Easiest crossing hands piece

[stormx]

Hi,

I wonder what is the easiest piece you are aware of that requires to cross hands to play some passage. What is its grade?
All the videos i have seen with pianists crossings hands deal with very advanced repertoire, but i can imagine a simple piece requiring it tough. All you need is a piece where your right hand is busy playing some close repeated notes, while a very high note must be played, right?

 

[stevie]

whats hard about crossing hands?

it looks impressive to people, but its actually a very simple thing to do..

[stormx]

whats hard about crossing hands?

it looks impressive to people, but its actually a very simple thing to do..

Well, i didnt say it was particulary difficult.
But i have been playing for 1 year, dealing with up to grade 4 pieces (maximum), and never found the need to cross my hands.

[stevie]

scarlatti is your man then, his sonatas are mostly not too difficult, check them out.

[ted]

As Stevie says, the act itself is trivial. However, it can be a by-product of how we think and feel the phrasing and rhythm, especially in improvisation. Over the years I have found a tendency to feel the two hands as one playing unit. I think this has developed in mature years because cannot remember doing it when I was young. I general I do not pay particular attention to which hand is playing what so crossing occurs with me quite often. It is never consciously calculated; it just happens, much like fingering, according to convenience of phrasing, position and rhythm.

There is also the possibility of generating vital shared cross-rhythms independent of hand positions. This is a most exciting aspect of improvisation for me but I have never heard anybody explicitly discuss it. Most jazz pianists appear to mentally separate their hand functions both musically and physically, now that I come to think of it. Obviously, in older forms such as ragtime and stride, their functions are clearly distinguished. Just why this separation should extrapolate into modern jazz puzzles me. Even Jarrett, in the liner notes to Radiance, talks about listening to his left hand.

So the initial question leads to some very interesting speculation I hadn't thought about before.

[ryguillian]

 Nobuo Uematsu's  "Continue?" (from Final Fantasy 7) is short and easy; the scales at the end can be played by crossing hands.

—Ryan

[dmk]

"Moonlight" by William Gillock
"Climbing" by Machlachlan

Climbing is a little easier that Moonlight super simple

or even easier My First Waltz by Rolseth crosses hands at one point, I teach this to students after one month..

i am confident that if you really want to @ grade 4 you could find heaps of pieces crossing hands...

cheers

dmk

[bernhard]

Try those (from easiest to hardest):

Diabelli – Sonatina in G op. 151 no. 1(especially the second movement). (grade 3)

Benda - Sonatina in Am (grade 4) [Georg Benda: “12 sonatinas” – Easier piano pieces no. 47 – ABRSM]

Ludovico Einaudi – Due Tramonti (“Two sunsets”) – From “Eden Roc” (Ricordi) (grade 4)

Scarlatti – Sonata in C, K95 (grade 4/5)

Anon. (Leopold Mozart?) Allegro moderato in F (no. 32 form the "Nanerl Notebook") (grade 5)

Liszt – “Schlummerlied” (Slumber song) – S. 186 no. 7 (grade 7)
Scarlatti – Sonata k27 (grade 8 )

JS Bach – Giga, from Partita no. 1 in Bb (grade 8 ).

There are lots more (just the tip of the iceberg).

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[thierry13]

Maybe the crossing section of the pathetique sonata?

[musicsdarkangel]

Scarlatti fo sho

[bernhard]

Maybe the crossing section of the pathetique sonata?

that sure is easy as pie

[pianistimo]

mozart k331 sonata.  beginning/intermediate (ending variations)