New Piece to Surprise Teacher?

[kelly_kelly]

My teacher will be gone for the next month. The pieces I currently have to work on are: Bach English Suite No. 2-Prelude (polishing), Debussy Ballade (learned but not polished), and Schumann Papillons (completely new). Ordinarily that would be enough, but since school is ending I will have a LOT of time, so I thought it might be nice to pick up another piece. Maybe a classical or 20th century, since I'm not working on any from those periods? What are your thoughts? The pieces I'm playing should give a decent idea of my level (that's my main concern in picking a piece- that I choose something too difficult).

Thanks!

[tds]

i never had the desire to surprise my last teachers, let alone trying to do so by bringing a new piece into lessons. getting them to say "good!" was hard enough and it rarely happened. tds

[kelly_kelly]

I'm sorry  But I think my teacher would like it. She has already asked me to put together a list of pieces I would like to play, and she said that summer is the best time to explore new repertoire, so I think she would like the idea of my picking up a new piece.

[brahms4me]

I think this is a great idea.  May I suggest Barber's "Pas de deux" from his 'Souvenirs' ?   It's a beautiful piece and not that difficult.  Very lush and romantic sounding.  The best to you in whatever you choose!  (you may be able to get a snippet of it on Amazon . . .  )

[tds]

I'm sorry  But I think my teacher would like it. She has already asked me to put together a list of pieces I would like to play, and she said that summer is the best time to explore new repertoire, so I think she would like the idea of my picking up a new piece.

fantastic...oh bring her some flowers too, she'd like it.

[general disarray]

Why only surprise when you can shock?

Try Alkan "Concerto for Solo Piano," in tds' transcription for left foot alone.

[slobone]

Webern's Variations for Piano, first variation. Only you have to memorize it, otherwise it's impossible to play.

[dnephi]

Prokofiev 2.  If you need, just do the cadenza.

[franzliszt2]

Lol I was once told to bring Chopin 3rd Ballade to a lesson. I was given a small half term holiday to learn it in (so approx 2 weeks). I spent hardly any time on it, and instead learnt the 4th Scherzo and some Albeniz. I turned up to my lesson with a fully prepared 4th Scherzo, and fully prepared Albeniz, and an awful 3rd ballade. My teacher asked what I had brought to the lesson...and I said Chopin 4th Scherzo, Albeniz, and 3rd ballade...and quickly added that I had spent most time on scherzo and Albeniz. My teacher said "oh, I really want to hear Ballade 3, so lets hear it". I played it so badly! and he give me a HUGE telling off, and told me how screwed I was for my exam in 3 weeks. I said "well I could just play 4th Scherzo" and he sent me away, with the 3rd ballade and told me to come back in 2 days with it "less like an amatuer" lol.

So if you bring a new piece to surprise a teacher.....make sure you learn the stuff you are supposed to lol. My 4th Scherzo which I spent so many hours preparing was never heard 

[lau]

franz where the heck are you studying? that sounds too intense, it's scary. 2 weeks for the ballade..more like 2 months. I thought you were just taking private lessons or something.

[mike_lang]

franz where the heck are you studying? that sounds too intense, it's scary. 2 weeks for the ballade..more like 2 months. I thought you were just taking private lessons or something.

I had a teacher once who had a weekend for Rach 3...

[jehangircama]

Rostropovitch expected his students to learn by memory a complete concerto overnight

[thierry13]

Rostropovitch expected his students to learn by memory a complete concerto overnight

Yeah but that's cello.

[gerryjay]

Yeah but that's cello.

excuse me, but what do you mean by that? even in a wooden end-blown flute it's such an enterprise to memorize 25 minutes of music from one day to the next.
best!

[thierry13]

excuse me, but what do you mean by that? even in a wooden end-blown flute it's such an enterprise to memorize 25 minutes of music from one day to the next.
best!

We're not going to enter a debate as to wich instrument is the hardest, because it's subjective and depends on the repertoire I guess, but what is objective and factual is that piano pieces have muuuuuch more notes than any other instruments (obviously excludes harpsichord and etc.)

[gerryjay]

hey thierry!

a woodwind player should answer you saying that:

"bof...what is objective and factual is that flute pieces have muuuuuuuch more fingers used to play each note".

best!

[gerryjay]

about the number of notes, it really doesn´t matter per se. what makes a piece hard to memorize is its musical complexity. example: chopin's etude 1. what could be easier to memorize, in spite of the note count?
best!

[thierry13]

We're talking about concertos here. Not etudes. Often in a concerto, the more notes the more complex, especially in Rach 3 and such concertos. I'm not saying other instruments are less difficult to play at all, I'm just saying if you play piano you have more music to think of at the same time. Of course there are things in the piano repertoire much less complex and with much less notes than the most complex cello pieces. And I'm not talking about using more fingers at the same time. It's musical. A conductor has to think about more music at the same time than an instrumentist in the orchestra. It's the same thing ...

[gerryjay]

We're talking about concertos here. Not etudes. Often in a concerto, the more notes the more complex, especially in Rach 3 and such concertos. I'm not saying other instruments are less difficult to play at all, I'm just saying if you play piano you have more music to think of at the same time. Of course there are things in the piano repertoire much less complex and with much less notes than the most complex cello pieces. And I'm not talking about using more fingers at the same time. It's musical. A conductor has to think about more music at the same time than an instrumentist in the orchestra. It's the same thing ...

well, if you think so, i respect your position, but i disagree completely.

btw, rach 3 is - in spite of its ridiculous technical demandings - quite straightforward musically. i'd not think of it as "complex" even in a million years. furthermore, i used the etude example just as that: an example. the same applies for concerti. some that come to my mind are schumann's or mozart's 20th. difficult to play (and i must be honest and say that i don't play well either), but very easy to memorize.

about the conductor point of view, i have worked as both vocal and chamber conductor, and i have the same to say as to instrumental music. although i agree there are more lines to consider, it's not always related to the difficulty of memorization in my opinion.

getting back to the point, learning a concerto in one day it's very very hard, in spite of what instrument you consider, don't you agree?

best!

[lostinidlewonder]

Try some Gottschalk souvenirs! That would be a cool 20th century surprise for any teacher

[thierry13]

getting back to the point, learning a concerto in one day it's very very hard, in spite of what instrument you consider, don't you agree?

I, of course, agree completly. Sorry if it didn't look that way  I just don't think you can compare memorising a complicated line with learning an equally complicated piano piece wich has a lot more lines. That's the only thing I meant  Of course, I guess there is allways something you can do to make things harder and that is for any instrument, but for that you must consider the repertoire etc. and that is absolutely impossible to compare. My only point was that it's easier to memorize a cello line than that same line with 3 other voices at the same time on the piano... But of course most of cello lines wouldn't make sense on a piano, so again you can't compare!

[dnephi]

SCHUMANN OP 8 is GREZT PI ece everm    oahahahahaa ayou must learn it and SHOWWWW YOU NRESTEACHER!!!!

[tanman]

Fur Elise will definitely surprise her... of course maybe not in a good way..      

[chopinmozart7]

If you want a beautiful piece, Why dont you take the Robert Schumann, Kinderszenen op 15
No 7 "dreams" ?  I think its a very good piece but its not so "tecnical hard". Its also easy
to learn fast and to memorize, and the sheet is only 1 page. I think your teacher will

[tds]

SCHUMANN OP 8 is GREZT PI ece everm    oahahahahaa ayou must learn it and SHOWWWW YOU NRESTEACHER!!!!

ur posting style has changed. what happened?