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.
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Green Heat
This is a sci-fi latin dance creation in which an alien visits partway through the piece and tries to communicate by learning and trying to mimic the music.
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Visions Captives
Piano composition for 4 hands with jazz influences. Sheet music free to download with link below.
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Mojito
Latin jazz composition with Peter Mustacich on saxophone
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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.
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Gameljam
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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.
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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.
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Chopin Nocture C#min
This piece is already short, so I didn’t make any changes to it. A favorite along with Cmin nocturne.
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Eclipse in F#
A piano composition with instrumentation inspired by recent eclipses. Piano sheet music is available for download below.
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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…