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Topic: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend  (Read 15268 times)

Offline ShiroKuro

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Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
on: March 26, 2005, 01:57:59 PM
I am trying to improve my speed, and am working on the Tarantella that's in the movie "Legend of 1900."  The arrangement I have is nice, but incredibily simple (one note per hand throughout) However, the MM is 138, which is a good challenge for me right now.

Can anyone recommend other pieces like this, fast (MM 100-140) but without lots of  (or any) chords and not too intricate in the melody?  I'm interested in classical or contemporary, but not ragtime or syncopated, things that are fun to play and which basically only present a challenge in the area of speed/tempo.

If you are familiar with Mozart's variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, that's the sort of thing I'm looking for (except that is something like 10 pages long, so something a little shorter would be good)

Thanks for any suggestions!   :)
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Offline LVB op.57

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #1 on: March 26, 2005, 02:46:17 PM
chopin-minute waltz

Offline BoliverAllmon

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #2 on: March 26, 2005, 03:52:48 PM
shostakovich's lyrical waltz isn't too fast, but you are having to grab chords pretty quickly. Also the melody is in thirds for  parts of it.

boliver

Offline Graf Zahl

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #3 on: March 26, 2005, 03:57:02 PM
What about the Flight of the Bumble-Bee in the Rachmaninov-transcription?

Offline BoliverAllmon

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #4 on: March 26, 2005, 04:11:15 PM
What about the Flight of the Bumble-Bee in the Rachmaninov-transcription?

I thought we were talking easy?

Offline shasta

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #5 on: March 26, 2005, 06:04:37 PM
Fast but easy:

CPE Bach's little C minor Solfeggietto

JS Bach's C minor prelude from book 1

Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances  <-- the last one, I think "Maruntel", in particular...
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Offline anda

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #6 on: March 26, 2005, 06:09:00 PM
Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances  <-- the last one, I think "Maruntel", in particular...

that's not an easy one... maybe the 5th dance

Offline anda

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #7 on: March 26, 2005, 06:11:52 PM
schubert - impromptu op. 90 no.2 eb dur

Offline pseudopianist

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #8 on: March 27, 2005, 11:27:04 AM
schubert - impromptu op. 90 no.2 eb dur

Agreed
Whisky and Messiaen

Offline Waldszenen

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #9 on: March 27, 2005, 12:24:54 PM
The finale of Beethoven's Pathetique though it contains many slow parts.
Fortune favours the musical.

Offline shotkong64x

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #10 on: March 27, 2005, 04:20:59 PM
L'orage - Friedrich Burgmuller

sorta fast, really furious peice.  extremely easy.

Offline hodi

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #11 on: March 27, 2005, 06:10:42 PM
mendelssohn's spinning song :-)
(not really easy to play it good)

Offline berrt

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #12 on: March 27, 2005, 06:43:21 PM
D'aquin: Le Coucou - slightly above beginner-level.

bye
Berrt

Offline Etude

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #13 on: March 27, 2005, 08:48:39 PM
Bach WTC book I: Prelude 21

Beethoven op. 2 no. 1 4th movement


Offline lostinidlewonder

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #14 on: March 28, 2005, 01:08:56 AM
"The biggest risk in life is to take no risk at all."
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Offline ShiroKuro

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #15 on: March 28, 2005, 04:26:12 AM
Thanks for all the suggestions!  I am making a list, and now trying to see which pieces I already have and haven't noticed, and which ones I want to get! Thanks again.  And certainly, ifanyone has more, keep them coming!   :)

Offline keys

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #16 on: March 28, 2005, 06:25:23 PM
Solfeggietto by C. P. E. Bach. I LOVED this piece.  It fits the hand really well, so much fun to play.  ;D

Offline vivace

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #17 on: March 29, 2005, 07:47:57 AM
How about MacDowell's "Alla Tarantella"? Find it on this site, listed as Etude Op. 39 No. 2   

https://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/single_listing.cfm?composer_id=39

Printed under the title of the edition linked above is: "Speed, Lightness of Touch". There you go--focus is on speed! Fun to play, musically entertaining, and is rather short.   8)

Offline fred smalls

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #18 on: March 29, 2005, 07:56:11 AM
Ok! Heres a good piece to learn that sounds hard  ;) is very fast  ;D and not that difficult :o
Liszt: Prelude to the Transcendental Etudes: Etude No.1

Now, do me a favour, tell me where i can get the music for that piece from Legend of 1900. I want to see if its really as hard as that movie makes it out to be, it didn't look intensly difficult(?)
(It is the one he shows the jazz pianst up with, right?) Also, who is it by?
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Offline fred smalls

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #19 on: March 29, 2005, 08:00:44 AM
I think i read the topic wrong :P
Does anyone know where to get the original arrangment for the piece in that movie?
Also, maybe the first etude would be a bit tricky, try some of the Czerny exercises in the book that comes before "The Art of Finger Dexterity" (can't remember its name, maybe someone will help me out :o). They might not be musically that interesting but they will help your technique!
Medtner is my god.

