What pieces did you study as a kid that first really "turned you on" to piano?

[jamom13]

My son (15) is an unenthusiastic piano student but far enough along that I would hate to see him quit.  He seemed to enjoy learning Debussy's First Arabesque last year and played it fairly well.  He is currently working on the Chopin D-Flat Prelude.  I was hoping the drama of that piece would really turn him on -- it's one of the pieces that made me fall in love with the piano when I was a teenage piano student.  But he still doesn't have the bug.  What pieces of a similar level really motivated you, especially if you learned as a child/teenager?  My son's teacher and I are so frustrated trying to find something to turn him on!  For me it was the easier Chopin Preludes and some of the Grieg lyric pieces, and when I was 16 some of the smaller late Brahms pieces.  Appreciate any suggestions!

[ajspiano]

Jazz.

Someone gave me oscar petersons "night train" album, and from the moment C-jam blues really got going I was pretty hooked.

Its a whole different thing to classical music though ofcourse, my classical teacher flat out refused to teach me any jazz because she felt that she was unqualified. As a result I saw 2 teachers for a little while, taking periodic lessons from a jazz professor when I was able to alongside my regular lessons.

..............

That and seeing advanced classical repetoire live. I saw a concert pianist (they didnt come to my town very often) when I was about that age play things like chopin etudes, islamey, a couple of big rach pieces amongst other things. That was a big motivator.

[j_menz]

I don't know that any one piece did it for me, I'd begged to learn piano practiaclly from birth.  one of Dvorak's Humoresques sometime later was, I think, the first piece that actually made me feel like I was getting there.

As for you son, is there a piece he has in mind, or one (or more) that he wants to play? What sort of music does he listen to outside of what he plays?  I think the trigger you are looking for is going to have to be a personal one for him.  It's a bit like falling in love - the chemistry has to be right and then boom!

[starstruck5]

When I was young I heard a lot of Beethoven Sonatas played mostly by my parents. My father only had one arm, and he pedalled through harmonies and didn't have a brilliant technique, but it inspired me all the same to begin -but only when I was ready -I started at 7 -gave it up because I had a nazi for a teacher - and only began again when I was 13 -

My mother was an accomplished pianist and played Chopin like an angel - I grew to love his music.

My guess is that if a 15 year old hasn't caught the bug yet -he isn't going to -I hope I am wrong though!

[roescoe]

For me the first thing that really got me started was, at about 14, a friend playing the first movement of Beethoven's Pathetique. At that time I was really into "epic" peices and when I saw a friend my age playing a piece that actually sounded good it kept me practicing.

Then a year latter I found an old Beethoven sonata book, in the back of a cupboard, and started playing first movement of moonlight sonata which was way above my level. The first time I played about half of it terrible before giving up out of embarrassment from my familly hearing it. Then as the month passed my mom became a little impressed and wilhe i was out of the piano teacher's house she "spilled the beans".

Ever since then I have been playing Beethoven. (and other peices of my own choosing not always even to play for my piano teacher) But now my interest has changed to the more "sad" or "emotional" pieces of, for say, the romantic era composers.

[chopinlover96]

For me it was Chopin's Nocturne Op9 No.2 in E flat major. My Mum really enjoyed listening to it and really wanted me to play it and it totally opened me up to the rest of Chopins music.

[black_keys]

Hungarian rhopsody no2 from Tom and Jerry 

[felipe717]

Moonlight Sonata. At the time, I didn't know much about Beethoven. After discovering that he've wrote 32 sonatas, I listened to all them. Moonlight turned me on to piano, but it's not my favorite. Appassionata is the best! 

[williampiano]

I remember when I was about nine, I was really insistent on learning Chopin's Waltz op. 69 no. 2. My teacher said it was too hard, but I liked it so much that she let me learn it. That was the first somewhat challenging piece I learned, and a piece that I had the most fun playing around that time. The next year, I remember I had a lot of fun with the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata op. 49 no. 1 (g minor) also.

