Good intermediate(?) pieces

[katelw]

I know very specific topic . Anyway, I'm not really sure what my level is... I've never done grades or taken exams... I'm more of a play in my free time and maybe at church someday type of musician, lol. I looked at a piece list of RCM grades and would place myself at level 8/9 based on just that. I can also play some that are harder, but they took awhile to work up. So I guess that's intermediate? I already have a teacher who kind of helps me decide what classical pieces to work on. I was just wondering what are some good arrangements of pop music or new age/movie soundtrack music? I feel like I spend almost as much time looking for arragements as I do practicing lol. I like Yiruma but I kind of wore myself out on his music. I learned that one song from Amelie that everybody's playing, and I really like some of the pieces from Schindler's List. I just feel like so much of this type of music is so sad. I'm trying to find a good piece that I can play for my friends. Usually the arrangements of pop music (like top 40) are too easy/boring. Soo... have any suggestions of good arrangements I could look for? It would be very appreciated

[hfmadopter]

I know very specific topic . Anyway, I'm not really sure what my level is... I've never done grades or taken exams... I'm more of a play in my free time and maybe at church someday type of musician, lol. I looked at a piece list of RCM grades and would place myself at level 8/9 based on just that. I can also play some that are harder, but they took awhile to work up. So I guess that's intermediate? I already have a teacher who kind of helps me decide what classical pieces to work on. I was just wondering what are some good arrangements of pop music or new age/movie soundtrack music? I feel like I spend almost as much time looking for arragements as I do practicing lol. I like Yiruma but I kind of wore myself out on his music. I learned that one song from Amelie that everybody's playing, and I really like some of the pieces from Schindler's List. I just feel like so much of this type of music is so sad. I'm trying to find a good piece that I can play for my friends. Usually the arrangements of pop music (like top 40) are too easy/boring. Soo... have any suggestions of good arrangements I could look for? It would be very appreciated

Yes the easy pieces are just that, easy, you have to work with technique but it just goes so far. That's why I take those easy versions and start to rework them myself. Take the melody line turn it into octaves, fill in with counter harmony or work it up with block cords, arpeggiated cords etc. I love to take a simple lovely piece or pretty piece  from say a movie theme and work that up to a goose bump producing almost full keyboard of music and then taper it back off to a sweet end. Doesn't always work out and I may end up redoing some parts to get it the way I want it but I have to tell you people love this stuff. The real key to this is don't rush the music, make the piano really sing the melody, hold some notes that fraction too long, hold off on slamming down that last note on a loud passage, make it just that touch softer than the build up was. It's wonderful stuff full of feeling for the piece !

The first piece I ever did this with was a theme song Ice Castles. I already new the  song but applied the technique to it after an 8 week course in this stuff. That had to be 30 years ago if a day !