First "real" piece you played?

[lelle]

Inspired by the topic "Last piece on piano" I wanted to turn the question around a bit and ask what the first "real" piece you learned and played was? I'm thinking about something that isn't an arrangement of a melody or a two line piece in a method book, but an "actual" piece, if that definition makes any sense. My first piece was probably the Arabesque from Burgmuller's Etudes op. 100 (many legitimately great little character pieces in that set btw, I highly recommend it even today), which I learned using my Yamaha keyboards song playback system before I had a teacher. I probably didn't play it very well, but nevertheless, it was a real piece. Which piece was your first "real" piece?

[keypeg]

Well, I was given a little keyboard and a booklet that would be 10 full sized pages for autodidacts when I was 8 years old.  It was this one:

&ab_channel=organ69

No teacher.

I was then given a piano, and my grandmother's book of sonatinas from 1907 or so.  My first piece, where I sang my way into the notes, was the full version of Fuer Else.  That big chord section, I played it like it was Wagner, with great bravado.  I did not have the chance to hear or see it actually played, so I had no idea how it should sound.  There was no Internet in the 1960's.  There was a lot of Clementi in my grandmother's book.  Her school was in Bayreuth, for "young ladies", in a different era.

[getsiegs]

I don't remember when exactly I switched from lesson-style pieces to "real" repertoire and what exact pieces those were, but one of the earliest "real" pieces/notable parts of piano repertoire that I learned was Scarlatti's Sonata in E Major K. 380. 3rd grade me was not at all equipped for those LH trills

[2hottohandel]

Inspired by the topic "Last piece on piano" I wanted to turn the question around a bit and ask what the first "real" piece you learned and played was? I'm thinking about something that isn't an arrangement of a melody or a two line piece in a method book, but an "actual" piece, if that definition makes any sense. My first piece was probably the Arabesque from Burgmuller's Etudes op. 100 (many legitimately great little character pieces in that set btw, I highly recommend it even today), which I learned using my Yamaha keyboards song playback system before I had a teacher. I probably didn't play it very well, but nevertheless, it was a real piece. Which piece was your first "real" piece?

Glad to be an inspiration  . Surprisingly enough, I remember playing that Burgmuller Arabesque when I was young. Not sure if it was my "first" piece, but it was one of my firsts.

[lelle]

I don't remember when exactly I switched from lesson-style pieces to "real" repertoire and what exact pieces those were, but one of the earliest "real" pieces/notable parts of piano repertoire that I learned was Scarlatti's Sonata in E Major K. 380. 3rd grade me was not at all equipped for those LH trills

Haha left hand trills can be tricky  My left hand trills are still definitely worse than my right hand. But I assume that's a common experience! Thanks for reminding me about that sonata, it's great.

Glad to be an inspiration  . Surprisingly enough, I remember playing that Burgmuller Arabesque when I was young. Not sure if it was my "first" piece, but it was one of my firsts.

It was one of the built-in songs on my Yamaha keyboard along with some of the other Op. 100 Etudes and some other stuff. Did you learn it from a keyboard or was it part of like what your teacher worked on with you?

[2hottohandel]

It was one of the built-in songs on my Yamaha keyboard along with some of the other Op. 100 Etudes and some other stuff. Did you learn it from a keyboard or was it part of like what your teacher worked on with you?

It was in one of the Suzuki books that I worked on with my teacher. I didn't do like Suzuki method or anything, but I had a couple of books at the easier levels (I might. have to fish those out, good sight reading practice)

[kc_gracie]

I feel like the first piece that felt 'real' to me was the first movement of the moonlight sonata. Everything I had played prior to that was from method books or really simple Bach preludes and what not (probably from the AM notebook). That was the first piece that was a real 'classical' piece by a real composer that people knew and what not. My teacher didn't want me to learn it either. She didn't think I was ready. However, my dad bought the music for me and I essentially learned half of it in a short period of time and then showed my teacher. She then saw how motivated I was with it and she let me learn the whole thing. I had such a passion to learn it. I remember even playing video games back in the day (maybe Earthworm Jim) and it being in the background. I just paused the game and let the music go because it was so beautiful. It was the piece (perhaps like many) that led me to love classical music and was the first piece I felt was real.

Okay. Done rambling, but was definitely a special time in my childhood.

-KC

[lelle]

I feel like the first piece that felt 'real' to me was the first movement of the moonlight sonata. Everything I had played prior to that was from method books or really simple Bach preludes and what not (probably from the AM notebook). That was the first piece that was a real 'classical' piece by a real composer that people knew and what not. My teacher didn't want me to learn it either. She didn't think I was ready. However, my dad bought the music for me and I essentially learned half of it in a short period of time and then showed my teacher. She then saw how motivated I was with it and she let me learn the whole thing. I had such a passion to learn it. I remember even playing video games back in the day (maybe Earthworm Jim) and it being in the background. I just paused the game and let the music go because it was so beautiful. It was the piece (perhaps like many) that led me to love classical music and was the first piece I felt was real.

Okay. Done rambling, but was definitely a special time in my childhood.

-KC

I remember when I learned the first movement of the moonlight sonata as a kid, before YouTube and everything. It was amazing! I wish I could recreate the magical feeling I got from some pieces in my childhood

[dogperson]

I remember how grown up I felt when I learned Rach’s C sharp minor prelude as a kid for my teacher’s piano recital. I never mentally defined it with labels of intermediate or advanced but just ‘grown-up’.    Ah, good memories😊