Waltz in A Minor is my goal piece. I love that piece. I feel like once I get it down, I'll be able to actually say I'm a pianist. But, yes, the jumps in the left hand are the hardest thing for me. Just have to keep working on it.
It's not such an easy piece. I have learnt it alone and it wasn't so easy. I don't know why everyone consideres it as a piece for beginners. Good luck learning it!!!
The jumps are actually not that hard, they will improve as your muscle memory builts. The hardest parts of this piece are tuplets (they appears ALL THE TIME in Chopin music, sometimes you see 35-note tuplets in his pieces) and the E major scale in triplets
I’ve learned all three … you are correct great introduction to Chopin..I love Chopin and playing these pieces has challenged me and improved my range … feel more confident and encouraged … I love your channel … I am a true Chopin fan … he’s emotional and lyrical etc… his music brings out the best in me … the music keeps me motivated
I also like the Chopin prelude in B minor. It's not hard to learn, but it emphasizes bringing out the melody in the LEFT hand, and defining each phrase in a singling style.
I have learned these three pieces already. They're great to learn and improve me a lot. Will you recommend some more difficult (I mean " not too difficult" 😂) pieces of Chopin? Thank you for all your good materials.
My mom was a very good pianist - she was born left handed and when she was in grade school in the middle 1920's, they forced left handed children to write with their right hand so she became ambidextrous. And as I learned when I started to play, the left hand is the hardest - you are not as agile with it as you are with your right hand. So being able to write with both hands became a real asset to her playing skills and abilities. I wish I could play as well.
Hi used to play organ as a child and now at 44 I bought a piano and I’m getting into these pieces. I’m practicing the Prelude Em and I’ve found difficult to balance the sound between both hands. Practicing a bit every day I’ll get there!
I am not so keen on the second piece and haven't learnt that, but absolutely agree that the first (Prelude in E minor) and the third (Waltz in A major) are lovely for beginners to learn 👍 I usually include these in the list I play through most days to 'warm up' before starting on whatever new piece I am learning. I would probably add the following Chopin pieces: Nocturne in E-flat major (No. 2) and Nocturne in C-sharp minor (No. 20). I do love your tutorials 😊
Op 28, No. 20 in C minor is also very accessible. There's a few tough chord reaches, but nothing that's insurmountable, even for someone with small hands.
Yes I have played all these pieces and return to them once in a while. There are also other pieces of Chopin I have played. I really prefer Baroque though, Handel and Bach especially. Its good to ring the changes however. I am currently working on a Schubert waltz in A flat Maj (Op 9a No 12) and finding some challenges! A flat Maj is not my favourite key, though Schubert seemed to like it a lot.
When I first started to learn piano (by myself) I was just thinking of pieces that sounded easy and tried to learn them. My first piece was Bach's prelude in c Major. Then I wanted some Chopin tho, and without knowing too much, I learnt his Nocturne in C-sharp minor first. Then the prelude in E minor, and now I just learnt the raindrop prelude. I realize only now that probably the Nocturne is the hardest of the 3
I actually think that piece 2 is harder than piece 1 after a quick sight reading but it’s probably because I heard piece 1 way more often than piece 2. Another good piece to help intermediates learn is probably the Cello Etude (op.25 no.7) but only the first 20 bar. It teaches them how to play 2 melody lines and It’s not that hard to get the note right. The tempo is also slow so students won’t be easily discouraged. And if student gets tired of it you can pause and comes back to get the weight of each notes correct later.
I also learned the a minor waltz first. But since then I have concentrated a lot on the Mazurkas. There are quite a few that are not too difficult for the intermediate player and they are really beautiful. I have not played a single prelude yet, but 6 or 7 Mazurkas. Maybe I should start with a Prelude soon.
Thanks for the suggestions. The only piece I have attempted from him is the Waltz in Am. I thought it was that one that was the easiest. My main challenge was to build stamina. Technically speaking, I struggled with the second section very much, with the long ornaments to play fast and clear and synchronize it with the left hand. The first part that you played was a piece of cake in comparison. It is because for my exam, I played a jazz piece with fast large leap in the LH (Pustilnik's Circus Theme). Therefore, my brain took it as something not so scary to do.
