Ranking Piano Pieces from Easiest to Hardest (Ft. Sophie Oui Oui) 

"Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of OneSet Piano" - Sophie nailed the intro 🤣

I really like Oui Oui's calm tone and clear explanation of her thoughts. This is sort of like a music professor discussing questions with two mischievous but talented students lol

I love how Brett and eddy were more concerned about balancing out the tier list like a construction project

15:15 Hammerklaivier is definitely Ling Ling level. It was for a long time a piece seen as the bashings on a keyboard by a composer going mad and deaf until Liszt some many many years later played it at a solo recital and suddenly for the first time many could see the genius of the piece. If you need the worlds greatest ever pianist to show the value of a piece, I think it safe to say its Ling Ling level.

Sophie is right. Playing is fairly easy, but playing it well is really difficult. That makes a lot of difference.

I found that both Sophie Oui Oui and TwoSet value musicality more than technical difficulties, which makes a huge difference between the educated and the normal audiences. Fascinating, fascinating.

“If you can’t feel the music, you won’t be able to play it well even with 40 hours a day of practice…” This can’t be understated. Sounds cheesy to non musicians… But it’s incredibly accurate

I like how Sophie showcases the difference between playing and MASTERING pieces. It gives a good insight into someone who is at a high skill level and what matters at that point.

This list is only for really good pianists. If you're beginner or intermediate then technicality is going to be the biggest obstacle so playing something like moonlight sonata will be easier then la campanella. However once you get to the level where you can play almost anything, technicality becomes less important compared to musicality. For example La Campanella is very easy once you know it but something like Un Sospiro will never become "easy" no matter how confident you are in the piece. You can have unconscious competence in a technically difficult piece however when you play a piece where the melody is exposed and it is very well known then you have to be very intentional in your voicing and phrasing to ensure that it's not a snore fest. This is why Mozart is so difficult. Another factor is stuff like hand size and flexibility. Sophie has smaller hands so she has an easy time playing Chopin Op 10 no 5 and probably has an easy time playing Op 10 no 4 as well because these pieces have extremely tight intervals where your fingers are on top of one another. Someone with large hands would struggle with these pieces but have an relatively easy time with Op 25 no 10 and Op 10 no 1. The Ocean and Waterfall etudes respectfully are extremely difficult if you have smaller hands to a level where you have to play in a completely different way. Chopin had small hands himself so these pieces were designed as exercises to train wrist flexibility however if you have large hands you don't need as much wrist flexibility. Chopin actually showed the waterfall etude to Liszt when they were both 19 and Liszt was able to sight read it immediately. My point is that there are too many factors in piano so this list only really applies to Sophie Oui Oui. Even if you got to her level of piano your list would look completely different.

Sophie actually pronouncing Csárdás correctly brought me so much joy as a Hungarian

Clair de lune is actually very hard dynamically, playing it well could be one of the more hard level challenges, along with the arpeggios in the middle

I remember Mozart's K545 being one of the firsy few serious pieces I learned since I always heard about it being easy. Well yeah it was easy to learn but being such a simple piece, any flaws are just laid bare for everyone to hear. I could never ever be satisfied playing it

It seems there are three stages of musicianship. The bottom one one is where it is a technical challenge. The middle one is where technically easier pieces become proportionately harder musically, because you've realized you can't just "hide" behind technical execution. And the top one is where perfect execution is taken for granted, it's all about the emotional message, and the goal is not just to get to that stage but to _know_ you're there while you're there so that you can enjoy it. Personally, I would just like to be able to play an entire piece without once thinking, "don't screw this up."

it's so satisfying to hear Sophie pronounce the names correctly!

Yes! I always enjoy watching Sophie Druml perform and discuss piano music. Great video!

her explanation are so clear! loving the collabs

I really enjoy Twoset because they are not just funny but they also introduce so many beautiful pieces and amazing composers! I don't play any instruments (only played Japanese harp for few years) and learnt basic music history at school but Twoset make classical music more reachable, fun and enjoyable in many levels. Plus I am learning English from them as a bonus point! I truly appreciate it!

I'd like to add to the Rach 2nd Concerto as I read Bertenson/Leyda biography of Rachmaninov - the therapist was called Nikolai Dahl and he was also an amateur violist. Once in his lifetime, sometimes in 1920's he actually played viola in an orchestra that played this concerto one evening. Someone noticed his presence in the orchestra and after the performance he was persuaded to take a bow together with the conductor and the pianist and received huge ovations.

I'm a bit dissappointed that they didn't even mention Bach's fugues, I mean those are very fking hard to master and play perfectly.

