 to 8 out of them. A book which gave me more than 5 hits I thus called a good book. So, I became used to accept that when purchasing my own beginners books I will have to pay the book´s price for finally receiving 5 to 8 songs of interest. This usually calculates to roughly 2 EUR per song of interest, which I still find accetable.

I´ll now try to again sell some of them, because I progressed in my skills from beginner to early intermediate. Once you reach that level you will find sooo much beautiful music, that I now have found a progressive book series Vol-1 to Vol-3 from which I like 35 out of 40 pieces in each book. Enough material for years to come! If my taste will not change laugh . Of course, I also have had to put quite some effort to find those, but it is completly worth the effort.

You know, there is so much bland classical music around for beginners up to early intermediate level, that you indeed have to search for some perls. But there are perls out out there, also for that level! So, don´t allow to get frustrated but push yourself to go to some libraries and start your search for your personal repertoire list now!
Sorry for not recommending you any pieces, as you expected to find it in an answering post to your question. Well, my answer is to make you understand that it is YOUR taste, and you will have to go for YOUR personal repertoire list YOUR way.

The latter - the way you are approaching your piano journey - might even be the most important step, because you will hear a lot of interpretations and will find that it truly makes a difference to what extend you also go through some boring parts of practicing technical excercises with the aim of nicely getting your own tone polished. Some recordings out there do nail the correct keys at the correct time pretty well, but are not musical, are not alive. You do not only have to learn to get the fingers correctly touching the keys, but you also have to learn to get you ears opened for critically analyzing HOW you are playing. Your success at the piano will be depend on building up a really effective feedback loop: from your mind forward to your fingers to the keys and from the sound back to the ears to the mind.

I am pretty sure that the step from intermediate to advanced level will then be to even move on to the following, something which already as a raw beginner is desirebale to at least try to find, although not systematically to become accomplished:
From your soul by your fingers to the keys and the sound by your ears back to your soul.
I am convinced that there are many people playing at highly advanced level, even being professionals already, but didn´t find to seemlessly connect their sould into such feedback loop by now. And there are some beginners and intermediates who will never be able to technically go for advanced pieces, but their music is so full of soul that it is unbeatable good! You read enough, go the library now, and all the best to you and your piano journey!

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Derulux : hmmm mostly every chopin's Nocturne,Mazurka,waltz,polonaise,ballade(everything? XD)..and Swan lake,sleeping beauty,nutcracker suites of tchaikovksy, and clair de lune and arabesque for Debussy ^_^.
Marco M : I know that this is isnt what you meant but can you please tell me some of the books names if you still remember some ?

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On the long term, have a look at "Melodious Masterpieces" edited by Jane Magrath and published by ALFRED. That´s my absolute favorite series, especially as you can (separately) also purchase well recorded CDs accompanying it. Of course you would first go for "Book 1". But you might need at least a full year of intensive preparation in order to reach that level! So, isn´t much of help for you righ now, therefore I first didn´t mention titles.

Well, give me a couple of days and I will gather something from my personal list for you, which could be for real beginners the missing "Book 0" of that series, then laugh.

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Originally Posted by Firas Kordi
Derulux : hmmm mostly every chopin's Nocturne,Mazurka,waltz,polonaise,ballade(everything? XD)..and Swan lake,sleeping beauty,nutcracker suites of tchaikovksy, and clair de lune and arabesque for Debussy ^_^.

You have listed, even there, a very wide range of difficulties. A thought just occurred to me. Many of these pieces are very popular, and have "easy" arrangements. Have you considered this? Then, you can play a version of your favorites while you build up the technique needed to tackle the more difficult arrangements.


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Another vote for Keith Snell at Kjos.





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You want a copy of 'Fundamental Keys' by Rachel Jimenez:

http://fundamentalkeys.com/


It has SO MUCH GOOD MUSIC. It is worlds better than any other 'learn to play the piano' book I've ever seen.

It's all classical, too. Wonderful book, wonderful music.



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I love romantic music. But I have experienced that in order to play these wonderful Chopin or Debussy pieces it is necessary to develop technical skills. I tried jumping directly to this kind of music myself, but I realise that it was a big mistake.

I have found it particularly useful to play Bach. I'm presently studying some quite difficult Tchaikovsky pieces, but in order to be able to play them I also have to play some Bach every day.

Particularly I recommend two- and three-part inventions. Even these piees are quite challenging technically, but playing them helps keeping the fingers flexible, and also is excellent training for the ear. And after having played this music some time I really learnt to love it.

And before studying the great pieces like Ballades and Scherzi it is recomendable to play shorter and simpler romantic pieces. What about Grieg's Lyric Pieces. Some of them are just moderately difficult, but is a good step on the ladder towards more difficult stuff.


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Firas, you might find something you like in "Simply Classics Grades 0-1". It's a book of beginners' arrangements of some well-known classics.

You can buy it online at sheetmusicplus.com:

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/simply-classics-sheet-music/17333577

and at musicroom.com (which may be faster if you're in Europe):

http://www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/0436571/details.html

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You may also want to consider "Easy Piano Classics" by James Bastien. It contains many pieces from Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contemporary periods. Most pieces in this book are in their original form.


So much music and so little time!
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Originally Posted by LS35A
You want a copy of 'Fundamental Keys' by Rachel Jimenez:

http://fundamentalkeys.com/


It has SO MUCH GOOD MUSIC. It is worlds better than any other 'learn to play the piano' book I've ever seen.

It's all classical, too. Wonderful book, wonderful music.




I highly recommend this site also.

I would also suggest purchasing the videos that are available for the book.

This site will provide you will professional classical piano instruction with an option for personal lessons if desired.


Don

Kawai MP7SE, On Stage KS7350 keyboard stand, KRK Classic 5 powered monitors, SennHeiser HD 559 Headphones

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