As you may have noticed, I'm teaching myself piano. Does anyone know of any easy to play chopin pieces? I'm about grade 3/4 standard. Thanks
Rosemary

The easiest thing I can think of is a Waltz in E Flat - sorry, I don't know an opus number, but it's in the current Guildhall Grade 5 book.

Might be a bit ambitious, I'm still waiting on a grade 4 book at the moment. It can't hurt to give it a try though! Thanks!

It's short!

Great! Does that mean no page turns?

Check out the the Op.28 Preludes - the B minor, C minor and A major preludes are concise but meaningful miniatures, will be good to work on and perform, and should be within your present capabilities. Good luck!

Do you have the numbers for those? They sound good!

Perhaps now is a good time to point out I have no pedal at home, and only four octaves. Or not.

B minor - No.6
A major - No.7
C minor - No.20

No.4 in E minor also is short and very sweet

Could I just mention that although these are great pieces to look at , they are by no means grade 3/4 The B minor is on the grade 6 syllabus, the A major has the disadvantage of sounding really easy even though its not, the prelude in C minor needs a large stretch so I would say the E minor would be your best bet.

Sara

Okay, thanks!

Easier Piano Pieces. No. 39 Chopin An Introductory Album 'Easier Piano Pieces'
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

In the series 'Easier Piano Pieces'.

I only got to around grade 3 standard, but I did manage to play some pieces.

If you can't find it, let me know! ;-)

Steve

Thanks, but I don't have the money to buy music at the moment! I know of a few websites that do have the out of copyright stuff, and I've found the preludes there. I will have a look at those! Thanks eveyone
Rosemary.

Try the Waltz in B minor Op 69 No 2...

I was the first Chopin piece I've ever learnt , I think I was in grade 4 then.

Let us know how things go..

Dina x

I always reckon the A minor waltz is the easiest waltz.
The B minors not so bad, but not all people at Grade 4 would like playing the B major bit

I reckon both of these are grade 5/6.

If I were you I wouldn't get so 'hung up' about what grade a piece is. There's far too many posts on these forums about playing a certain piece of music, or not as the case may be, because it is 'this' grade or 'that grade', and mostly but not entirely it is piano teachers who are to blame.Grades are arbitrary markers for examination boards and milestones for students to aim for. They have nothing what so ever to do with the enjoyment or pleasure of playing the piano.

Just get on and try and play the short Chopin preludes, even if it takes you weeks or months to learn them.

Don't give up and be negative about playing a piano piece because someone here tells you it's grade 7 or 8.

I'm grade 8 and I can play a fair chunk of the Rach 2 and 3 piano concertos. What grade would that equate with, I don't have any diplomas, degrees or the like in music.

Don't become stifled by all this grade x y z nonsense.

The reason that people estimate a grade for a piece is in order to give an idea of relative difficulty. If I said I liked Liszt and gave out the information that I had just passed, say, Grade 5, it would be a bit silly of somebody to suggest a Hungarian Rhapsody without pointing out that it's several grades and dips ahead! (I might not know till I'd gone out and bought it!) We use grades as an estimation of relative difficulty - not as a prescriptive thing. I do think a grade 5 could probably tackle a Grade 8 piece - it would just take substantially longer, and the question is "Is it worth it?"

My vote would be 'no' - to learn something useful from a piece, one has be able to cope with it well enough to be able to focus on one or more technical issues. A grade 5 pianist playing a grade 8 piece would struggle with the notes to the point where being able to work on technical issues as well would be infeasible.

But I suspect you knew that already . As someone who did want to learn hard pieces early, though, my piano teacher said I was welcome to do so in my own time; it would have been a waste of lesson time for her to go through them with me, for the reasons stated above.

I've been well and truly won around to the idea of playing the easiest pieces you can (as long as they are pieces you really want to learn). When i restarted the piano i fell into the very common trap of choosing difficult, unsuitable pieces, which did my technique more harm than good, tarnished my enjoyment of the pieces, and drove my family absolutely nuts. I have recently started to build up as big a repertoire of pieces as possible, and have been getting my way through the bach inventions and chopin mazurkas. I find this new approach far far more satisfying than hacking my way the chopin scherzos and other pieces which i wasn't ready for. By the way, has anyone suggested some mazurkas for rosemary? There are several fairly easy mazurkas, my favourites being op.67 no.2, 3 and 4. These should all be playable with a bit of good practise.
Schubertiad

n

Yes I play loads of them .
For Rosemary try Op7 no1 and no2 Op17 no1, and no4, Op24 no1, Op50 no 1, Op68 no1 and No3 and the three from Op67 suggested above

Thanks guys! What a lot of music!

