My new repertoire

[mistralx]

Hello guys 
This is my first post on this forum so maybe firstly I will say something about me.
So I am a 23 years old male from Poland. When I was a child I used to play piano a lot - I took some private lessons. It was about 8 years ago when I took my last lesson but a few months ago I decided to resume my amateur's piano career.

After holidays I'm going to find a teacher and start regular lessons, but now I want to practise by myself and I need some help with choosing new repertoire.

I think that my "piano level" is something about post-primary.
I can play for example youthful Chopin's polonaises, Solfeggio or Alla Turca.
I adore Chopin's music and I regret I have never been able to play it properly (except a few works).

So my question is - which Chopin's musical works could you recommend me to learn?
Like since I remember my biggest dream was to be able to play Fantasie Impromptu but I guess I am still "to weak" to play this on and have to wait.

I will be grateful for every response 

[visitor]

[marijn1999]

Hello guys 
This is my first post on this forum so maybe firstly I will say something about me.
So I am a 23 years old male from Poland. When I was a child I used to play piano a lot - I took some private lessons. It was about 8 years ago when I took my last lesson but a few months ago I decided to resume my amateur's piano career.

After holidays I'm going to find a teacher and start regular lessons, but now I want to practise by myself and I need some help with choosing new repertoire.

I think that my "piano level" is something about post-primary.
I can play for example youthful Chopin's polonaises, Solfeggio or Alla Turca.

I adore Chopin's music and I regret I have never been able to play it properly (except a few works).

So my question is - which Chopin's musical works could you recommend me to learn?
Like since I remember my biggest dream was to be able to play Fantasie Impromptu but I guess I am still "to weak" to play this on and have to wait.

I will be grateful for every response 

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

I don't think the pieces you are mentioning here are very close to each other as far as level of difficulty (whatever that means) is concerned. Anyway, Fantaisie-Impromptu isn't as difficult as you think (my opinion) technically. I remember having a hard time mostly with getting the polyrythms right in each hand.

Here are some suggestion for you to have a look at (on the basis of your information):

• Mazurkas, Op. 30
• Mazurkas, Op. 41
• Mazurkas, Op. 50
• Waltzes, Op. 64
• Waltzes, Op. post. 70
• Nocturnes in B-flat minor & E-flat major, Op. 9, Nos. 1 and 2
• Préludes in F-sharp major & B-flat major, Op 28, Nos. 13 and 21

Those are just some from a very extensive list one might think of. Last notes, don't shy away from the technically more easy pieces, the might just contain a lot of difficulty interpretation-wise. Also, I strongly discourage you to just play Chopin. His music is wonderful (at times) but there are so much more wonderful composers out there which will became only harder and harder to play if you only fully focus on one composer.

Therefore, I also suggest taking a look at J.S. Bach and his contemporaries like Georg Frideric Händel, Domenico Scarlatti, especially Bach's Little Preludes and Fugues, if you haven't really played him yet. You can also take a look at the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, but a lot of the stuff in there wasn't written by Bach himself but are just collections from other composers. Take a look at post-baroque/classical composers like Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Stamitz and Muzio Clementi. Also take a look at Vienesse Classical composers like Beethoven/Haydn/Mozart (very closely connected with each other), some pre-Chopin composers like Johann Nepomuk Hummel, John Field, Carl Maria von Weber, and some post-Chopin composers like Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt (to some extant a post-Chopin composer) and Clara Schumann (wife of Robert Schumann).

Be sure to always have pieces from several different time periods in your repertoire. It will give you a lot of satisfaction and also positive results as most music will reinforce the other. Also, just as you shouldn't shy away from easy music, you should also not shy away from music that might seem out of your league. Everything is learnable (to some extant) as long as you can bring up the motivation and discipline to do it.

I hope this helps!

BW,
Marijn

[mistralx]

Thanks for your response! I do appreciate it, you helped a lot

I think I will firstly choose Chopin's Waltz op. 64 no. 2.
This is very constructive and resonable what you said about another composers - of course I played some Bach's, Mozart's or Beethoven's works in the past. Maybe the cause of my love to Chopin is because I just don't have knowledge about another composers and my musical awareness concerning another musical works (except Chopin's) is rather very low.

So except this Waltz I decided to work on some Bach's (Little Preludes and Fugues) and I am researching Beethoven pieces and trying to choose a proper one.

