Hello, new guy reporting.

[jdmpy]

I'm so glad I've found this forum, not only it contains a huge amount of information, but their users make it pleasant to read it.
Anyways, I'll give some information about myself aswell.
I've been studying for almos 2 and a half years now, and I'm about to start 2nd course, which brings me to the first, of hopefully many other, question. I'm from Paraguay, and I'm not sure if that's the actual term for my "level", I did both "Initiation" and "Preparatory" in my first year, and then moved on to what I know is called "1st course", so, is that the same way piano progress is classified in english?

On the same topic, I'd appreciate if some of you could recommend some "2nd course" material for me to play. For you to have some sort of reference of my skills at the moment, I finished Kuhlau's Sonatina op.55 a couple of weeks ago.
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(Again, this makes me ask what does "op" stands for?)

The truth is I have LOTS of questions, but I'll read some existing topics in order to clear some doubts so that I won't flood the forums  .

I'll re-write my questions in case some of you don't feel like reading the text above!
1)Is "second course" the correct english term to explain my piano level? (Because it is in spanish if you translate it literally)
2)If it is the correct term, then could you give some some recommendations on some classical pieces I can play at this stage? (See link above in order to have a reference of what I recently played)
3)What does "op" stands for? (I think it stands for "opus" but the question is what does it means)

I think that's all for now, so, again, thanks for helping us improve!
Best regards from Praguay,
Jdmpy.

[ajspiano]

op does stand for opus. It means "work number" - A composer may have written a group of pieces, and they were then published together. Opus 1...  then the pieces had their numbers aswell.. opus 1, no 1. Opus 1, no 2 etc.

As far as I understand it at least...

[jdmpy]

Great to know! Thanks for replying!

By the way, I just received a couple of compilation books in order to pick two or three pieces if I happened to like them, and I would REALLY like to watch/hear them played at the right tempo, so that I understand how it is supposed to sound when finished, but I'm having a hard time finding them on youtube!

I have managed to found of all the Beethoven sonatinas that were handed to me, but I can't find about 10 out of 12 pieces from the 2nd book. It says they were chosen from the following (I would appreciate if you could tell me what "BA XXXX" means as well!)
BA 9710 - Schumman R.
BA 9704 - Bach J. S.
BA 9705 - Beethoven L. v.
BA 9706 - Clementi M.
BA 11961 - Chaikovsky P.
BA 11179 - Chipin F.
BA 11962 - Grieg E.
BA 9707 - Haendel G. F.
BA 9709 - Schubert F.
For instance, the piece no.10 is "Allemande by Ludwig Van Beethoven", but I think these pieces were actually "ripped off" their "original form". (1st movement of a sonatina for example)
The book is in spanish and it's called "My first Beethoven" and the content was revised by E. Pozzoli, in case that helps.
On the same topic, I have a Czerny compilation book as well, and I'm having the same issue, since they were taken from op 829,849,335 and 636 and they don't seem to have any charateristic that might help me identify them, since the ones I actually found were just random luck.
Anyways, thanks again!
Best Regards.

[ajspiano]

I have not seen this BA xxxx numbering before - though given it is being used for multiple composers I'm guessing that its some kind of independent system for organising the pieces that the publisher of your book is using..

you can try scouring here..  www.pianosociety.com - though it may be difficult and time consuming with no reference to the BA numbers..

[jdmpy]

Thanks for replying! I've managed to identify some of the pieces after some time, and I may pick Beethoven's Sonatina in F minor WoO 47/2, I like it a lot, but I'll have to give it a try in order to make the final call!

So, do you have any recommendations on how should I approach this piece?
Also, can you think of some other pieces I could play with my current skills?  
Any, and I mean it, ANY sort of advice/recommendation/link/reply is highly appreciated!
Again, thanks for replying Ajspiano!
Best regards.