Category: Piano

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…

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…

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…

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.

This is my version of Chopin’s Prelude No. 2. I found this prelude fascinating, but I wanted more to happen in it. I tried to capture the ominous feeling of the original piece. The sheet music for my arrangement is in the free download below.

This piece is shortened version of the composer’s transcription for piano of his Rag Time for eleven instruments. There are several places in the original, which runs 12 pages in length, in which the harmonic motion leads to jumps that can be made in the score that are smooth and pleasing to my ear. These…

David W. Guion, Texan composer, was best known for his arrangements of cowboy tunes, African American spirituals, and original compositions often inspired by the soundscape of west Texas. This piece is dated 1926. David W. Guion – Wikipedia

This is a wonderful, but long movement consisting of about 540 measures! I reduced this by about half by playing through measure 254, jumping to measure 491, and playing to the end.