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What are your favourite beginners' pieces?
I know we have had similar threads before, but we are partly a different group of people who are active on ABF now, and our preferences can change.

* The level of the pieces should be at most RCM 2, the equivalents being Piano Adventures Level 4, Alfred premier 5, Alfred Basic 4, Piano safari 3, Bastien 4, Piano pronto mvm 4, Music tree part 4, Hal Leonard Student Piano Library 5, Celebration series level 2 and ABRSM grade 2.

* Please tell us the composer and/or in what book or from what other source you found your pieces.

* Easy arrangements of difficult pieces are absolutely fine!

Here are my pieces:

Felix Mendelssohn: Auf flügeln des Gesanges, easy arrangement from Classic themes by the masters (Bastien)

Chee-Hwa Tan: The Land of Nod

Louis Köhler: Die allerleichtesten Übungsstücke, no. 27

J.S. Bach: Air on the G string, easy arrangement from Classic themes by the masters (Bastien)

Anne Crosby Gaudet: Angelfish

The last time I took up oiano I got as far as page 26 of the John Thomson Adult Piano book 2 (Starlight Waltz).

When I took it up again, this was the first piece that I searched for.

It's not the most beautiful piece but I always found it fun to play as it gets progressively harder with each verse.

This guy is going quite a bit faster than I do and the video probably makes it look a lot harder than it actually is. There are some jumps but they're not very far.

Starlight Waltz

My favourite beginner's pieces are,

Fur Elise
Pachelbel's Canon
Elton John's greatest hits
Imagine from John Lennon
Titanic theme song

These are the songs I wanted to learn.

When I started piano lessons, I didn't learn those songs because my teacher said it was better for me to learn some sonatinas , minuet and practise some boring exercises. After a few years, I had enough and just stop playing. One day I discovered PianoWorld and I was back at the piano.

Fur Elise is RCM level 7, so not even remotely close to a beginner piece and 5 levels above what the OP asked about, unless your talking about a simplified version.

True!
So John, what are your favourite beginners' pieces?

I'd say the two Bach/Petzold minuets in G major and G minor would be somewhere around grade 2? They're always a safe bet!

Schumann's Melody, Op. 68 no. 1, from Album for the Young, is nice. Piano Syllabus has it at grade 1-2. Chorale, Op. 68 no. 4, is another nice one but comes in at grade 3 on Piano Syllabus. These are from the book published by Kjos and edited by Keith Snell. I'd probably buy the Alfred book of Album for the Young if I had a do-over. These are also available via IMSLP.

This is a perfectly timed question for me! I have the book Easy Classics to Moderns and I have learned a few pieces in there. And wasn't sure what to work on next. But it has some Schumann pieces, including the Melody piece. I'm going to try that next. I have worked on Minuet in G and Rondino by Rameau and Minuet in A Minor from Henry Purcell from that book. I started Minuet in G Minor but it's a little more difficult and I think Melody will be perfect! I'm keeping an eye on this thread. Thank you!

I have recently been learning some pieces by Hermann Berens Op 70... No.41 is a current favourite. Also Carl Czerny Opus 139... No.20 is a favourite.

The first piece of music that I ever played on piano was Fur Elise. I was about 10 and a girl taught me in lunch breaks at school.

I believe that it’s quite a common piece for beginners.

It was only the first part and was obviously a simplified version but sounded pretty impressive all the same.

Right, that would be the A section of the piece, which is a lot easier than the other parts. Most people just learn that. Sections B and C are more difficult.

Treefrog and bSharp(C)yclist, what are your favourite Beginners pieces?

I posted mine up thread (post #3)

Other than that, the only other pieces that I've continued to play on a regular basis are Clair De Lune (Simple piano version) and the Indiana Jones theme which I learnt from this Creative Piano Academy video on youtube.

Let me think. I got back to these from time to time, although none are memorized. But that's OK, just reinforces reading and playing skills, which opens up the door to learning new things faster. It would be nice to keep all of these in memory, but my brain quickly forgets ;0

Alfreds Series (1 and 2)
Entertainer
Amazing Grace
Sakura
Danny Boy
Musetta's Waltz

RCM 3
Clementi Sonatina Op 36, No1 - Andante, Mvt 2
Martha Mier - Interlude
Nakada - Song of Twilight
Burgmüller - Arabesque

Alfred's Master Works Classics Level 3
Petzold - Minuet in G Major (114)
Gretchaninov - The Little Beggar
Schumann - Wild Rider
Duncombe - Sonatina G Major

Alfred's Master Works Classics Level 4
Streabbog - A Pleasant Morning
Kabalevsky - Clowns (also RCM 3)
Menuet G Minor (115)
Polonaise G Minor (119)

I think it is Tech-Key has a lovely rendition of Scarborough Fair. I believe that is from the Alfred level 1. I've listened to it multiple times.

My favorite book so far has been Hal Leonard More Popular Piano Solos, book 5. There are some super good arrangements of some great songs. My favorites from that book were "All I Ask of You" and "I Dreamed a Dream" because it's fun to sing along all dramatically, but there are lots of great ones.

I’ve never had the inclination to sing along to pieces but you’ve inspired me. And I can’t think of two more dramatic pieces.

When I get good enough, these two will be on my list and I'll be adding my awful but dramatic vocals

Oh, I also have several "easy piano" books which vary in difficulty, but they're all about this level. I really liked "Into the West" from the "Lord of the Rings" easy piano book and "The Greatest Show" and "Never Enough" from "The Greatest Showman" easy piano. My daughter is also playing "For Forever" from the "Dear Evan Hansen" easy piano book, and it's absolutely gorgeous.

For anyone into that kind of music



This was in a Faber book too... maybe the Adult AIO book 2. It was my very favorite of all of the pieces in the Faber Adult AIO books

"Scarborough Fair" & "Chiapanecas" (Mexican Hand-Clapping Song) from the Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course.
Chiapanecas was the song that appeared in a Bugs Bunny cartoon many years ago with the bullfighters in Spain.