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Topic: 10 most recognized piano pieces  (Read 10642 times)

Offline bluepianist

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10 most recognized piano pieces
on: September 08, 2006, 08:58:53 PM
Help!!!   I have an intermediate student who wants to learn and memorize 10 pieces in the next 2 years.  The problem is that they have to recognizable by the average person, this includes teens.  Anyone have any recommendations other than Fur Elise?
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Offline bernhard

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #1 on: September 08, 2006, 09:22:20 PM
Two years? Two months should do fine. :D

I assume you mean classical pieces originally written for piano

In no particular order:

1. Beethoven - Fur Elise
2. Bach - Prelude 1 of WTC book 1
3. Chopin - Fantasy Impromptu
4. Beethoven - First movement of Moonlight Sonata
5. Schumann - Traumerei
6. Mozart - First movement of Sonata K545
7. C. Petzold - Minuet in G (often attributed to Bach - from the Anna Magadalen notebook)
8. An. - Heart and Soul
9. Chopsticks
10. Rachmaninoff - Rach 2 or variation 18 on a theme from Paganini.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. (Hunter Thompson)

Offline arensky

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #2 on: September 09, 2006, 08:03:16 AM
8. An. - Heart and Soul

Lyrics/Frank Loesser,  Music/Hoagy Carmicheal
=  o        o  =
   \     '      /   

"One never knows about another one, do one?" Fats Waller

Offline ada

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #3 on: September 09, 2006, 09:44:17 AM

9. Chopsticks

I once heard a very cute and tricksy arrangement of chopsticks, aka, the Chop Waltz. Can't remember who played it.
Bach almost persuades me to be a Christian.
- Roger Fry, quoted in Virginia Woolf

Offline thorn

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #4 on: September 09, 2006, 03:15:34 PM
*agrees with most in bernhard's list*

although i would probably add Clair de Lune in there somewhere?

Offline will

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #5 on: September 11, 2006, 06:27:11 AM
Satie's gymnopédie no. 1.

Offline bernhard

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #6 on: September 12, 2006, 02:28:16 AM
Lyrics/Frank Loesser,  Music/Hoagy Carmicheal

Thanks. :D
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. (Hunter Thompson)

Offline pianistimo

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #7 on: September 12, 2006, 02:31:16 AM
just remembered that i have AMSCO's 'library of easy piano classics' (100 best loved songs).  all are quite popular.  although, once the pieces are decided - you can buy the individual urtext scores and get the 'whole' piece.  some of these have middle sections chopped or are in an easier version.  may as well try to learn each entire piece as written.

Offline aaron_ginn

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #8 on: September 12, 2006, 06:13:05 PM
The Entertainer by Scot Joplin

Offline jpianoflorida

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #9 on: September 15, 2006, 08:30:57 PM
Rondo Alla Turca,     William Tell Overture(simplified arrangement in Aflred Adult Favories Book)

Offline kelly_kelly

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #10 on: October 08, 2006, 11:01:32 PM
Chopin Funeral March  ;)
It all happens on Discworld, where greed and ignorance influence human behavior... and perfectly ordinary people occasionally act like raving idiots.

A world, in short, totally unlike our own.

Offline kony

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #11 on: October 09, 2006, 06:24:44 AM
i have to not agree with the following:

Bach - Prelude 1 of WTC book 1
Chopin - Fantasy Impromptu
Beethoven - First movement of Moonlight Sonata
Schumann - Traumerei
Mozart - First movement of Sonata K545
C. Petzold - Minuet in G (often attributed to Bach - from the Anna Magadalen notebook)
Rachmaninoff - Rach 2 or variation 18 on a theme from Paganini.

i am sure that 90% of teenagers would not know how these go. A few may recognize that they've heard a piece or two before, however.

on the other hand, i have some suggestions:

Wedding March
A midsummer night's dream - piano transcription of course
the G major Haydn Rondo
Maple Leaf Rag
from Peer Gynt, Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King (due to use in movies/tv) - transcription again
Ode to Joy - transcription
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Hungarian Dance no.5 (brahms)
Canon in D transcription

Offline ganymed

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #12 on: October 09, 2006, 09:41:54 PM
Outkast and the Intro of their song  "roses" XD that will recognize EVERY teenager




watch the song till like first minute then you can hear the intro its realllllly coool
"We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come."

Milan Kundera,The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Offline keyofc

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #13 on: October 13, 2006, 10:29:38 PM
Bernhard,
If I believed you can teach me 10 songs like that in 2 months, I'd be willing to take lessons from you
I really do not think that the average person can do that.
How long did it take you to learn the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata?
Do you remember?  If you can't remeber, how about a piece you're working on now?

Offline qoppa

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #14 on: October 14, 2006, 03:55:26 PM
Bernhard,
If I believed you can teach me 10 songs like that in 2 months, I'd be willing to take lessons from you
I really do not think that the average person can do that.
How long did it take you to learn the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata?
Do you remember?  If you can't remeber, how about a piece you're working on now?

The original poster said s/he had 2 years.

Offline kony

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #15 on: October 15, 2006, 10:40:09 AM
Two years? Two months should do fine. :D

keyofc was referring to this.

Offline qoppa

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #16 on: October 16, 2006, 01:30:16 AM
keyofc was referring to this.
Oops, missed that.  Scratch my last post.

Offline cfortunato

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #17 on: October 16, 2006, 01:44:47 AM
Let's see.

Fur Elise, of course.
1st movement of Moonlight Sonata
Bach's Minuet in G.
Hall of the Mountain King
Toreador March from Carmen
Sabre Dance
Dance of the Hours
Children's March from the Nutcracker
Theme from Peter and the Wolf
Stars and Stripes Forever

There are other themes from Tchaikovsky Ballets that are ultra-familiar to everyone, like Waltz of the Flowers.

Remember:  most of us received our Classical Music education from Carl Stallings.

Offline dnephi

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #18 on: October 17, 2006, 11:25:55 PM
The Rachmaninoff Second would take about a year, depending on your pace, if you already an accomplished pianist.  A random teenager would have a rather difficult time.

Daniel
For us musicians, the music of Beethoven is the pillar of fire and cloud of mist which guided the Israelites through the desert.  (Roughly quoted, Franz Liszt.)

Offline samkamer

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #19 on: July 07, 2016, 07:29:07 PM
i have to not agree with the following:

Bach - Prelude 1 of WTC book 1
Chopin - Fantasy Impromptu
Beethoven - First movement of Moonlight Sonata
Schumann - Traumerei
Mozart - First movement of Sonata K545
C. Petzold - Minuet in G (often attributed to Bach - from the Anna Magadalen notebook)
Rachmaninoff - Rach 2 or variation 18 on a theme from Paganini.

i am sure that 90% of teenagers would not know how these go. A few may recognize that they've heard a piece or two before, however.

on the other hand, i have some suggestions:

Wedding March
A midsummer night's dream - piano transcription of course
the G major Haydn Rondo
Maple Leaf Rag
from Peer Gynt, Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King (due to use in movies/tv) - transcription again
Ode to Joy - transcription
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Hungarian Dance no.5 (brahms)
Canon in D transcription



I have to disagree with you on the difficulty of the first movement of moonlight sonata. The first movement is by far the easiest and I was able to teach it to one of my students in 2 weeks. You may think this is because of superior piano ability, but in fact he is 10 years old and started piano two years ago. So it does not take a great amount of effort OR ability.

Offline samkamer

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Re: 10 most recognized piano pieces
Reply #20 on: July 07, 2016, 07:30:22 PM
Sorry that reply was aimed at keyofc  :-X
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