[lostinidlewonder]

Well I didn't study them as in get the score and sit at the piano and learn it, but I did work on them by ear and listened to the music a lot

When I was very young I use to love watching cartoons (I still sorta do now as well lol). But there where a few that really interested me. Do you remember the Tom and Jerry Hungarian Rhapsody?

Bugs Bunny's version also captivated me

And finally Kitten on Keys version from Disney's Silly Symphony (I would love it if anyone knew the sheets for it I've only ever learned this version by ear), probably the one I watched the most because we owned the VHS which I watched every day as a child lol. I loved growing up with the Silly Symphony videos because they said very little and sound was used to express the emotion/action.

The piano playing is around the 5:00 mark

I use to crack up laughing all the time when the kitten pulled the fast lever

[grandstaff]

For me - Clair de Lune by Debussy

[patrickd]

For me it was the Chopin nocturne op 9 no 2.

[hermansegerman]

Hi yall,

I'm completely new to this board, so this is going to be my introduction here... :-)
What a wonderful question...  (being the very first one for me here)
When I was about 12 years old, we got a new mate in our class, playing the piano as I already did.
During music lession he played the e-minor op.posthume waltz by chopin, which really stroke me like a thunder! I never dealt with chopin before, as I had always to play that boring haydn-sonata, muzio clementi.. you know what I mean. So after that expierence I HAD to play that piece which of course was to hard for my level, but I managed to "master" it after a certain period of time...
But this piece was really the beginning of my career as a pianist, (which later has been terminated due to a pesky luxation of the pinky capsula :-( But that's a another story to tell...)

Bye, and sorry for my poor english... did my very best...
Herman se german

[gn622]

try chopin polonaise op.53, or his second scherzo or his first ballade.

these are his most popular works.

[haguiuda]

Definetely, in my case, Chopin's Grand Valse Brillante, op. 18.
I also watched Kissin playing Beethoven's Rondo a Capriccio and it kind of "turned me on".

[naaga]

for me it was a short piece that Kachaturian wrote for her daughter :"in folks tune"
i realized while i was playing it during the final show of my school that i was actually enjoying myself..
it's strange, i was not nine years old,i think, i don't remember clearly studying it, just playing and noticing at the end that there was some people listening to me!

it is not my favourite piece, it just made me find out that i liked playing after all!!

[ted]

My father brought home the score of Rhapsody In Blue. I had never heard that sort of stuff before and almost busted myself learning it. I decided that I needed a teacher for the hard bits. That's when I met the pianist and composer, Llewelyn Jones, who improvised for me and threw my musical gates wide open in the space of about an hour. And open they have remained ever since.

[teccomin]

Debussy's Reverie, first piece I really wanted to learn myself. Didn't really liked it anymore later in life, so I have actually never fully learned that piece yet.

[symphonicdance]

I enjoyed piano when I was very young, but I forgot which of the below pieces, probably a combination or all of them (as I came across to them almost at the same time), really turned me from "like" to "super like", especially after I listened to recordings of great masters, like Rubinstein, Horowitz, Argerich, etc.

Beethoven : Pathetique & Tempest Sonatas; Piano Concertos Nos 3 & 5
Schubert : Wanderer Fantasy
Chopin : Scherzo No 2; Valse in E flat (Op 18); Andante spianato et grand polonaise
Schumann : Kreislerianna
Grieg : Piano Concerto in A minor
Rachmaninoff : Piano Concertos Nos 2 & 3; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Remark:  Of course, I could not smoothly play the entire concerto of the abvementioned ones, but being able to play a section or two of it did make me feel good (fantasized myself as a master...)

[roescoe]

Moonlight Sonata. At the time, I didn't know much about Beethoven. After discovering that he've wrote 32 sonatas, I listened to all them. Moonlight turned me on to piano, but it's not my favorite. Appassionata is the best! 

I agree totally about Appassionata being the best; however, I only came across it latter when I was listening to CD's. Moonlight was my first piece I actually heard on CD, but that wasn't until after I had my first exposure to Beethoven's Pathetique.