What do you play for enjoyment?

[dizzyfingers]

When you just want to kick back and enjoy playing piano music - not learning, not polishing - just playing for enjoyment, what do you play?  Real life examples only!

[brogers70]

Everything I play, I play for enjoyment, especially when I'm learning or polishing. Maybe it would be different if I were not just an amateur.

[pianistavt]

I understand your question.  There are times when practicing feels like work, like when I'm trying to finish a piece and I'm practicing it a lot, the repetition can be fatiguing.  I don't find learning new music particularly enjoyable either.

One piece that I used to play for enjoyment is Schumann's Blumenstuck op 19.  It has a reflective introspective quality.  I rarely practiced it, mostly just played it - to sink into the dreamy vibe.

Here's a recording I made:

[ted]

Everything I play, I play for enjoyment, especially when I'm learning or polishing. Maybe it would be different if I were not just an amateur.

Me too, in music I am much closer to a happy pig than to a wretched Socrates, an unashamed hedonist. My teacher wanted me to be a professional musician, what a disaster that would have been ! If the sounds I create, the improvisations I record, did not make me unconditionally happy I'd sooner stop music altogether and work in the garden. It's nothing to do with discipline or the lack of it, I actually think and work very hard at recording thousands of hours of my playing. I enjoy the discipline but it's self-discipline, not a magisterium of social, economic and academic instructions imposed from outside. That makes all the difference.

[transitional]

Most pieces I learn start with poking around with them for fun, unless my teacher gives it to me. I did a lot of the Schubert sonatas, especially D 845 and 958, without actually learning them so far, as well as a bunch of easier anthologies. Also, I don't typically spend much time refining aged repertoire, so it's usually just played for enjoyment. I suppose I do anything for sightreading as long as it's manageable.

[pianistavt]

Most pieces I learn start with poking around with them for fun, unless my teacher gives it to me. I did a lot of the Schubert sonatas, especially D 845 and 958, without actually learning them so far, as well as a bunch of easier anthologies. Also, I don't typically spend much time refining aged repertoire, so it's usually just played for enjoyment. I suppose I do anything for sightreading as long as it's manageable.

Agreed, Schubert is very enjoyable to learn/play, compared to Beethoven, I'd say more enjoyable.

[lelle]

For me it's typically old repertoire that I really love. I play Chopin's "l'Adieu" waltz at least once a majority of the times I sit down at a piano. I have been doing that since 2014 haha.

[gralva]

Beethoven Moonlight Sonata first movement. Just bringing out the bass lines a bit more than usual. Kinda calms me. Any of the Chopin Preludes, especially number 15. I feel like his Preludes are like collection of beautifully written short stories that speak about all aspects of life. There's happiness, sadness, longing, rage, tranquility, hope, despair, victoriousness, loss, confusion, contentment, satisfaction, grief,... Just wonderful music

[thalbergmad]

I play banjo for enjoyment.

[dizzyfingers]

Beethoven Moonlight Sonata first movement. Just bringing out the bass lines a bit more than usual. Kinda calms me. Any of the Chopin Preludes, especially number 15. I feel like his Preludes are like collection of beautifully written short stories that speak about all aspects of life. There's happiness, sadness, longing, rage, tranquility, hope, despair, victoriousness, loss, confusion, contentment, satisfaction, grief,... Just wonderful music

No doubt that was Chopin's intention - to compose a little catalogue of human emotions.  The fact that he did so with such novel and compelling musical ideas, maintaining impeccable taste, is what makes them a work of art.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I don’t play for enjoyment 🙃