Surprisingly, after taking piano lessons for 3 months and learning to play the Great Brilliant Waltz for the first time because of its impression from the Tom and Jerry movie. It's really difficult but the feeling of conquering it is great
I love Chopin's music and the two preludes you cited were among the first pieces I learned. Interestingly, the Schirmer book of Chopin preludes I'm using doesn't have any pedal markings for the Op. 28, No. 4. It's marked tenuto sempre for the bass clef stave, and I've read that the way to implement that is to essentially restrike the chords without letting the keys fully come up and engage the dampers. I wonder if this is a more or less authentic publication. I haven't yet tried the waltz. But I love the Nocturne No. 20 in C# minor so much that, even though it's a bit beyond my current technical ability, I continue to routinely work it into my practice sessions. I can play it, but not well. The remaining challenging parts are rolling the arpeggiated left hand chords in the Animato section at a decent tempo and getting that three -octave scale in the right hand, near the end, to be fluid properly aligned with the left and and the tempo for that overall section. I'll get it some day.
This is awesome! I am an intermediate player, and I've been playing the first and last piece mostly. The 2nd piece I found about way later, so I'm working on that right now. I agree with your ranking - the fast, dense part of the Prelude in Em makes it really hard to get it right, although the rest of the song is so satisfying to get to play slowly and emotionally. Especially the trill-tones in the waltz in Am made it hard for me to practice, as that was a new dynamic. Just yesterday actually, I have recorded Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 in Eb - it took me at least half a year to master it because it was actually a little above my level (pretty advanced stuff lol), but the rough road of practicing was so worth it. I'm still hearing so many parts I could improve, but I think it's time (for now) to move onto other pieces. Do you have any other suggestions? I also LOVE Händel pieces, btw. :)
Hey, where do you find the sheets of musics? I have a little difficult to encounter them in the internet... I'll be grateful if you say it to me! Thanks. Good video. :)
The Waltz in A minor has a really tricky part where you play so many notes across one beat- yikes- I've been working on it for ages!! Would love some help! 😊 I love your videos recommending pieces to play!!
Don't worry Waltz in A minor as a whole piece, played properly is anything but an easy piece. The middle section with the fast run across the three octaves is very difficulty to master.
Thanks @jazerleepiano. My 8-year-old boy really loves Chopin and could handle these pieces without much trouble, I think, but for the the fact he can only just manage a minor 7th stretch. I think all of these require octave stretches at minimum, while the A Major Prelude even has a minor 10th, calling for quite large adult hands to play properly. Can you recommend any easy Chopin pieces for small hands, or good reductions? He's just learned an AMEB Grade 2 "Chopinesque" piece called Mazurka for Chopin, by Catherine Rollin, which he plays beautifully. He's hungry for more pieces with that Chopin sound. Would be really grateful for any suggestions you can offer. He particularly likes Chopin. He's listened to the Schumann and Tchaikovsky children's albums, which both have some beautiful pieces, but nothing seems to grab him in the way Chopin does.
Thank you so much Jazer Lee for this lesson and others I have seen. They are so good. I do have a question please. When you say change the pedal for each chord change, I assume this means to lift/release the pedal at the very start of the new chord? And then how soon to press down again? Would you say almost straight away, or perhaps halfway through the phrase/chord? Usually I just go by my ear. If I hear too much pedal, I release momentarily and then press it down when I feel it is getting too dry. But perhaps it would be good to have a more organized method:)
What I cannot get my left hand to do is the 1 base note followed by two triads + melody. three or four note arpeggio, no problem but that thing... It scares me. Any tips? is it just practise?
Hope I'm not off base making this comment but in measure 12 of the Polish Dance prelude, the A/C third in the last beat, it is still an A# that carries over from the prior chord (you played it as A-natural). Lovely playing though! :)
The last piece waltz intrigued me. how hard is this compared with Waltz Mystique by Ray Moore? I’m asking this to assess the difficulty level from this point of reference. Thanks in advance.
