# Similar Easy Pieces?



## CarnivorousJellybean

*mpm*

Hello there forum!

I started teaching piano two years ago and one of my students has fallen in love with a prelude in the Bastien method book - she's gone above and beyond perfecting it! Which is great, but I'm having a bit of trouble finding a similar piece with the, as she calls them, "swoopy" arpeggios. She's already played the prelude and there aren't any similar pieces in the method book.

Any recommendations would be awesome, but there are a few restrictions:
- not longer than 2.5 pages (or should be possible to cut down to two pages)
- anything smaller than an 8th note is bordering on too tricky for counting unless I rearrange it
- a couple ledger lines or an 8va isn't the end of the world, but I'm sure she'd rather play than count lines up to notes!
- can be transposed to a key with 3 sharps/flats at most
- around or slightly above this difficulty

Triplets are okay, trills or other ornaments might be tricky, but she thinks they sound really cool so it would be something very much work-able

I'm sorry if this was posted in the wrong section (let me know so I don't make the same mistake again! ), I am kind of really new here!

(Can't figure out how to edit my post, so uhm, I'll add this here (if anyone would care to let me know how editing works I'd be super happy)!)


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## Krummhorn

CarnivorousJellybean said:


> . . . Can't figure out how to edit my post, so uhm, I'll add this here. Iif anyone would care to let me know how editing works I'd be super happy!


You are a new member on our site ... editing posts is a restricted function until after having completed at least 10 postings in any of the Classical music discussion forums. After that time, then all users have about 12 hours to edit a posting, and beyond that it's a forum staff function only.


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## PetrB

If you don't know the pedagogic material as you should (there are mountains of it, no matter how much you did learn) there is a book -- I'm afraid I've forgotten its title, but if you ask those who know, there is only one -- which is a huge tome listing all sorts of graded material for the piano (the tome is expensive.) I would ask some of your professional colleagues in your immediate area, maybe one has a copy you could look at.

But next, please remember you've studied piano to an advanced level, theory and harmony enough that I'm certain you could quite adequately compose a short piece meeting all the parameters for this particular student, and supply her with exactly what she needs next. 

I advocate having a go at it... almost all the beginner's level materials are not hugely sophisticated in their harmonic language, and you certainly know your way around the piano, and I bet short forms as well. All the restrictions of those parameters of the configuration, the student's hand size and playing level, make it easy to so narrow down the artistic / aesthetic choices and come up with a short piece between one lesson and the next.


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## CarnivorousJellybean

Thanks for fixing that mess of posts up for me, Krummhorn c:

In response to PetrB:

While I would love to have every song from every method, performance, and pop book memorized, I'm currently working on memorizing texts related to my engineering degree. I'm most familiar with Bastien, Faber, and the Royal Conservatory books since those are what I was brought up with, they're what my own teachers recommended, and now they're what I recommend. I believe I know which book you're talking about though. It's the purple book the size of a small phone book with grades and recommended repertoire. Is that the one? 

While I would love to go "I know, I'll just compose the piece I'm looking for!", between full-time university, a job, tutoring, teaching, and working on my own piano exams (they allow you to teach starting with Grade 8 RCM here, I'm finishing up 10), I wouldn't say I have an excess of time. Your assumption of me knowing all the harmony and theory may be off considering I started harmony last year (I would rather pretend I'm awesome at it, but I'm not sure I know what I need to know). While I'm comfortable adding harmonies to pre-existing melodies, accompanying student improv, or transcribing pieces by ear, composing is a beast I have yet to tackle head on.

Thanks for the suggestions and the vote of confidence on my composing skills, though!


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## hreichgott

PetrB said:


> If you don't know the pedagogic material as you should (there are mountains of it, no matter how much you did learn) there is a book -- I'm afraid I've forgotten its title, but if you ask those who know, there is only one -- which is a huge tome listing all sorts of graded material for the piano (the tome is expensive.) I would ask some of your professional colleagues in your immediate area, maybe one has a copy you could look at.
> 
> But next, please remember you've studied piano to an advanced level, theory and harmony enough that I'm certain you could quite adequately compose a short piece meeting all the parameters for this particular student, and supply her with exactly what she needs next.
> 
> I advocate having a go at it... almost all the beginner's level materials are not hugely sophisticated in their harmonic language, and you certainly know your way around the piano, and I bet short forms as well. All the restrictions of those parameters of the configuration, the student's hand size and playing level, make it easy to so narrow down the artistic / aesthetic choices and come up with a short piece between one lesson and the next.


There are two!
This is the one that contains more pedagogical level material. It is purple and by Jane Magrath. She does a pretty good job of describing the physical challenges of pieces so she might even specify swoopy arpeggios and/or cross hands 









This is the one for advanced student through concert material. It is not purple and is by Maurice Hinson. His descriptions tend to focus more on the musical features of pieces.


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## hreichgott

What about Balancoire from Kleine Blumen by Gurlitt? It is here
http://imslp.org/wiki/Kleine_Blumen,_Op.205_(Gurlitt,_Cornelius)
The octaves and 4-note chords can be easily simplified to the lower note of octave, and leaving out the lowest note of 4-note chords, if hands are too small.


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## hreichgott

Oh, just thought of Heller Op. 45. Try "The Harp" or "L'avalanche." A couple octaves there too but can easily be modified if needed.
http://imslp.org/wiki/25_Etudes_Melodiques,_Op.45_(Heller,_Stephen)


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## CarnivorousJellybean

Those suggestions are lovely! She absolutely loved L'avalanche, so we're working on that one right now. Thank you very very much and sorry for the very slow response


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