Keeping it Simple - Playing Piano Music That Is Easy!
- Jack Mitchell Smith
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Of course, ‘easy’ is a relative term. To a beginner, learning how to play one note simultaneously against the regular click of a metronome can be a challenge whereas the virtuoso pianist might find Liszt’s ‘Hungarian Rhapsody’ a breeze.
But one thing that we can all certainly agree on is that all of us find certain things easier than others, and I feel it is very important to make a plea to all of us - whether learners, amateurs or professionals, teachers etc. - to not always feel compelled to look forward.
Looking forward is a wonderful thing as it keeps us motivated - it tantalises our tastebuds towards the next challenge. You can do x so now you can take on y, so to speak. In addition to this, it is this craving and actively doing so that keeps us continually improving and becoming the best pianist that we can be (this is also adaptable to just about anything else you work towards!) And that is wonderful, but there are some drawbacks to only looking ahead in this way and in this blog I would like to explore the joy of looking backwards, using a couple of examples from Edvard Grieg’s ‘Lyric Pieces’ (‘Lyrische Stücke).
So sit back and relax as I take you on a train of thought as to why you should balance your learning between pushing yourself and looking at simple piano music that is well within your standards.
Develop More Piano Repertoire
Perhaps the easiest explanation I can give you here is that it will increase what you have at your disposal when it comes to sitting down at the instrument and playing. Not only is this invaluable when you are pulling together a set for a recital (especially if, like me, you have regular places you play at and you don’t like to repeat yourself!), but it also keeps it interesting for you as a performer sat at home enjoying the instrument.
On the fabulous outlet of TikTok I came across a hardcore reader of fiction whilst scrolling through the aptly named ‘BookTok’ trend, and his answer to how he was able to read so many books in the space of, say, a year when some of these books were literally epic novels is that he made sure he always had shorter books on the go alongside them.
It’s a no brainer really, and astonishingly when it comes to actually learning something - such as music - you’d be surprised at how one-at-a-time your mind doesn’t need to take it. One of our biggest fears is that we’ll neglect learning a piece properly or not be able to pick up another one until one is fully mastered but in truth, this is actually not the case!
So next time you’re working towards some 20 minute rhapsody that takes you half a year to learn, remember that by chunking out your practise time more effectively you can develop a whole host of additional repertoire alongside, bulking up how much you can play and allowing your attention to be more focused when it comes to learning the longer pieces.
Validation: You’ve Got This!
Learning piano is hard! Actually, scrap that - playing is hard! I can play, of course. And I will admit that I still struggle at times. Sometimes this is merely a confidence issue depending on situation, it can be a mind blank, I can be not in the zone, tired, hands hurt, ears hurt, not sounding as good as it once did etc. etc. So of course learning the instrument is difficult. And learning pieces is hard too.
If you go full pelt towards a piece of music that is the next step up from your level - or often even at the level you’re at - it can be one of the most soul destroying journeys you go on. Not to say you won’t get there and you won’t be able to play your piece very well by the end, of course. But there are two things that will work against you mentally:
It’s extremely slow progress: this means that you’ll be plodding away at the same bit or bits again and again, meaning that you will inevitably struggle to find the motivation to keep coming back because you won’t feel likely you’re getting anywhere.
You won’t be able to play it properly for a long time: even when you have learned it, perfecting it and making sure it plays through how you want it to can take just as long. Imagine that this can take a few months, and now imagine that this is all you’re ever showing for it. By the end, you’ll have a piece of music that you can play well but might feel rather stale to you.
Compare this with the alternative: you get to the end of the same amount of time and you have 10 pieces. Some or all considerably more straightforward or shorter. Yes we go back to the first point of having developed more repertoire which is very practical, but it is very notable for other reasons too:
You learnt this in a short amount of time: learning 10 piano pieces in a few months is fantastic, regardless of how easy you might look at them. And being able to learn them in such a small space of time is a huge boost to confidence.
You’ll still love playing piano: furthermore, because your entire practice / playing regime hasn’t revolved around one piece of music over and over and over, the whole instrument appears fresh, including the piece of music that has been the centre point of focus!
Use Simple Pieces of Piano Music to Practice Technique
Technique is a very important part of playing piano, but the problem with technique is that we have to learn it alongside…playing the piano! Throwback to earlier when I wrote ‘playing is hard’…so how can you possibly be expected to develop good technique whilst all this is going through your mind?
Use simple music!
Of course, you could resort to more traditional warm ups such as scales / arpeggios etc., but the difference between using a piece of music vs. the traditional exercises is that you will be almost unquestionably more motivated when it comes to playing the music - even if it’s spectacularly easy!
If we take a look at Grieg’s first Lyric Piece (‘Arietta’), we can clearly see that there is some voicing required. This basically means that there has to be individual lines against other individual lines - those notes at the top being our melody above an arpeggio.
The beauty of many of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces is that they are relatively easy to play, so as long as you can get a good sense of playing it and keeping the right notes played at the right time, a good flow etc. then you can put a bit more attention into bringing out those to notes. Voicing is especially important for many complex pieces on piano, such as Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C# minor. However, this is not easy to play regardless of trying to bring the voices out or not!
So if voicing is something that needs a little work for you, practising away from your ‘main’ piece might just be the thing you need.
For a video recap of all the points above (starring a brand new shiny microphone!), see my YouTube video below and make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel to never miss a vid!
Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Congleton, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.
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