The ''easiest'' piece ever!

[rainmaker]

liszt in general i would say!!!!!!!!!!!and i am not joking.

[Spatula]

hot cross buns?

[newsgroupeuan]

Those ones in the beginner books which only use one key rh?

[joell12068]

John Cage's  "4:33"

[Spatula]

Porcupine Dance by Kabelevsky?
5 year olds can do that one  

[bernhard]

please i would really like to know!

Me too!

In the meantime, have a look in this thread:

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=teac;action=display;num=1075165020

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[bernhard]

John Cage's  "4:33"

I suggest you try.

I played it and it is excruciatingly difficult. The idea of it seems easy. The reality of it is another matter entirely.

By the way, I suggest you pracise it. A lot.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[joell12068]

What practicing tips would you suggest?

By the way - this piece was listed on the "NPR 100", which is NPR's list of the 100 most significant works by American composers/songwriters of the 20th century !

Joel

[Motrax]

Well, you must first gather an audience to play it correctly, right? Can't have any ambient sound which might distract one from the true essence of the piece, like cars going by or crickets chirping.  

[rainmaker]

what do you people call easy? really?!! 

[rainmaker]

 is it ''how much black or less black'' is the score? cause if it's that, wow man, we've got a serious problem here!! :-/

[altary]

I love this question - I currently have a teacher that has said many times "I have never seen an easy piano piece" I have to completely agreed with him. I wish it was only a matter of pressing the keys and playing all the notes correctly but we all know that is not the case. I have looked beyond the level of difficulty a piece presents and I play music that I have a connection with. Something about the piece is beautiful or moving to me. The only way I can do this is by sight reading alot of music and discovery pieces that are striking. When I really like a piece - I learn it and I always start in the areas of difficulty first.

[Dave_2004_G]

I suggest you try.

I played it and it is excruciatingly difficult. The idea of it seems easy. The reality of it is another matter entirely.

By the way, I suggest you pracise it. A lot.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

Yeh it's just one of those pieces that doesn't look particularly hard on paper, but when you come to play it it's a different story - it's harder than Mozart - anything out of place and the whole atmosphere is ruined!

Dave

[trunks]

If you can hold your breath for 4 minutes 33 seconds then that is merely a necessary condition that you can play the 4'33". Far from a sufficient condition.

[steinwaymodeld]

I suggest you guys read something about John Cage's 4'33".

The true essence of this piece is the blend of 'Anticipation' and 'Distraction'

What is so special about this piece is, a pianist walk up the stage, doing nothing but sitting there, maybe open and close the lid to indicate the change of movment.
Anticipation will build up inside audience, and that's what make ALL performance so Great, anticipation of audience is necessary. And that's also what seperate the live concert from CD recording, anticipation. And John Cage used this piece as a way to desribe the importance of 'Anticipation' in music.

That's the first point.

The second point.

After John Cage visiting the acoustic lab in Yale, he tried to attain what is 'silence'. And he made a conclusion there is no way one can attain 'absolute silence', not even in a place without any noise (even in Yale's acoustic lab, which there is theoratically no 'sound' at all) One will still be 'distracted' by noise, for eg, your inner voice. There is no way one can attain absolute silence.
4'33", after the first minute, people hear nothing, but then, after 30 more second or so, one might notice the chatter across the row of 2 woman talking about what is going on, or some far-away bark of a dog. One can start hearing this 'distraction' or it's a kind of music itself.

Thru out 4'33", John Cage displayed the essence of 'Anticipation' and 'Distraction'.


And a re-act or imitation of this piece will be futile and idiotic.

Since the audience know what u are going to do, there will be no 'anticipation' and they will concentrate on you, so there will be no 'distraction'.

[jr11]

The Knuckle Song  

[squinchy]

Depends on the instrument, wouldn't it?

If it were piano, I'd say Super-berry Starburst. It was a recorder piece that we learned in elementary school, but it used only two notes and still sounded quite good. It could be played on C# and D# using fingers 3 and 2.

The Knuckle Song  

Not when you've added a left hand part that constantly crosses over and does ostinato

[Spatula]

How about:

& Mid C, Mid C ||

both quarter notes, where & is the treble clef

there i composed a piece in C major, Lets call it Etude No. 1 Op 1. By Maestro Spatula  

and the easiest piece of all

& Mid C ||

there you go, one note song.

[rainmaker]

thanks everyone but, i believe we should think about what easy piece mean!so?

[newsgroupeuan]

How about:

& Mid C, Mid C ||

both quarter notes, where & is the treble clef

there i composed a piece in C major, Lets call it Etude No. 1 Op 1. By Maestro Spatula  

and the easiest piece of all

& Mid C ||

there you go, one note song.

Or even put a senza pedale in!!!!

[bernhard]

What practicing tips would you suggest?

By the way - this piece was listed on the "NPR 100", which is NPR's list of the 100 most significant works by American composers/songwriters of the 20th century !

Joel

The usual:
1.      Practise in small sections.

2.      Work on separate hands (especially important in this piece!)

3.      rhythmic variations.

4.      Slow practise is not that necessary. If you feel you have the technique already go straight to tempo.

5.      Make sure you use arm weight rather than finger action when closing and opening the lid between movements.



Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[bernhard]

I suggest you guys read something about John Cage's 4'33".

The true essence of this piece is the blend of 'Anticipation' and 'Distraction'

What is so special about this piece is, a pianist walk up the stage, doing nothing but sitting there, maybe open and close the lid to indicate the change of movment.
Anticipation will build up inside audience, and that's what make ALL performance so Great, anticipation of audience is necessary. And that's also what seperate the live concert from CD recording, anticipation. And John Cage used this piece as a way to desribe the importance of 'Anticipation' in music.

That's the first point.

The second point.

After John Cage visiting the acoustic lab in Yale, he tried to attain what is 'silence'. And he made a conclusion there is no way one can attain 'absolute silence', not even in a place without any noise (even in Yale's acoustic lab, which there is theoratically no 'sound' at all) One will still be 'distracted' by noise, for eg, your inner voice. There is no way one can attain absolute silence.
4'33", after the first minute, people hear nothing, but then, after 30 more second or so, one might notice the chatter across the row of 2 woman talking about what is going on, or some far-away bark of a dog. One can start hearing this 'distraction' or it's a kind of music itself.

Thru out 4'33", John Cage displayed the essence of 'Anticipation' and 'Distraction'.


And a re-act or imitation of this piece will be futile and idiotic.

Since the audience know what u are going to do, there will be no 'anticipation' and they will concentrate on you, so there will be no 'distraction'.

1.      You may be overestimating audiences' knowledge.

2.      Even if the audience knows what is coming, you still have a “result” which I believe is what Cage was after. And for this piece, probably the best appreciation would be if at the end they all clapped with one hand.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[steinwaymodeld]

1.      You may be overestimating audiences' knowledge.

2.      Even if the audience knows what is coming, you still have a “result” which I believe is what Cage was after. And for this piece, probably the best appreciation would be if at the end they all clapped with one hand.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

That's brilliant!