As a pianist who plays a lot of Mozart, I 100% agree with Sophie that Mozart is always ling ling. Sometimes the "easiest" notes are the hardest to play because there is nothing you can hide behind.

as a pianist, it’s all about telling the music’s story. i may be able to play all the notes accurately, but it is terribly difficult to share the emotions you get from the piece with the audience. thanks for the video, enjoyable as always!

I have heard Pogorelić at his best playing Chopin‘s Piano Sonata Nr. 2. I was literally in tears. I feel so lucky to have witnessed that concert. It was after his „second place“ on the Chopin competition“ that caused a big scandal and he was at his best. Entire evening full with Chopin God Level.

I'm currently putting final touches on my orchestration of Chopin's Funeral March, and I can confirm, the middle "trio" section is a big part of why the whole movement is one of my favorite pieces of music of the Romantic era, and possibly ever.

Sophie is always a cool guest and has great insights. But the title should be "Piano peices ranked by symmetry and OCD" 😂

me, a seventeen-year-old girl, not going to be a professional musician. Though haven't take any piano lessons for four years, inspired by your channel, I accidentally practiced four pieces in the god level last year😂, which was apparently beyond my expectations. Thank you twoset💕

Loved listening in and the aspect of difficulty in those slow pieces too!

Ondine and scarbo are insane pieces and they are so amazing. I pretty much have Ondine down. As for Scarbo, I have a lot of it but not perfectly. Still gotta practice all the repeated notes and arm crossing.

"Mozart piano sonatas are too easy for children and too difficult for adults." - Schnabel

Yes! Sophie is back! Always a good time with oui oui!

I love these collabs! Sophie offsets Brett's and Eddie's Aussie craziness with her Austrian flair 😊

I’m learning the first movement of Gaspard de la Nuit, “Ondine”. It’s already very difficult to handle, it’s similar to learning Un Sospiro just because of the flowy watery style, but it’s much more challenging imo. I looked at Scarbo as well. My hands cramped at the sight of the 24 pages 600+ measure movement.

I like what Sophie said about some of the so-called "easy" pieces, such as Fur Elise. How many people can make it sound like a love letter, which is basically what it was? Simple melodies expressing sophisticated emotions and back story. I have hands the size of baseball gloves, so the pieces from Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky are some of my favorite to play, especially when I can (somewhat) capture the sound of the orchestra with just the piano.

I love it when Sophie invites eddy and Brett as guests they are somewhat entertaining

I love this one! It's a nice followup from the last piano repertoire by 2SetKeyboard

"The Lark" by Balakirev/Glinka is a wonderful piece, surprised they weren't familiar with it! I think most of it is actually pretty easy to play on the piano, but there are a few runs which are impossible for me, although I'm not that good myself.

"1 Set Piano" Well, at least Sophie introduces and starts the video way better than Brett and Eddy.

Regular people: “Schumann’s Traumerai” Brett the intellectual: “Schumann the Traumatizer”

i love sophie’s insight on piano pieces. i’m a pianist myself but she provides a perspective that i don’t normally think about. love these vids

sophie is very insightful, i love hearing her thoughts !! sophie oui oui content has gotta be one of my fav twoset vid genres

Hearing this rating has been sooo facinating! Especially love Sophie's explanations, especially when it is the opposite to Brett/Eddy's guesses 😊 it really shows the side of the pianist vs common perceptions

I know people have already pointed out how she always takes care to pronounce the names of each piece and composer correctly, but as someone who grew up with European grandparents I want to say she is one of very few people who actually pronounces English words correctly as well.

i really enjoy her energy while talking, even though english is not her mother tounge, she has such confidence and is incredible comfortable listening to =)

I love how the background music changes from Moonlight Sonata first movement to the third movement after Sophie said "Let's put it to God level". The transition is so smooth and sick!

I'm no musician, but I really loved seeing Sophie explain her perspective on performing and interpreting feelings and colors into all these pieces. I love these kinds of TwoSet videos and i hope that they do more in the future!

I really appreciate Sophie's focus on playing stuff musically. I'm a beginner who just learned moonlight Sonata 1 a few months ago and though I had all the notes down in a few months, it took me another month or two after that to feel like I had any modicum of presentable musicianship with it. I've played through more technically demanding pieces that nonetheless feel easier to play. Feels like a type of piece that'll ultimately just grows with you as a musician.

