Thanks for starting this thread! I have a problem where I start too many pieces in too short a span of time and now I currently have more than a dozen pieces in various states of mastery, which then leaves me with no time for practicing improvisation, arrangement or quick sight-reading. I amassed a huge collection of intermediate sheet music from lots of different sources over the past couple of years and I am now experiencing some anxiety about not having enough time to play it all... Fortunately, only a couple of these dozen pieces are so-called "stretch" pieces; most are at my level, and a few are quick studies.

  1. "Footsteps in the Snow" by Angeline Bell
  2. Aria in D minor, K. 32 by Domenico Scarlatti
  3. Minuet in Bb major, BWV Anh. 118 by Johann Sebastian Bach (attr.)
  4. Minuet in D minor, BWV Anh. 132 by Johann Sebastian Bach (attr.)
  5. March in D major, BWV Anh. 122 by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (attr.)
  6. "Once Upon a Frozen Winter" by Heather Hammond
  7. "Pleading the Fifth" by Chilly Gonzales - this one was supposed to be a quick study, but it almost wasn't, because playing even fifths pianissimo was way harder than I thought it would be.

I have 3 other pieces that just need some polishing before I'm satisfied, and the rest are still in progress. My piano teacher went on a monthlong hiatus to go adjudicate a competition halfway across the world, so I was thinking of using the next month to dedicate more time to improv/arrangement/sight-reading because those aren't at all a part of my formal piano lessons.

    plop_symphony Minuet in D minor, BWV Anh. 132 by Johann Sebastian Bach (attr.)

    I start on that piece today! I was going to wait until I get Samuel Maykapar's "Dewdrops" up to tempo, but it's taking me forever. I'm switching it to daily technique practice to open up a slot for a new piece.

      Here is my updated list:

      1. Frankie and Johnny
      2. Waltz in G Minor
      3. Theme from 6th Symphony "Pathetique" (Tchaikovsky)
      4. Fascination (F Marchetti)
      5. Loch Lomand
      6. Salut d'Amour (Elgar)
      7. Danny Boy (F Weatherly)
      8. Etude Opus 10 No. 3 "Tristesse" (Chopin)
      9. I Walk The Line (J Cash)

      All the pieces except no. 9 are arrangements from the latter sections of Alfred's AIO level 2 book, so they are stretch pieces for me, rather than easy pieces, but I am close to the end now so next month things will be different. I'm not quite done with the Chopin piece yet, but I'm very pleased that I can now play it hands together, albeit slowly. Once I've finished book 2 my intention is to learn one stretch piece and 3 or 4 easy pieces each month - I hope this will help to grow my skills while keeping things enjoyable. I have my eye on a book of blues pieces that might be ideal material. 🙂

      "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

      I haven't updated for two weeks so here is my update. A week ago I played play Des Pas sur la neige by Debussy but unfortunately I didn't get a clean recording so I'm not sharing it. 😇 This week I played Written on the Sky by Max Richter and I recorded it in one take and quickly decided to share it before I change my mind. 😆

      Quick Study List for 2025

      1. George Frideric Handel, Passacaille (variations 1-8).
      2. Enrique Granados, Danzas Españolas, no. 2 Oriental
      3. Scott Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag (without trio)
      4. Schubert-Liszt, Ständchen (ossia più facile)
      5. Friedrich Burgmüller, La fileuse, op. 109, no. 18
      6. Claude Debussy, Des Pas sur la neige
      7. Max Richter, Written on the Sky

        BartK Oooh, very nice!!!

        I hadn't heard this piece before, but now I want to play it. Thank you for sharing it!

        I wonder if I already have the... I have a few different books with some Richter pieces in them but I've never played anything by him.

        What book is your score in?

            ShiroKuro What book is your score in?

            This one:


            Most of it is pretty easy with maybe a couple of exceptions. I don't really like the editing though. Page flips are in awkward places and it looks like they tried to increase the page number by increasing space instead of having a logical paging. This piece for example could have fitted on two pages without having to turn the page, IMO.

                BartK Thanks for the info!! I'm searching around Hal Leonard's website, and I might actually have a book with this in it, I'll have to wait till I get home to check. It's one of those "Peaceful Piano Solos" books, but there's an easy version and a regular version, and I can't remember which one I bought. I don't like it when pieces get arranged into different keys...

                Does the version you played for the 40P challenge have five flats?

                Re the pagination and spacing, that's frustrating! It looks like a nice collection...

                Hal Leonard also sells a digital version of this book, I'm trying to remember if those are just generic PDFs (i.e., so I could put it into my forScore etc.) or if you have to use some special app...

                    ShiroKuro Does the version you played for the 40P challenge have five flats?

                    Yes, it's in B-flat minor.

                        BartK thanks! If that’s not the version I have at home, I’m going to buy it. 😊

                          BartK I have it! In the original key! Yay!!
                          (I have way too many piano books… 😅

                          I have it in this Hal Leonard book, it’s probably the same arrangement as yours, takes up three pages. There are some other interesting pieces in here though, I’m glad to be reminded that I have it!

