Bob.Mustacich.com

Instrumental Music and Short (and Shortened) Pieces for the Amateur Pianist

Pianists, are you wishing you

  • didn’t need to abandon long pieces to make time for learning new ones?
  • had shorter versions of great classics?
  • had more pieces memorized?

Are your pieces

  • too long for the general listener?
  • requiring too much practice time to maintain?

After years of experiencing the above, my practical solution is to play short pieces, and create shorter versions of long pieces I want to play. Now I can include many pieces in daily practice! As a result many are memorized, and I have several pieces in shorter forms that are more enjoyable to play.

My blogs to this site are my amateur performances of pieces I enjoy. I describe and detail the changes to any that I have shortened. I hope this is helpful to your pursuit of piano enjoyment.

  • Goldberg Variations 1-3 + Aria

    The 30 Goldberg variations run long for most listeners, and are a large project to learn. So here’s a short version of just the first set of 3 plus the beautiful aria which is the basis for the variations.

  • Gameljam

  • La Soiree dans Granade

    A habanera (literally “music or dance of Havana”) by Claude Debussey written in his impressionistic style. A very beautiful and atmospheric piece.

  • Prokofiev’s Diabolical Suggestions

    First performed by Sergei Prokofiev in 1909, this piece earned him his place as a leftist and “bad boy of Russian music.” It is from his Four Pieces, opus. 4, no. 4. After a demonic start, it becomes sheer terror, and is now considered a modern masterpiece. Great fun to play.

  • Chopin Nocture C#min

    This piece is already short, so I didn’t make any changes to it. A favorite along with Cmin nocturne.

  • Eclipse in F#

    A piano composition with instrumentation inspired by recent eclipses. Piano sheet music is available for download below.

  • Fantasy on Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 (a shortened version)

    A favorite of Chopin’s Ballades that I once worked on, but it has some very difficult sections for the amateur pianist. I came back to this piece and created a shortened version of it that required one new transition section and a new ending. It was great fun to work on and play as I…

  • Schubert Piano Sonata D 960, Bb Major, 1st movement (Molto moderato), shortened version

    I shortened this from 20 minutes (plus or minus a few minutes depending on the performer) to 8 minutes. The details of shortening the piece are described after the video. In this arrangement, I play through measure 111, then jump to measure 122 (in the first ending). I play through measure 124, and then jump…

  • Arrangement of Philip Glass’ Etude No. 3

    This is an arrangement of Glass’ Etude No. 3 that is exciting and great fun to play. I very much like the chromatic and harmonic movement in sections of the piece, and this arrangement captures my favorite sections in a short piece. Unfortunately, due to copyright restrictions I am unable to record the arrangement for…

  • Carolina Shout by James P. Johnson

    This is a stride piano classic from the early 20th c. that I’m adding to the blogs for fun and variety. I didn’t find sheet music for this at the time I worked on learning it, so just had to “wing it” by ear.