Offline ShiroKuro

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #20 on: April 01, 2005, 10:40:39 AM
Fred, sorry for the late reply.

The piece from Legend of 1900 that I was talking about is not used in the piano duel . It's called "Tarantella in 3rd Class" by Ennio Morricone.

Do you remember the scene where he's in 3rd class and someone says (in Italian) "hey, play us a Tarantella?" and 1900 says "hey Piasan, what's a tarantella?"  The guy hums a bit, and 1900 takes off at  200 miles per hour. The arrangement I have is slightly simplified for the first half, mainly by making the LH just dotted quarter notes, two per measure. Then the second half is more like that performed in the movie, the RH and LH are constant quarter notes, at odds with each other (sounds fantastic!)

The book that I got this in says that this piece appears on the CD soundtrack sold in Italy (so it probably is not available on the US edition CD).  By the way, I am in Japan, and this piece is in a Japanese music publication, so I'm not sure that you could get it all that easily... Have you looked at scores for the soundtrack, it might be in one.

If you like the stuff from the piano battle scene, look for "the Crave" by Jelly Roll Morton, which is one of my all time favorite pieces (and I am certain that it's in all the soundtrack score books).

Offline fred smalls

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #21 on: April 02, 2005, 08:08:33 PM
Ok. Thanks for your help ;D The Crave is a really cool piece isn't it? I like it more when 1900 plays it with octave glissandos ;D ;D
Medtner is my god.

Offline steinwayguy

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #22 on: April 03, 2005, 05:13:06 AM
Liszt's Mephisto Waltz isn't too bad.

Offline fred smalls

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #23 on: April 03, 2005, 05:46:37 AM
Liszt's Mephisto Waltz isn't too bad.

Please.
This is asking about pieces like Solfeggietto not Mephisto Waltz. Don't suggest Mephisto Waltz as an easy piece, that is plain stupid.
Thanks
Medtner is my god.

Offline fred smalls

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #24 on: April 03, 2005, 05:52:31 AM
BTW, i forgot,  ::)
Medtner is my god.

Offline offenbach

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #25 on: April 03, 2005, 12:11:19 PM
What about Beethoven's "God Save the King" variations? It's fun, and much like the Mozart Twinkle Twinkle, but shorter. Hope this helps.

O :)

Offline lfischer

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #26 on: April 03, 2005, 02:56:10 PM
3rd movt of Moonlight sonata?

Offline ShiroKuro

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #27 on: April 04, 2005, 12:13:21 AM
A lot of the pieces being suggested here are pieces I have in different collections, but maybe don't know or haven't played. So that's very helpful (thanks again everyone)   It's kind of funny when you book a book with 20-50 pieces in it, and you know about 15 of them! So this thread has turned out to be helpful in that regard as well.  :)

But I don't know the Beethoven "God Save the King" piece... does it have a different name? I'll have to look for and see what it is.

Offline thierry13

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #28 on: April 04, 2005, 02:44:13 AM
Liszt's Mephisto Waltz isn't too bad.

Why not the sorabji piece Ludwig van Rachabji posted in the sorabji topic ? That wouldn't be too bad  ;D  ::)

Offline yebanqinsh

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #29 on: April 06, 2006, 12:02:42 PM
Forget about what I said :)

Offline chopinfan_22

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #30 on: April 06, 2006, 12:58:59 PM
Chopin's Prelude Op. 28 No. 3 isn't too bad. It's good for the left hand. Also try his Waltz Op. 64 No. 2. It starts off slow, then has it's moments of speed.
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Offline stagefright

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #31 on: April 06, 2006, 10:26:52 PM
I thought we were talking easy?

Polka Italienne by Rachmaninov

Offline Tash

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #32 on: April 07, 2006, 07:48:55 AM
the 3rd movement of khachaturian's sonatina is about grade 8 (AMEB syllabus, thus around the mozart variations)- it's fast, exciting and will knock the socks of anyone who listens to it!
'J'aime presque autant les images que la musique' Debussy

Offline debussy symbolism

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #33 on: April 08, 2006, 06:18:38 AM
Greetings.

