🎹 What are some easy but fun piano songs for beginners?

L-M

Hey everyone! 👋
I just started learning piano recently, and I’m looking for some fun, beginner-friendly songs to practice. I’d love to play pieces that are not too hard but still sound impressive and enjoyable.
So far, I’ve been practicing simple melodies and a few basic pop songs, but I’d like to expand my list. Do you have any recommendations?
For example, I was thinking about trying songs like:
Let It Be – The Beatles
River Flows in You – Yiruma (simplified)
Canon in D – Pachelbel (easy version)
Someone Like You – Adele (simplified)
Let It Go – Frozen (Disney soundtrack)
What songs did you enjoy playing when you were just starting out?
Any tips would be super appreciated 🙏
Thanks in advance!

ShiroKuro

L-M if you like contemporary solo piano (like Yiruma) you might consider Einaudi. Some of his original compositions can be more challenging, but many are quite accessible. You can get PDFs of his music on MusicNotes.com. There are also two books that are graded, with some of the harder pieces arranged into more easy versions. These also have audio, which I think is important because hearing the pieces is doubly important for his kind of minimalist approach.

Ludovico Einaudi: Graded Pieces for Piano | Preparatory to Grade 2
www.amazon.com/Ludovico-Einaudi-Graded-Pieces-Preperatory/dp/1787600076/ref=sr_1_4

Ludovico Einaudi - Graded Pieces for Piano | Piano Songbook for Grades 3 to 5
www.amazon.com/Ludovico-Einaudi-Graded-Pieces-Grades/dp/1787600084/ref=sr_1_5?

rsl12

L-M How long has it been since you restarted? What's your dream piece that you would like to play? What country are you located in?

Simonb

Hi L-M

Like pianoloverus my recommendation would be to find a teacher, whatever you want to play. I can't recommend method books because I didn't learn that way (and don't teach). My playing has evolved from teaching myself a lot (51 of 55 years playing probably), and having both Classical and Jazz lessons.

Heartkeys also gives very sound advice. I don't play by ear in the way they do, but I did spend years learning to understand chord structures so that I can play without a full score and improvise from chord charts, lead sheets, fake books etc.

Nobody here can really tell you what to play as we don't know your abilities, or your musical tastes. If as per your post you just want to play some songs (nothing wrong with that) then pick songs that YOU like. If you like the song you are much more likely to succeed in learning it than suggestions from other people.

I used to have a quote on my signature on PW - "Play the music you like and listen to the music you play". And that's pretty much been my mantra for my entire musical life. I play the music that I like (which is a huge range of classical, Jazz, Blues, Folk and Rock/Pop) and I listen to the same. They inspire each other.....

Cheers

Skydog

L-M After The Gold Rush

pianoloverus

How long have you learning piano? Are you learning by yourself or do you have a teacher? Are you using a method book?

Any song will have countless arrangements at various levels of difficulty(and even numerous versions marked beginner level) so if you choose a song that's marked beginner level it may still not be appropriate. My suggestion would be to mostly follow a method book or your teacher because they will present pieces that gradually develop skills in an appropriate sequential order and are of appropriate difficulty. Otherwise, how will you know if a piece is appropriate for you to study?

L-M

pianoloverus Thanks for your advice! When I was a child, I learned piano with a teacher for about a year, but then I stopped for a long time. Recently, I became interested in playing again, so I’d like to find some simple songs to practice.What you said makes a lot of sense. However, due to time and other reasons, I don’t think I’ll be able to take lessons with a teacher right now. Do you have any method books or materials you would recommend for someone like me?

Sophia

As a fellow beginner: "easy" is relative and what most sheet music calls easy, is in most cases actually quite the stretch piece for me still. Same with "beginner-friendly": let's be realistic here, NONE of it is beginner friendly to us beginners 😃 But we have to start somewhere and someday it will be easy.

To tell you the truth, I think trying to handpick pieces is doing it the hard way. I worked through three method books, and I still find it hard to gauge exactly how hard it will be to learn a new piece. Usually it turns out I took a bigger bite than I can chew and it's quite the struggle to swallow. At least a method books makes sure that all the pieces grow "with you", and each one builds on the skills you learned before. It can be boring and tedious, but in the end, I think it's worth it.

To offer some perspective: one of the first songs I hand picked and decided to learn was the Beatles song When I'm Sixty Four. I figured that because this was from the book "It's Easy to Play Beatles" it should be, well, easy to play. Yeah right, easy my foot! It was almost a stretch piece for me and it took quite an effort to learn it. So for me it's more effort to figure out what I'm capable of than trusting the experts and going through a specific method.

It might be a little hard to have it all: fun, beginner-friendly, enjoyable AND sounding impressive 😃 As they say, you can pick any combination, but it might be difficult to find piece that ticks all of those boxes 😋

L-M Do you have any method books or materials you would recommend for someone like me?

I think most of us self learners use the Alfred or Faber method and seem to be making steady progress 🙂

ShiroKuro

Sophia I think trying to handpick pieces is doing it the hard way.

This is a good point. Finding a book at the right level and working through it can be quite successful, and takes some of the guess work out of things.

I worked through three method books, and I still find it hard to gauge exactly how hard it will be to learn a new piece.

For the record, I've been playing the piano for over 20 years, and I still have a hard time gauging the difficulty of a piece until I actually get into it. Some things I think will be easy are super hard, and other things I expect to struggle with, I end up flying through....

😅

L-M

Sophia Yeah, sounds good! I’ll give this piece a try.

thepianoplayer416

I download music from Making Music Fun site. You can find music from absolute beginner and up:
https://makingmusicfun.net/htm/printit_piano_sheet_music_index

Sophia

Oooooh that's so enlightening! I thought it was a "bloody beginner" issue but I guess it's not 😃 On the other hand, eeeeeps.... 🤣🥶

ShiroKuro

Sophia On the other hand, eeeeeps.... 🤣🥶

Pretty much!
😅

HeartKeys

I guess it boils down to what your goals are (similar to what many have stated above).

If you merely want to learn to play a song(s) you listed, certainly you can laboriously figure it out, one by one, but your skill as a pianist will be very limited, since you're not necessarily learning "how to play piano" and more so an immediate gratification mindset of getting a song done.

Those songs you listed are "easy" to me (I can play most of them instantly on any key by ear), but I've been figuring out piano chords/etc. for more than a decade. Even then, I wouldn't play it as technically well as most people in this forum, since my technique sucks but I have solid by-ear "theory."

If you want to eventually be able to impress the masses (not necessarily other musicians), then perhaps my route works for you (learn chords), since you'd be able to play the popular songs very easily. For example, couple weeks ago I was playing on someone's Yamaha U3, and asked them to literally play anything on YouTube, and I instantly played those songs (easy songs, such as pop/r&b/disney etc.) But you'll likely never sound good playing classical, more complex stuff.

If you want to be a "pianist" in the prevailing definition sense, or "true pianist" sense, then definitely take lessons with a great teacher, and learn the skill of patience.

My two keys, I mean my two cents!

Greg_R

Oof... It's been many years since I learned as a kid. I took 40 years off, and then went back to the piano.

As a kid (probably 2-4 yrs in):

Glory of Love (Peter Cetera)
1st Noel (a showstopper arrangement)
Clementi Sonatinas
Hated: Greensleeves. Memory makes it seem like I spent 6 months learning interpretation on this piece. It was probably actually 3-4 lessons 🙂

As an adult:

Joplin Rags
Chopin Preludes
Schumann Kinderszenen