I worked on the E Minor Prelude a long time ago? For me, not an easy piece to play well. A is challenge for me was not making all the two note patterns in the right hand sound the same,p. May work in this piece again.🎹 😢
I just finished learning Fur Elise (I can play it accurately at a moderate tempo) and I learned the 3 movements of Muzio Clementi's sonatina in C. Do you think I could attempt Waltz in A minor as my next piece?
Thanks for your great content Jazer! 🤩One question regarding the Prelude in A Major. How would you recommend playing the chord in bar 12 consisting of 9 notes to people like me, that can't reach more than a single octave with there hands 🤯😐 My hands feel like i need to go and visit a doctor after my first attempts 😀😀
I haven't played any of these , not that advanced , but was the waltz in A minor the inspiration behind one of your own compositions? Loved the the E minor piece,
I love Chopin, I play those preludes, so now to check out that waltz. I love the C# minor waltz, and have played Ab (both) and Db - aka the minute waltz, but not recently. The only A minor waltz, in my book, does not seem to match what you played. ??
Measure 12 of the A Major Prelude…Shouldn’t the A on beat 4 still be A#? I learned this when I was in 4th grade, and still can play it from memory (it’s the A#!) and I am 76 years young.
I haven't yet played these pieces, but I'm getting ready to go to the next level. I suffered another operation recently, and didn't have much to do so played lots of piano. And studied music theory at night. My teacher has noticed the change in the last 10 days, and tomorrow is another lesson. I was watching a video that you had done 2 years ago, I put it on pause and went and bought a piano. Merci beaucoup for being my inspiration to start my music education.
I am currently learning waltz in a minor and i am having trouble with the difficult section with the arpeggio. I can't seem to play it at tempo even if i practice it slow a lot.
Hi Jazer, I‘ve played the first and third and had my difficulties especially with bar 21 of the waltz where a triplet is followed by a quintuplet. I still don’t know how to master them. Maybe you have some tips or could make a video tutorial on that? Anyway nice video!
Waltz in A Minor was the first Chopin piece my teacher gave me. I can play it pretty well by now and it's very satisfying. The fact that it's considered an "easy" Chopin has made me nervous to try his others, but I may give the other two in this video a shot.
I am 72..continued after 55 years( have music school)..Play Waltz in B minor-69..Spring Walz and Nocturne b 108! I make mistakes.. but it is geting better.. Have problem with volumen left hend!😂😂😂
I have been playing piano for a year 1/2 now. and I did some kid book for the 5 finger position in C and then I legit just practiced scales inthe circle of 5tths in all divisions and arpeggios , inversions blah blah till 110BPM or so. I tried to play the prelude in E minor first and it's very difficult to pedal with how berstein talks about that it's cut time & not common time/ and keep the two note melody sing at first and if you have attention span issues, it's crazy boring when you seperate hands. So moving on the A minor Waltz , the trill & legato practice is great and so is the Theory, for the vi, ii, V, I for jazz, and you'' learn where the b5 is for blues too , but once you hit the the B section in the rondo and you hit that E Major Quintuplet .you're going to be there for weeks, just pracitcing that arpeggio and if you listen to recordings, people do it extremely fast like over 130 Bpm. and then in the C section, the Parallel Major, it's even faster with the 8th notes with trills added.. so that piece has a lot of Walls because of tempo changes. and though the A major Prelude sounds easy on paper, it';s also very difficult to execute properly and it has a lot of outter voicings/ thirds that you have to sing. like you talked about so one I think of... I am surpsied that you didn't mention the C minor Prelude, I feel that one is super underrated. It's also really great for pracitcing Cadences/ ear training. it's in 4/4 so it;s easier to read and it's short a f and being in C minor/eb its relatively easy to Change fingerings and your brain from C which so many learn that key first from. So you don't have to be there months and months playing the same thing over and over again . Which is really important beacuse that's where I am at with the F minor Nocturne. I Am basically at the coda and I have to play sections every day especailly he Fortissimo B section theme for months and months lol so short is so good. Cheers thanks for the content