Chopin is worthy!

I really reccomend the waltz in A minor, it was the first Chopin piece I learnt and I still love it. Also theres a nice prelude, I think it's in B minor ....... But I know both these pieces are in the "Quiet Classics" book, edited by Keith Snell. It's a great book and has some great pieces.

hope this helps

xx

I've played the mazurka in G# minor at a Forum do. Not too hard (it's in the AB "easier piano pieces" book). Gets easier once you get your head around key signature but there are a couple of bars that stand out as much harder than the rest.

I would say one of the "most accesible" of his pieces is the Funeral March. By that I mean the March itself, not the whole movement and most definately not the sonata!!!

It isn't the most cheerful piece of music, and your family may not appreciate several hous of practise every evening, but I think most grade 5 pianists could play it pretty well.

Alfred Publishing has a book called "Chopin - 14 Easiest Selections"
e.g.
http://sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail...mp;item=3533804

The pieces included are:
Title Opus Composer
# Waltz in A minor Posthumous Frederic Chopin
# Waltz in E-flat Major Posthumous Frederic Chopin
# Mazurka in C Major Posthumous Op. 67, No. 3 Frederic Chopin
# Mazurka in A Minor Posthumous Op. 67, No. 4 Frederic Chopin
# Mazurka in F Major Posthumous Op. 68, No. 4 Frederic Chopin
# Mazurka in C Major Op. 7, No. 5 Frederic Chopin
# Largo in E-flat Major Posthumous Frederic Chopin
# Prelude in E Minor Op. 28, No. 4 Frederic Chopin
# Prelude in B Minor Op. 28, No. 6 Frederic Chopin
# Prelude in A Major Op. 28, No. 7 Frederic Chopin
# Waltz in B Minor Posthumous Op. 69, No. 2 Frederic Chopin
# Mazurka in G Minor Posthumous Op. 67, No. 2 Frederic Chopin
# Mazurka in B-flat Major Op. 7, No. 1 Frederic Chopin
# Cantabile in B-flat Major Posthumous Frederic Chopin

Hmm simple Chopin...out of curiosity, any reason why you want to play Chopin?

I did most of my Chopin waltzes when I was in grade 5/6 (except for those Grande Valse Brilliantes, which I didn't start until grade 8), so I think they're mostly at least grade 5 material. However, if you want to give it a stretch, I'd say A Minor and F Major are some of the easier ones. The nocturnes I wouldn't recommend though. I've never played any of his etudes or mazurkas, but perhaps his mazurkas aren't that difficult. There might also be some "Easy Piano" versions if you really want to play Chopin, but it's more fun to play the actual piece, IMO.

hey

just thought of another one...... prelude in E minor
it's a nice one

byebye

xx

I still think that of all the options listed above, the Waltz in Eb is the easiest.......

Which Opus number is that? Yea, I agree that you don't have to be dead set on playing a piece that's 'your grade' standard. Although it might take you quite a long time to master the piece, you'll feel a great sense of acheivement when you do! =) I'm around your standard only but I am able to play the Nocturne in Eb Major. It's really nice! Anyway, I got some Preludes and I agree they're quite ok for Grade 3/4 standard. Preludes Op.28 No. 4 and 7. No. 7 requires large stretches so make sure your fingers are warmed up! I've small fingers so I haven't been able to find my way around that. Waltz Op. 69 No.2 is a very nice piece to play once you get used to the key signature. It starts wih 2 sharps, then 5 and then 2 again. Im still struggling with the 5 sharps part. It just muddles up my brain so much!

One thing I find tremendously useful for learning pieces, if you are able to, find a recording (a MIDI's fine too!) of the piece and listen to it. For some reason, it helps you learn the piece faster. That was how I learnt the Nocturne. Or else, I probably wouldn't have gone near the piece! There's a website called Classical Archives. They have tons of recordings and MIDIs there. If you join as a free member, you can only download 5 recordings/MIDIs a day though. If you are a paying member, I think you have an unlimited amount. I don't think I can post the link on this thread so if you'd like the URL, just PM me!

Have fun with your Chopin journey! His music's great!

I've got a Chopin CD, so I'll be okay for teh recordings thanks! 5 sharps doesn't bother me, not after playing parts for A clarinet on a B flat....

Lol, I prefer 3 sharps/flats at most!