Suggest me pieces to practice!

[hastur]

Hello there!

So, I have successfully taught myself Diabelli's Bagatelle and the first part of Yann Tiersen's La Valse d'Amélie. Now, I'm kind of lost as to what piece to attempt next. I have played for about a month, so I'm quite the beginner, but my greatest asset is my being quite stubborn when it comes to overcoming obstacles. (Which my choice of two first piano pieces might tell)

My two by far favourite composers are Sergei Rachmaninoff and Frédéric Chopin, and in the moment of writing, I'd like to explore russian music of the romantic era. From reading through Rachmaninoff's works (his second piano concerto is probably my fave piece for the piano of all), I know that it will be a couple year's until I can give anything of his a serious attempt.

So, the question is as follows;
Dear pianostreet, from my ramblings, which pieces would you suggest I learn?

[nataliethepianist]

Well, I think Rachmaninoff would be the perfect Romantic, Russian composer to study, however, I feel all of his pieces are much more advanced than what you have given. The easiest piece I can think of is Fragments, and it still seems a little too difficult.

The same thing goes with Chopin, although probably not as difficult. Take a look at Cantabile in Bb Major, it is not a hard as the Rachmaninoff.

A very important aspect is if you learned these pieces by ear or if you actually know how to sightread. If you learned these pieces by ear, I suggest learning how to sightread before learning pieces by the "big names" of the Romantic period. If you can sightread, well, then you could give these a try.

Good luck with your studies.

- Natalie

[hastur]

I learned the pieces by reading sheet music. I can't read it very fast, but I manage.

[nataliethepianist]

That is great. I recommend starting out with the Chopin instead of the Rachmaninoff.

[hastur]

Would you care to link me the actual pieces? I'm having trouble finding them, heh

(Listened to Rachmaninoff's Fragments on youtube, it's beautiful! It sounds playable, but I imagine myself having quite a lot of trouble with the super-fast trills)