I recomend Schumann's Fantastic Dance. It is a very lovely and beautifull piece.

Hope this helps.

Offline queenrock

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #34 on: April 08, 2006, 10:24:34 AM
Anyone heard of Csikos Post by H. Necke, it's pretty easy and sounds really really good when it's played really fast and really loudly.

Offline adagio

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #35 on: April 08, 2006, 03:33:49 PM
I recommand : Tarentelle by Scharwenka, Op. 62, no. 12.
This is a nice piece of music.
Regards.

Offline nanabush

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #36 on: April 08, 2006, 04:23:35 PM
I second the third mvmt of Khacthataurian [sry for spelling] sonatina.  It's very fast, not overly difficult, quite lengthy [page wise]. 

I'd also like to suggest the first movement.  I playd this for grd 9 rcm, and I also tried out the third movement.  The third seemd harder to perfect, but the first movement was more of a workout (octaves, some thirds).  Both are excellent fast, showy pieces, not overly diffficult, not too easy.  Give these a shot, or at least listen to them, u'll love them.
Interested in discussing:

-Prokofiev Toccata
-Scriabin Sonata 2

Offline Tash

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #37 on: April 08, 2006, 11:02:58 PM
oh yeah the 1st movement is lots of fun! it's very playful and nice to play
'J'aime presque autant les images que la musique' Debussy

Offline sauergrandson

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #38 on: April 09, 2006, 01:09:44 AM
Aragonaise, from "Le Cid" Massenet

Offline sauergrandson

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #39 on: April 09, 2006, 05:05:43 PM
Uhm.... Upps......   How could I.....?   SCARLATTI IS YOUR MAN!!!!!!!    EASY, but seems difficult.

Offline piazzo23

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #40 on: April 10, 2006, 04:31:28 AM
Debussy´s Dr Gradus ad Parnassum form his Children´s Corner.
You can memorize it and play it at incredible speed in one day.

Offline justliam

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #41 on: April 10, 2006, 05:27:21 PM
Dr Gradus took me a week and a half at an hour a day lol, but yeh I guess it is pretty easy compared with how it sounds
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Offline pacific_pianist

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #42 on: August 28, 2019, 05:10:18 PM
I recommand : Tarentelle by Scharwenka, Op. 62, no. 12.
This is a nice piece of music.
Regards.

I'd like to congradulate this person for actually posting a RELEVANT RESPONSE. The original post asks for EASY pieces. And then all these bone heads start suggesting Chopin Waltz's Liszt I mean c'mon! The whole point of trying to learn how to play fast is to have EASY music so you are not STRUGGLING. 

Offline cuberdrift

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #43 on: August 30, 2019, 07:38:58 AM
I thought we were talking easy?

The author mentioned in the league of the Twinkle Star variations by Mozart. And the Bumblebee isn't exactly harder than that. I took on both before.

Offline andrewuk

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #44 on: August 30, 2019, 12:41:33 PM
Albert Pieczonka's Tarantella  (fairly easy, but impressive if played well)

Dizzy Fingers by Zez Confrey (fast-moving RH, but LH is easy with no big jumps)

Offline johnlewisgrant

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #45 on: September 03, 2019, 01:34:59 PM
Bach, G Major Prelude (no. 15), Well-tempered Clavier, Book 2:
https://soundcloud.com/johnlgrant/bach-prelude-15-g-major-well-tempered-book-1


C Sharp Major Prelude (No. 3) Book 1:
https://soundcloud.com/johnlgrant/bach-prelude-3-c-sharp-major-well-tempered-clavier-book-1

Not sure about "easy".  That's a relative term!   The C Sharp Major Prelude is actually the easiest of these two quite well-known pieces.  All those sharps actually make it easier under the fingers.   The G Major prelude is harder, in fact, to play fast, not only because of the sustaining notes (under which the runs are played), but also because the more white keys (ironically), the more difficult it is to play evenly.

You might find these two preludes "hard," depending on your level.  Still, really slow practice, and either of these pieces can be mastered by anyone.  At least, that's MY take.

Offline pacific_pianist

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Re: Fast but easy pieces, please recommend
Reply #46 on: September 03, 2019, 07:24:07 PM
you know... i have always thought the C# Major prelude sounded easier than it seems... so maybe I will give it a try. Yes the G Major sounds like the arpeggios on the white keys might be hard. Also you need a supple wrist in the LH all those triplets. Thanks for the ideas.
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