I think Sophie's point on bringing out the musicality despite the simple notes is well taken. To make a music sings is not as easy as it seems even when it doesn't involve technical difficulties. That said, I would say that technicality is also not to be slighted, as indicated by some comments. Technicality is the basis upon musicality flourishes. Only when technicality is sufficiently achieved can musicality be meaningfully expressed. Both are essential to a great performance. Also I would argue that technicality can stand on itself on many occasions when audience is mesmerized by the sheer technical brilliance of a performance. But all in all regardless of the technical difficulties of a piece the musicality is written into the technicality as a score so in essence they are not separate entities but individual constructs for teaching/discussion purposes. Hard for me to imagine a fully mature technical excellence that does not reflect some musical beauty of a piece. I haven't seen/heard any first tier concertizing musicians lack either, whether or not I appreciate their interpretations.

I played Gymnopedie 1, 2 and 3. I’ll play anything by Satie! I love him. He was such an interesting dude. Yea, they’re not very difficult to learn but they’re so beautiful. I don’t care about playing something that appears difficult or impressive to the audience. They’re my captive audience!🙈 lol They’re gonna hear my sleepy Gymnopedie and my goofy Gnossiennes and I’m happy to put them to sleep.

I'm in love with the explanations..You should really make this a series, a lot of your audience plays piano.

Basically Mozart IS Ling Ling, I mean, he is everywhere! Ling Ling level piano pieces, hard violin pieces, troll classical music (from yesterday's video), spookiest classical music (from their Hollaween video), you name it!

As a pianist, Chopin Nocturne Op 9 No 2 is NOT easy. I played that for my college jury when I was a music major and I had to practice so much for it

I think this should've been a two part video. Part one being how hard it is technically, then part two is how hard it is musically. But it still has the same pieces and at the end they compare the two.

Is it just me or does Sophie look more mature? Like a mentor giving advice

It's awesome to see professional's perspective and opinion on pieces.

This is actually so cool to see, and a video by musicalbasics discusses pianos with smaller sized keyboards that I just learned abt! I wonder if you tried a keyboard of a smaller size it would change your rankings. Plus it’d be a sick video and help gain traction toward wider production of smaller keyboards if you guys try one out!!

I get so excited when Sophie is in a Twoset video. 🎹

Ah, more Sophie Oui Oui. I will always appreciate more of her presence in your vids!

I have so much respect for her! I feel like most people would try to downplay how hard a piece is to show off their talent, but she shows no hesitation in acknowledging the musicality of the piece and how challenging it is to play a piece is in such a way that moves people. She’s incredibly humble and her attitude in this video really shows how intelligent and talented she is to be able to discern these things!

I appreciate how editor-san played the pieces in the background for those of us who knew the piece but didn't know the name

So I’m usually okay with not crying during most performances. But. Holy shit does choral music get to me. For all that Ave Maria is ragged upon, once you hear it by a legitimately good singer who understands the depth to the piece, it’s an experience.

I admire how Sophie Oui Oui discusses not only the technical aspects but the musical aspects as well and give new insights to mainstream pieces that were mostly discussed as overplayed and beginner-ish. Good job on making this vid and I hope to see more Oneset Piano!

The amount of Chopin in this tier list just goes to show what a piano god he is

Wow your uploads are really good.

First, twas great to hear Sophie pronounce Rachmaninov’s surname 99% correct. Second, Balakirev, whilst not well-remembered, did say it himself he was competing against Ravel in terms of technical difficulty of his pieces (and like Ravel, he wasn’t really able to play his own compositions). So it’s not surprise that a work of his is there next to the (in)famous Gaspard in the Night

Oh how I love whenever Sophie guests on a video! So much respect and admiration for her, her skills, and her lovely personality :)

Not gonna lie, I'm kinda suprised that Moonlight Sonata 1st Movement is God Level but La Campanella is Hard :D

Now I need to know the best recording of each of these so I can OD on great piano works!

this is so good for someone like me who is trying to pick an easy but not too easy piano piece to re compose for concert band

This has been sooo interesting! Hoping there will be a version for other instruments 😁😁😁

10:40 oh what she’s talking about is so real. In singing there’s also this because you have so many limitations and things related to your body and physiology. Some singers struggle a lot with singing loudly, or piano, or vibrating notes. When for others for example, vibrating comes basically naturally. So true for the piano as well. For example, you might have naturally flexible fingers, or your 4 and 5 fingers could be more independent than the average, etc.

As for the first chords in Rach 2, many people associate them with church bells. Rachmaninoff implemented a lot of bells sounds in his compositions cause when he was a kid he liked to listen when the bells were ringing.

Now we need one with cello pieces!!

Sophie is back! Hope they can do another collab in the future more 1 set piano

I love how sophie is like "in the piano you have... And in the violin its..." WE LOVE A MULTITALENTED QUEEN (idk how does one play 2 instruments at such a high level)

You think that Prelude in G-minor is as that hard as Rondo alla turka???? Are you serious?? That means that she has never played Rachmaninov...