                            BartK I played Written on the Sky by Max Richter

                            Bart, that was truly terrible (in a terrific way!) It's so nice to see less than stellar performances - it gives courage to us bloody beginners. Even though you are still leagues ahead of me, at least it reduces you to semi human 😁

                            Very pleasant exercises - a far cry from your usual blues, but we wanna-be musicians need our share of boring pieces to become a little more all round anyway 😆And you managed to make even This Old Man sound interesting - I loved the dynamics and the delicate ending. What book are you playing from? If you already shared that information, please blame it on busy-mind forgetfulness...

                                  My updated list. No. 7-13 were finished in February.

                                  1 Michael Head, The Quiet Wood, The Best of Grade 1 Piano (quick study)
                                  2 Joanne Bender, Ripple Effect, RCM 3 Piano Etudes (regular piece at my level)
                                  3 Henry Mancini (arr.), The Pink Panther, Piano Adventures Popular Repertoire - level 3A (quick study)
                                  4 American folk song, Shenandoah, Piano Adventures Level 5 Lesson book, (regular piece at my level)
                                  5 Mozart, Allegro in F, K. 1c, The Best of Grade 1 Piano, (quick study)
                                  6 Gillock, Owl at Midnight, Accent on Solos (early to later elementary), (quick study)
                                  7 House of the Rising Sun - arr. Gerald Martin, The Joy of Boogie and Blues (quick study)
                                  8 Burgmuller, The Chase, Piano Adventures Level 5 Lesson book (regular piece at my level)
                                  9 Kohler - Andantino, Op. 190, No. 27; John Thompson's Modern Course for the Piano First Grade Classical Piano Solos
                                  10 Richard Stone - Animaniacs; Piano Adventures Popular Repertoire Level 3A, (quick study)
                                  11 Melody Bober - Stealth Mode, Trinity Grade 1 Piano (quick study)
                                  12 N. Faber - Appalachian Trail, Piano Adventures Level 5 Performance book (regular piece at my lebel)
                                  13 Samuel Maykapar, Dewdrops, RCM 4 Piano Etudes (regular piece at my level)

                                  Sophia Bart, that was truly terrible (in a terrific way!) It's so nice to see less than stellar performances - it gives courage to us bloody beginners. Even though you are still leagues ahead of me, at least it reduces you to semi human 😁

                                  He, he! Yeah, I definitely need more than a week to make that sound good. My dynamics don't really come out in this phone recording but oh well. 🤷‍♂️

                                    Sophia What book are you playing from?

                                    Click on the book symbol. If the book is open, the sheet music is free, if the book is closed, you must pay.
                                    (Feel free to go to the main website, there you have access to all the sheet music in all levels)

                                    Edit: if you wanna print that stuff, I made some big pdf files, each about the size of a book. Just write me if you are interested.

                                      Oh cute, thank you! Now I have an incentive to learn Bangun Tidur... my mom was born in Indonesia and I'm sure she would appreciate the tune 😃

                                      8 days later

                                      I have been quite busy lately and haven't had as much time as I wish to practice my pieces, so I think I will prioritize my main rep pieces rather than this challenge. Therefore, for a while at least, I will not be updating much and probably will not be recording any quick studies. Sorry.

                                      My update for this week is a Beethoven bagatelle that I managed to squeeze into my practice somehow.

                                      Quick Study List for 2025

                                      1. George Frideric Handel, Passacaille (variations 1-8).
                                      2. Enrique Granados, Danzas Españolas, no. 2 Oriental
                                      3. Scott Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag (without trio)
                                      4. Schubert-Liszt, Ständchen (ossia più facile)
                                      5. Friedrich Burgmüller, La fileuse, op. 109, no. 18
                                      6. Claude Debussy, Des Pas sur la neige
                                      7. Max Richter, Written on the Sky
                                      8. Ludwig van Beethoven, Bagatelle in D major, op. 119, no.3

                                      Alright, some good progress made. I've been on a Burgmüller kick lately. I've previously learned L'arabesque, op. 100, no. 2, and La pastorale, op. 100, no. 3, and am working on La candeur, op. 100, no. 1, and Innocence, op. 100, no. 5 now. I might work my way through the entire set eventually.

                                      I record almost all my pieces except for the ones that weren't really to my taste (such as the Bertini piece at #8 below), but it takes me a while to actually put them on the Internet because I find the process fairly tedious. In case anybody's curious, I've linked to the recordings I've already managed to upload.

                                      1. "Footsteps in the Snow" by Angeline Bell
                                      2. Aria in D minor, K. 32 by Domenico Scarlatti
                                      3. Minuet in Bb major, BWV Anh. 118 by Johann Sebastian Bach (attr.)
                                      4. Minuet in D minor, BWV Anh. 132 by Johann Sebastian Bach (attr.)
                                      5. March in D major, BWV Anh. 122 by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (attr.)
                                      6. "Once Upon a Frozen Winter" by Heather Hammond
                                      7. "Pleading the Fifth" by Chilly Gonzales
                                      8. Andantino in A minor, op. 137, no. 8 by Henri Bertini
                                      9. Ballade, op. 100, no. 15 by Friedrich Burgmüller
                                      10. La petite réunion, op. 100, no. 4 by Friedrich Burgmüller - I spent a LOT of time on this piece, though not all at once. Getting all those thirds relatively clean and phrased and voiced properly was a nightmare.
                                      11. "Late Night Subway Platform" by Jeremy Siskind - Siskind is best known for his series of books on solo jazz piano, but he actually has released some fully written out sheet music as well.