Easy Pieces in Difficult Keys?

[hpiano]

Hello everyone. Can anyone name some pieces that are on the easy side technically (ie late elementary/early intermediate) but are in more difficult key signartures (5-7 sharps or flats). Most examples I think of are more later intermediate or advanced pieces. I want to really work on my sight reading skills and improve my comfort with large amounts of accidentals but I want to be really gradual about how I go about this. Anyone able to name some pieces? Thank you

[getsiegs]

Some ideas that came to my mind:

-Chopin Prelude in D-Flat
-Liszt Consolation in D-flat
-Debussy Clair de Lune
-Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1 in B-flat minor
-Debussy La fille aux chevaux de lin
-Schubert Impromptu Op. 90 No. 3 in G-flat

For whatever reason these are all flat keys... anyone got any sharp suggestions?

[j_tour]

For whatever reason these are all flat keys... anyone got any sharp suggestions?

Well, there's a lot of Bach written in E major (WTC I prelude) or E minor ("Air" from the E minor partita), and lots from everybody written in G major (Beethoven, Scarlatti, Bach).

I don't really know how to accurately grade for the OP, but the two JS Bach pieces mentioned are about as easy as you can probably get.

I don't think, sticking with the "sharps" theme, I remember much that's extremely easy in A major or B major, although I'm sure pieces exist in some primer somewhere.

I'd just read through the suites/partitas of Bach and the WTC and find ones that don't have much ink on the page and read those. 

That should be plenty of reading practice.

[anacrusis]

I wanted to answer this thread earlier today but forgot to, and now getsiegs has already suggested all the pieces I wanted to recommend that have flats

For sharp keys you can try this Liszt transcription of a Mozart piece:

The Chopin prelude in F sharp is not technically difficult per se, but the ending might be challenging for an intermediate player if you do not break it down and practise it very carefully:

(It's fine to play this one much slower than Argerich plays)

[ranjit]

The Chopin waltz in C# minor comes to mind. Certainly not difficult.

[andrewuk]

Although I'm a good sight-reader, I always find lots of sharps harder to read that lots of flats for some reason. Maybe it's just familiarity, so recently I've been looking at some of the WTC book 2 pieces in the more extreme sharp keys.

The B major prelude (BWV 893) is a great piece, and not too hard to read.

The first section of the C# major prelude (BWV 872) is reasonably straightforward once you get your head around all the sharps and double sharps. (It gets a bit trickier in the fugato section at the end.) The fugue is not too horrendous either, if you take it steadily.

[mjames]

There are some Scriabin preludes for that. G-flats, Eflat minor, B major, and they're all in various opus numbers.

[chomaninoff1]

Chopin's mazurka in e flat minor. Pretty darn easy technically, only 1 page long, and quite beautiful!