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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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…
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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…
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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.
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Fantasy on Chopin’s Prelude No. 2
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.
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Stravinsky’s Rag Time for Piano, Shortened Version
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…
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Alley Tunes III – The Harmonica Player by David W. Guion
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
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Schubert Piano Sonata D 960, Bb Major, 4th movement (Allegro, ma non troppo), shortened version
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.