Easy pieces that are learnable in a week?

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Okay, I walked home from school, and 15 minutes later, I agreed to help put on mini recitals in a senior citizen home once every few weeks even though I'm not a good sight reader and rarely learn pieces that fast!   

But in exchange, they said that I could practice on their piano because I keep getting kicked out of the pianos at school. 

But I need like a list of pieces that are pretty easy to learn in a week without really disrupting my practice of my audition college repertoire that senior citizens would like!

My sightreading is GARBAGE, if you gave me a piece that's not absurdly difficult like Scarbo, I wouldn't be able to sightread it, but I would be able to finish it by the end of the day.  try giving me something EASY!  But please don't choose Fur Elise.  Maybe something from Bach?  I heard Chopin intermezzo's are easy?  How about some of his preludes?!   

[49410enrique]

that's great. i think investing the 10 dollars or so these run would be a good investment, you get a big mix of good pretty works, many not usually heard, the collection itself should be more than approachable at your level. if you finish this one the early advanced book is nice too, but the pieces require much more prep generally.

https://www.amazon.com/Classics-Moderns-Intermediate-Grade-Millions/dp/0825640377

[nikolasideris]

quick ideas... (that you can get quickly enough, one way or another)

1. Satie. He's got some lovely short (repeatetive, which is a plus if you can't sight read) works like the 'Gymnopédies', 'Gnossiennes', etc
2. Prokofievs 'Vision Fugitive' (was in IMSLP, not sure anymore, with the change in the copyright laws in the USA), has some easy, impressive and fun pieces.
3. Chopin. A few valses are somewhat easy to learn (In Am comes in mind), mazurkas have a few easy pieces, and a couple of preludes (Em and Cm come to mind right away)
4. Mussorgsky. Pictures in an exhibition have a few (in G#m which is not exactly the best idea for a poor sightreader) nice works...
5. Finally... My own sketch music works. Fun to play, very short (1-2 pages and up to 2 minutes). Some are easier than others. Youtube the title to hear some of them. A little quircky but probably fun none the less.

[zezhyrule]

Rach 3  

On a more serious note, I agree with some select Chopin Mazurkas and the Posthumous Am Waltz. I would also look at some Grieg Lyric Pieces and Mendelssohn Songs without Words, many of those works are easy enough to sight-read and shouldn't take too long to get down.

[quantum]

Get a hymn book and learn a bunch of them.  It is likely the seniors will be familiar with many hymns.  They are also great sight reading practice  

Bach - selected movements from the French suites, English suites, and Partitas.

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer - wrote many short pieces that are either sight readable or can be learned in short time.

[music_doctor]

All grade 7-8 (RCM pieces) will work. The sonatas and sonatinas are simple and easy but sounds good. I'm sure you can pull this off in a week, especially the romantic repoitoire

[jayeckz]

But I need like a list of pieces that are pretty easy to learn in a week without really disrupting my practice of my audition college repertoire that senior citizens would like!

Did anyone else lol?  You act like all old people are the same.

My sightreading is GARBAGE, if you gave me a piece that's not absurdly difficult like Scarbo, I wouldn't be able to sightread it, but I would be able to finish it by the end of the day.

If this is true, you're capable of tackling anything.  If you can approach Scarbo you should be able to easily learn so many pieces.

Why don't you play a piece you already learned or play one of your college audition pieces?  If you insist on doing something new, you should probably post a small sample of your repertoire that's performance ready (along with how long it took you to learn the pieces) otherwise it's really hard to make a decent suggestion.

Pieces that I've found extremely easy to learn for performance are Schubert Impromptus and Moment Musicals.  I don't know why, but I've probably learned some of these Schubert pieces to a performance level in hours, while even the easier Chopin Waltzes or Prok's Vision Fugitives have taken at least a week of consistent practice until I'd be confident to perform them.

[j_menz]

Some of the Sonatinas by Khulau or Clementi? Some Mozart? Some of the Beethoven Bagatelles or Variations (the God Save the King and Rule Brittania ones are good crowd pleasers)? Some Gershwin (probably a bit hard for this purpose) or some of the available arrangements of more popular type music - there are plenty of collections available fairly cheaply.

Your audience is mostly going to be made up of people who aren'r all that musically "sophisticated" (for want of a better word), senior citizens homes being  filled from the general population, not necessarily seasoned concert goers. I'd steer clear of anything too musically challenging, particularly to start with. If they like you and it becomes a regular gig, you can maybe start expending their horizons (and take some feedback).