A Career In Piano Music

The repertoire available for the piano is very extensive. It comes from many different eras and composers, and the difficulty of the pieces varies according to the level of the pianist. Most pieces are structured in specific ways according to the era in which they were composed. Many different factors need to be taken into account whilst performing and practising pieces. Piano repertoire is made to be performed as solos, duets or to be played with an orchestra. Classical music for the piano is typically divided into four main eras. The first is Baroque, which is from 1600 – 1750. Baroque piano music was played on a harpsichord, which had a very limited dynamic range, and could not do a gradual dynamic change. Therefore, when one is playing

The pieces should normally be based on how long you have been playing piano for, and the repertoire should get progressively harder. In South Africa, UNISA, Trinity Guildhall and ABRSM are the main piano schools that you can do grading through. Most people typically do one grade every year, and then the repertoire should be chosen according to your

Many pieces use octave triads, and so a person needs a big hand size in order to make those big gaps. If a person is young, they may not have the hand size to do such big jumps, and so pieces with smaller leaps and triads are chosen. The use of ornaments often makes the piece harder, as they have to be played in a specific time and are often very fast (i.e. demisemiquavers). That is the reason why younger children choose pieces that often do not have any ornaments. The articulation does not necessarily make the piece harder; however, when a child is first starting out they usually start with pieces that are purely legato. As they progress, staccatos and accents are added to their pieces. Dynamic ranges also pose a challenge. Some pieces have very drastic dynamic changes (such as pp to ff) and a younger pianist might not have the control over the piano, or may not be able to reach the soft pedal. Therefore, at a beginner’s level, the dynamics are usually straightforward and consist of two sections, each with a different dynamic such as p and f. The teacher should assess what the child is capable of playing to a good