I just wanted to ask about this dreamt Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu... do you think it would resonable to work on it? I mean... even to let's say practies both hands separately, to be confident about it, to work on fingering (I don't know how say it in English  )? Maybe it is a good idea to have it practised separately (mybe not in 100% tempo, but 80% of it?) and then work on this practised base with a teacher?

[marijn1999]

Great, you should make sure to have at least five pieces to work on consecutively. To discover new music it's probably best to search around the web. Wikipedia will give you a lot of information about the composer itself (as long as you look for famous ones, although lesser-known composers like Hummel also have Wikipedia pages). Also, you can find information about the music and composition periods from famous composers so you can see their development.

For Beethoven, I suggest taking a look at the following works first:

First Period (ca. 1782-1800):

• 3 Piano Sonatas "Kurfürsten" in E-flat major, F minor and D major, WoO 47 (1782-83)
• 12 Variations on "Menuet a la Vigano" in C major, WoO 68 (1796)
• Two Rondos in C major & G major, Op. 51 (1797)
• 10 Variations on "La stessa, la stessissima" in B-flat major, WoO 73 (1799)

Second Period (ca. 1800-1815):

• 7 Bagatelles, Op. 33 (1802) with the exception of the fifth in C major, they're approachable
• Andante favori in F major, WoO 57 (1804)
• Piano Sonata No. 25 in G major, WoO 79 (1809)
• Polonaise in C major, Op. 89 (1814)

Almost no approachable piano music (for amateurs at a medium level) is to be found in Beethoven's last period. Probably your best shot are the Bagatelles, Op. 119 & 126 for piano. In general, my opinion is that you should wait with the "real" piano sonatas (Nos. 19, 20 and 25 don't really play a big role in the thirthy-two, in my opinion) until you've become acquainted with the languages from his three periods. Therefore, I suggest listening to (next to the piano sonatas) his piano concertos, symphonies, piano trios and most important, his string quartets intensivly.

Bach is always very important as it will develop the left hand too. You see, most technical difficulties of post-baroque music is focused on the right hand, whilst the left hand will accompany it in a more simple way. Because Bach's music is always build up in seperate layers, both hands will have to work as hard, except for maybe his preludes. Therefore, I also suggest you should have more Bach to work on than any other composer. Bach is basis for all that comes after. In texture, harmony and intellectual depth.

About the Fantaisie-Impromptu. If you really love this piece from the bottom of your heart, I think you'll be able to bring up the motivation and discipline to learn it. Also, if you listen to the music you can hear that there is a lot of repetition going on. So, instead of the, what is it? About 130 bars right? You might see that you only will have to learn about 80 and afterwards bring all of them together. However, don't practice slower than the actual tempo you want to play it on. Hands seperate, on the other hand, is extremely important here as both hands are mostly playing in different rhythms (polyrhythmical music).

The piece is roughly build off in three sections: The first, fast section; the second, slower section; the third, fast section which is basically a repetition of the first section with a coda. So, I suggest working on section one and two conscutively. Hands seperate for the first section will be crucial, for the second section it will be less important. Then, if you've learned the first section you'll just have to learn the coda and bring everything together. But that's for later issue. Just start working on the above said.

BW,
Marijn

[mistralx]

Again I would like to thank you very much for your extensive reply.
Summing everything, I think that I will focus on the following works:

F. Chopin - Waltz in C. Minor Op. 64 No. 1
Beethoven - 7 Bagatelles, Op. 33 (1802) with the exception of the fifth in C major
J.S. Bach - here I am still not sure but I guess that some works from Little Preludes and Fugues

And I think I would add this Fantasie-Impromptu.
I see that you have an experience with this work so let me ask you a few more questions.
You said I shouldnt have practised it slower than in a tempo I would like to play it. But I'm affraid that it's quite a long way till I will be able to play it in this tempo.
Shouldn't I firstly learn each hand in slow tempo (like 60 bpm) and then try to play them together - when I works, increase tempo to like 70 bpm etc. etc. until I reach my final tempo like 110bpm or something?

And another question - I have never played works with polyrythmics. That will be the greatest problem for me - to fit both hands together. What do you think about a method showed in this tutorial about 4 against 3?

Thanks

[marijn1999]

I'm sorry I need some time to give you a decent answer. Were in the same timezone if you're in Poland right now so it's 11:48 PM there too right? So, I'm gonna go to bed right now and will answer you tommorow.

BW,
Marijn

[mistralx]

Well, yes - we are in the same time zones but if it's about me, during weekends I turn into night owl
Then good night and I am looking forward to hear from you.