I want to buy a book off ebay, and its advertised as "easy piano". How easy would this be? (im not very good at playing piano though ). I'm about grade 3. Would it be too easy?

Mmmm - "easy piano" could be anything from grade-one to about grade five, depending on publisher and editor etc.

Afraid that's not much help. But I' d think at around grade 3 there's be chance that it's ok for you.

I would say grade 1 to 3ish as i personally would class grade 4/5/6 stuff as moderate piano.

So would I - personally - but the people who write the book covers sometimes use these indications very loosely !

And then of course there's "10 easy pieces" by Zbigniew Priesner which stretch the definition of easy to the extreme...

My first piano teacher had a book by Bartok called 'First Term at the Piano'. He said to me wryly, 'I think Bartok's pupils must have been better than mine'.

yes I had a grade 3 piano piece that was called 3rd Lesson or something - how to make you feel bad at the instrument!

edit: now I come to think of it, I think it was called "Lesson No. 1" - I think it meant lesson in terms of the name of a piece of music, but even so.............!

I agree-just what do editors and music publishers mean by 'easy' I wonder? The challenge for me is finding suitable arrangements of well-known pieces that are actually easy by my definition and not theirs. It's misleading for students and confusing if they're looking to see if a book is manageable or not. But at grade 3 you should be fine.

I think it's probably to make it more saleable, doesn't have octaves and no keys more remote than A/Eb major.

It probably also depends on the style and what you like to play/are good at - I tend to find classical music is easier for me to play with the right style, but I know others who much prefer jazzy things that I would struggle with. But I think "easy" is, yes, a marketing thing.

I read on a website ages ago that grades 1, 2 & 3 was classed as easy piano, 4, 5 & 6 intermediate & 7, 8 & above advanced. I don't know if that was just a publishing thing like some of you have mentioned but in my opinion it's probably about right.

Lisa xxx

Woo my book came today (wrapped up in cling film... ). Some of them easy ish some really hard (for me).

So happy! I my new book.

cool

Good good Helen. I hope you got positive feedback!!

I was playing a while ago from an 'easy piano' book for sightreading, it was a transcription of part of the Tanhauser Overture and at one point modulated into Gb Major I would have thought that they could have transposed it for an 'easy' version! Then again they'd probably have had to start in a horrible key to get that section in a nicer one (I probably would have just left that one out if I was publishing the book myself!).

I personally am looking forward to doing an exam without something on the syllabus that is from a collection called 'X easy pieces' or 'X pieces for children' I've not made it yet and don't think that I will be doing at grade 5 either!

yes it can be depressing when yet another "easy" book contains pieces that I can't play...