As a Lingling who can play both Piano and Violin, Sophie's piano pieces ranking seems to be influenced by some violin technique or performance, like she emphasis the difficulties of ‘keeping the long line going’, which might be a challenge for piano playing.

As a pianist, I love every video with Sophie sharing her expertise! :) Also have to agree with her thoughts on certain techniques being easier for different people when you play. I fall into the genetically gifted with big hands and have always found huge, loud chords easy to play whereas my sister with smaller hands finds it easier to do runs. Very interesting to think about!

i love her interpretations but i feel she bases them off someone who can comfortably play all of them, and then how hard it is from there. simply because someone who can play moonlight first movement even badly can have no chance for playing pathetique which is technically so much harder

One of the seemingly insignificant but important things to take away from this is the difference between a song and a piece of music with no vocal part. I was so pleased when Sophie Druml said that a particular piece "used to be a song", meaning that it used to have words that someone would sing. If it doesn't have a vocal part (usually words), it's not a song. Songs are sung.

Thank you for bringing her back.

ソフィーさんとのコラボ動画好き！

I've heard some of the top-level pieces played in my school's practice room while I'm struggling to play my violin in tune. I sometimes just stop practicing to appreciate their playing, thinking I might just quit learning instrument because all I generate is noise lol

Thanks to all three of you, not only are you joyously entertaining but you manage to help me keep faith in humanity.

Super episode! :) thank you guys!!!

It's funny how as a pianist I'd rate some of them so differently! For instance, Beethoven's moonlight sonata would go to hard while La Campanella would top God Level personally. Not saying Sophie is wrong, but just shows exactly what she was talking about, different people struggle with different things. Moonlight sonata's 3rd movement was not too hard to learn and I had a good grasp at what to do (musically) for the first movement pretty fast, but La Campanella was insanely hard in some sections since my hands are on the smaller side, and how much I need to focus to play it technically well makes it hard to focus on musicality, personally

Yay, Sophie :) I love her explanations. Hope it won't be long before you can go on tour again and collab with Sophie and others.

Nice video with Miss Sophie! I love it, I learned a lot from her today. Can't wait to see future collabs her again! ☺️

I love Sophie!!! She’s intelligent and humble, plus super talented. Every time she’s on the show, it’s a treat.

Schumann: Dreaming Brett: T R A U M A T I Z I N G

You know this gon' be interesting when you see "La Campanella" in the middle tier.

My dad learned Chopin Sonata 2 as the first thing after not touched a piano in 20+ years... He was just able to record it on 0.5 speed, just in time for his own funeral ☹☹

I came for the music, stayed for the geometry.

Sophie is right about Mozart! I’m learning c major sonata 10 which is technical more difficult than 16 but the phrasing is way more difficult than any of the technical demands. I’ve also asked other pianists and heard them talk about how difficult Mozart is compared to other composers

I am re-learning the Mozart's "easy" sonata, because I had learnt it when I had piano lessons around 14yo and now that I play it again, it is an amazing piece to work on technique. I would always start and finish my piano practise with this piece now, because it helps as a warm up and when your fingers are warm and all ready, it's the moment when you can really play and have fun with it. It is challenging on rhythm, speed, musicality, weight... This piece is SO useful to get better if you learn it well

All was pointing towards a normal or triangular distribution but ended in a rectangular distribution my mind lagged. Honestly as a person that doesnt have a lot of musical background i can understand the "difficult for the listener" part, I think if I knew a little bit more I could follow better, also is interesting how in some pieces all feels only coming from emotions and in others is all like a puzzle or a story. Very interesting and beautiful your art form, thats why I love this channel, brings a lot of things to a nice level of exposition and understanding

Sophie is just like my teacher, she can't be happy with just technically right play...i played Bach's Prelude for almost a month not because i always got wrong but she said i played too empty...

Always a pleasure seeing Sophie on the channel, best host!

It's such a pleasure to have Sophie Oui Oui to explain her thoughts. I always thought piano is like most difficult instrument to play because I have no idea how people can do similar yet different thing on both hands and don't get confuse.

Having played both Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor (1st movement) and Liebestraume, I think they're pretty close in difficulty. But maybe that's because Grieg's Concerto is so much longer than Liebestraum lol (Also I have larger hands, so a lot of things that are hard for Sophie are easy for me, and vice versa I'm sure)

I love this

I love how it slowly turned into making the entire list symmetrical lmao! Great video guys, I love Sophie!