People Pleasing Piano Pieces?

lilypad I have been working on French Movie Waltz the last couple of weeks. It is a wonderful piece.

@navindra "#p12945 A little girl once stood up in the room to say that she forgot she even existed while listening to the piece.

What an absolutely wonderful compliment!!! <3

@iternabe , indeed, those Clayderman (de Senneville) pieces are hugely popular in Japan! And they're lovely pieces (although I prefer them as solo piano rather than with canned strings as they're often performed)

@TC3 -- is that you? very nicely played!

Re @navindra 's canon, that's very lovely as well! Canon is always a people pleaser in my experience, and most people are used to hearing it in various arrangements, so they don't have a lot of expectations for how it "should" sound.

Another good one is Bach's "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" (that's the one right, in all triplets or thirds? I can go check). David Nevue has a particularly nice arrangement of that.

I feel like I'm supposed to like Ólafur Arnalds -- and really, I should, given my general taste in piano music and the pieces I play (Einaudi, Winston, Nevue, Ffrench etc.) But some how I've not found a piece by him that grabs me.

Having said that, Saman (thanks for the video, @Josephine ) sounds like something I would enjoy playing... Maybe I should pay more attention to his music...

I would also second pieces by Yann Tiersen, esp. Comptine... and La Valse... And those are both easier than the two Clayderman pieces posted above, IMO.

And of course, as @keff said, Einaudi is very accessible to the casual listener. People at PW always lumped him in with minimalism, but I don't think that's accurate. The melodic line in his music is always very clear, and I find that's an essential element for a piece to be a people pleaser.

And I will add one, Brian Crain. I have played "Wind" both as a solo piece and with a violinist, it was always very well received. Here's the solo version:

Ok, one more, Michael Nyman's "The Heart Asks Pleasure First," main theme from the movie the Piano. I used to play this, I should bring it back into my fingers!

ShiroKuro Yep, that was me. If you see a funny-looking bald guy playing a Roland, it's probably me!

Most of what I attempt on the piano are songs that are known as "Standards". Usually, I choose to play something because the song has two things - a nice melody, something easy to recognize after only hearing it once, maybe easy to hum or play back in one's mind, and a thought provoking lyric. Even though I don't sing, I often have the lyrics in my head while playing.

The Days Of Wine And Roses is one such song. I saw an interview with Jack Lemmon who said that before filming of the movie began, Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer performed the song for the cast, just piano and vocal, kind of casual. Jack said he cried. And shortly after filming was completed, both Jack and Lee Remick sought counseling for alcoholism.

The song is only two compound sentences, but pure genius in the depth of what is being said.

The days of wine and roses laugh and run away like a child at play
Through a meadow land toward a closing door
A door marked "nevermore" that wasn't there before

The lonely night discloses just a passing breeze filled with memories
Of the golden smile that introduced me to
The days of wine and roses and you

Here's my arrangement and humble attempt at yet another voicing of Hank and Johnny's masterpiece.

PianoMonk Lovely! Y'all put me to shame ...

TC3 Thanks, TC3. There is no shame in the joy one gets from playing music, no matter the level of expertise or difficulty, or simplicity, of the piece. We all have our reasons for playing an instrument, but ultimately the important thing is how our efforts make us feel. Not many casual musicians are as accomplished as they would like to be. But given our circumstances, with various distractions, commitments, etc., we do the best we can. Some days we feel good about our musical endeavors, sometimes we get discouraged. But we should always look for the joy and be proud of ourselves for taking the time to explore music.

We do a gig a couple of times a year at a local smallish town. It has a very large library and a large room that they use for weekly events, usually a music type group, not always music, but something for the community. It's over the lunch hour, 12 - 1, and it's always free. (It's a non-paying thing for us, but great advertising.) It's well attended. Wednesdays. Pretty much every week.

Seems that every time we're there, in the front row, there is a lady who's mentally challenged. Have never actually met her but I pay attention. If she likes the music, she's often wigglin' and jigglin' and groovin' and grinnin' to the music. It is really good feedback for me as a musician. If she's not enjoying the music, it makes me think something is wrong.

That kind of joy / happiness is infectious... in both directions!

lilypad I played this Grade 4 piece for a piano club meeting and got a lot of enthusiastic comments on it.

I cannot see your video, it says: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Alfred Music". Could you please tell us which piece it was?

Animisha Sorry about that. It is "French Movie Waltz" by Catherine Rollin from her book "Dancing on the Keys".

There are still some other recordings of it on YouTube if you want to hear what it sounds like. I'll try and remember to put a title next time I share a YouTube video as "video unavailable" seems to more and more common.

lilypad "French Movie Waltz" by Catherine Rollin from her book "Dancing on the Keys".

Thank you! I'll check it out.

Animisha Yah, just cleaning up my YT video collection, and wasn't thrilled with the audio quality on that one anyway.

Here comes Enya's Watermark one more time.

Animisha Hooray!