Easy dance pieces

[kittenyarn]

Hii! Can anyone recommend me some easy dance pieces? I mean pieces that are suitable for a beginner. It can be any dance style, as long as you really like the piece

Thanks a lot in advance!

[j_tour]

Hii! Can anyone recommend me some easy dance pieces? I mean pieces that are suitable for a beginner. It can be any dance style, as long as you really like the piece

Thanks a lot in advance!

Well, I'm just going to take as read:  "any dance."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Por_una_Cabeza

Gotta know that.

Charleston?  Yeah, that's a whole thing.  Eubie Blake's is a good start.

And just a straight-eight rocker:  that's a kind of dance, I guess.

Those are dances.

I like the gigue from the e-minor partita of Bach, but it drives me crazy.  I don't think it's a real dance, but an exercise in patience.  I don't think that's for a beginner, but it is a "dance," I guess.

And no dance is complete without a boogaloo.  Freddie McCoy, "One Cylinder."

Aw shucks.

Otherwise, just do The Thang

Dance?  First:  rhythm.  Everything else is on top. IME LH is your rhythm, and your bassline, as is your RH, but everything else is in layers.  That's why I like "playing" the dance with other conspirators:  can't do it alone, really. 

As one knows from more complicated music, it's not just a RH/LH division.

So, figuratively and literally, it takes a lot. 

EDIT:  I'd go with "The Thang" as above quoted.  No, it isn't a "piece" with everything written down, but it is a dance.

Probably like most musicians, I know the rudiments of various dances, paceArrau, but am not very good at the act myself.  Passable, let's say.

But, I know what makes people get down and how to encourage them to do so.

It's not very complicated:  a good bassline, some syncopation, and rock steady tempo.

Like a cowbell. 

A "classical" dance is not really one at all.

The gigue from the E-minor partita from Bach is a good dance.  The A major Bourées from Bach's English suite in the same key.  The Op. 27 no. 1 Scherzo from Beethoven has a nice beat to it.

But if some random person calls out "dance music!" IMHO there's not anything you can play that's written down note for note. 

Yeah, maybe, but that's IMHO why it's good to work on little things like this so you have something to play. 

And, no, I've never even heard of any dance music suitable for a beginner.  Not as a solo performer, no.  I think there's one or several transcriptions of Fess's "Tipitina" out there, but it's not a solo piano piece.  The Mac Rebennack "version" without vocals is, dropped down to Eb from F, but if you can read the transcription (which doesn't exist, AFAIK, but I know I can't not be the only one who learned it off the record!), then you don't really need the transcription.

EDITED  I think I misunderstood the OP.  He or she wants some stylized grotesques of actual dances, such as one might find in a child's notebook.

[kittenyarn]

Well, I'm just going to take as read:  "any dance."

Thanks for replying! I mean like the Bach Minuet in G major and the one in g minor, or Chopin Waltz in a minor. Pieces that are some type of a dance

[brogers70]

Thanks for replying! I mean like the Bach Minuet in G major and the one in g minor, or Chopin Waltz in a minor. Pieces that are some type of a dance

I've used a book called Dances of J.S. Bach: Pieces to Play Before the Two Part Inventions, edited by Maurice Hinson. It sounds like it might be the sort of thing you are looking for.

https://www.amazon.com/Bach-Dances-Inventions-Masterwork/dp/0739029797

[j_tour]

Thanks for replying! I mean like the Bach Minuet in G major and the one in g minor, or Chopin Waltz in a minor. Pieces that are some type of a dance

I follow your meaning now.

Hey, Beethoven's "Six Écossaises" WoO 83 are about as easy as it gets:  but also satisfying at the piano, so one wouldn't become bored.

And, take every sonata from Beethoven Op. 31 to the first, and look for the rondos or the "lighter" movements. 

For example (and one can continue along these lines):

Op. 27 no. 1 Scherzo (Cm):  if the Ab section with the clomping infamous "horse's hooves" passage doesn't sound like a dance, then I don't know what does.  I don't know the grade, but I'd say beginner-ish.  Intermediate-ish.

The Op. 26 Scherzo as well:  it's a bit more challenging, but good practice for running continuous lines in RH and LH.  Influence of Bach, I think.  As well as the rondo from this sonata (last movement).  No idea what the grades are:  a bit more of a challenge, but a beginner with adequate sight-reading ability can at least read these at tempo and simplify a bit, as needed. 

If one wants that for teaching material:  you could pretty easily chop down any of those with basic notation software.

It's an idea, though:  I don't think you need help with Chopin or Bach.  That's pretty well covered.

There's still Brahms to talk about, however.  And any number of lighter divertimenti of Scarlatti, and some very accessible Debussy. 

[kittenyarn]

Thanks a lot for your help! I will check those out!!