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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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.