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Hi
I am a retired programmer having had music interest and recording my own stuff forever.
Basically most fluent on guitar, but cheat on piano and other instruments a bit to make a mix work in computer.

Looking for best way to raise piano many notches, and found pieces that I really like and care about as intermediate goal and exercises of course - is the way.

But don't sight read or at all can comprehend if one piece is fun by reading in a book, I look for books with audio samples to hear how they are supposed to sound.

And don't trust my reading in the sense to get frasing perfect as written, so audio would be good guide.

I heard a short piece here - and thought, yes, this I would like to learn.
https://youtu.be/y3v8glHW6i8

From the book Easy classic to moderns, vol 17.
Takatina by Kabalevsky was the one that hooked me, as one example.

So hearing them, you quickly discard those that are not that interesting.

Are there audio where these are played to tell this is how they should sound.
Does not need to be free, I ordered the book above and can order audio too.

Thanks.

Try searching for composer and title on YouTube. There is a lot there, of varying levels of mastery, so please listen to more than one before discarding! Here is Kabalevsky’s Toccatina (or did he do more than one? You can tell by “Opus X, No. Y”)’:
This is from a series, played by music professors, of pieces in Denes Agay’s book “Music for the Millions.” Agay is also the person who put together the book you mentioned, “Classic to Moderns” (great choice by the way!), so there are probably at least some of the pieces in your book in this series of YouTube videos. There are many video recording of the pieces from the Martha Mier books (Blues Jazz and Rags), mentioned by Josh Wright in notes to the video you linked.

And in case you were wondering: it is never too late! I started piano lessons in my mid-60s and I love it. Get a teacher and go for it!

Really good input, thank you.
Will try and search for Opus and No.

And can't thank you enough for encouragement. Yes, really nice to do life long hobby full time and raise the bar a bit.

One cool lady is Nahre Sol, many types of relevant exercises.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwQci1cRiFU&list=LLkfiIqVBjtIA2OgVtN9RoGQ&index=5&t=0s

Yeah I wish for that fluency....

I love her channel, and have been a subscriber for many months now!

Nip
The channel from which the Toccatina recording was taken (post above) is an outstanding source for recordings, as they are all done by professors at the Univ of Iowa. You might want to bookmark that site.


https://m.youtube.com/user/UIPianoPed

How lovely, thank you. Bookmarked...

I'm back to piano after long-long-long break and was also looking for something with audio as I found it helpful to use my ear as well as sight read.
Here is something I'm enjoying going through:

https://practisingthepiano.com/burgmullers-25-easy-progressive-studies-op-100/

Pieces are page long each, essentially exercises, but with lots of character and dynamics and some one them are quite fun. I found this youtube channel very helpful, this is example from this book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXs6qoLCuiw

I discovered that many pieces from books from the Schirmer Library of Classics can be found on youtube as it is popular source of study material for students.

Thank you, really useful.

I took lessons 3rd and 4th grade and then bailed out. Teacher killed any interest. Then came Beatles/Stones and guitar was the thing.

This nice little thing you link to feels at least like a piece worth working at. Nothing from one week to the other to perfection, just worth striving for. As scales progress being smoother this piece will benefit too and that kind of approach.

I wished piano teacher at that time had this approach too.

Here is an opposing, no doubt unpopular, point of view, perhaps based on the fact that I received my musical "training" long before there was an Internet and before YouTube with its superb, good, mediocre and terrible performances.

Perhaps, too, I have a different sense of what it means to "learn" a piece.

Learning a piece initially comes from understanding what is written on the page and how that writing transfers to playing. Learning "how a piece is supposed to sound" from a recording is not learning, per se, it is simply copying. While copying may help us achieve the immediate goal of playing something, it doesn't help us understand the "why" of a performance.

Time is better spent, in the long run, learning to read music so that when it comes to looking at a piece and trying to decide if it has potential, one will be able to do so without the help from someone on Youtube. One will be freed from the Internet crutch and will be able to approach anything within one's grasp, a grasp that will continue to expand as the learning progresses.

Of course this takes time and effort both of which are greatly aided by instruction from a good teacher.

Regards,

P.S.

There is a trend in the publication of examination music syllabi to include a CD performance of each piece in the publication. It seems almost an excuse to raise the cost of a collection of pieces. Why should a student, preparing for an examination, "need" a CD of the pieces s/he is preparing for the exam? Has s/he not learned what needs to be learned from the score?

As I use my cane to help push my rocking chair, I mutter: "What is this world coming to?"

Regards,

I use the RCM curriculum books. Grade 1-10. They come with a code to download the recording of songs after you sign up for their site. I don't like the CD with the Alfred books. They all use a bunch of instruments beyond the piano.

Thank you, I'll check it out.

For the "Melodious Masterpieces" by Jane Magrath (published by Alfred Music) very good CDs are available, but have to be purchased as separate items, for instance here: http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/melodious-masterpieces-book-1-sheet-music/4079360 . There are 3 books in the series and accordingly there are 3 CDs for which you would have to look out for.

That looks great, thank you.

I found what I think it is the same with book and cd. A newer version they call Premier Piano Exoress released 2016 as well.

I think they know I am in a hurry by now LOL

I spell like a crow - Premier Piano Express: All-in-one Accelerated course - was the name of three books. Each 96 pages and much cheaper than the others needing several books.

Really nice to just listen to CD and
- yes, that is a fun piece and not too difficult

The "Premier Piano Express: All-in-one Accelerated course" you are mentioning has nothing in common with "Melodious Masterpieces" which I was mentioning. I therefore am sure that you actually did not want to refer to what I wrote about and it might be better to edit your post and remove the qoute to my suggestion (I could then also remove this comment again).

Sorry about that - only stuff I found refererring to the CD from Albert's Music.

There is Albert's Adult series as well.

Searching locally online bookstore nothing on that name came up. They usually list most stuff globally that is available. I saw amazon.co.uk have books, but only cd to bk3.

Posts are not editable after 15 minutes or so, so we have to have hope readers continue down.
After all I wrote - I think I found.....and you corrected....

Anyway, you listen to CD's and those that sound like something you like you have a go at it - that is the important part, finding something in your taste - not abandon dozens of pieces because you don't like them as you discover too late. Sure thing to loose interest.

Masterpieces sounds a bit over my level right now anyway. Etydes that are really short is most likely to succeed by me.