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My first piano had to sit in the garage while we finished the room addition. We were living in San Diego so it wasn't a problem. I started on a keyboard and then when I went to my first lesson with my real first teacher the first piece she gave me was Fur Elise. Good thing I had the real piano because there weren't enough E's on the keyboard! I'm sure the neighbors got sick to death of hearing me doodly doo away on Fur Elise - not to mention my husband. Of course I play everything I learn a million times! But I certainly would never put Fur Elise on my cell phone ring. Hmmm that could be a good new topic!

I'm still not sure what the question is. The first thing I learned after a C Major scale was something titled "German Folk Song" from the Bastien Older Beginner book 2.

I have a clearer question with which I'm thinking of starting a new thread...

The first real, non-arranged piece would be the first part of fur elise. I spent maybe a month on it before I moved on. Unfortunately, it is so over played it has become annoying.
Jon

yes, Fur Elise is over played and many people get sick to death of it, but if you think back when the first time you heard it, it was such a striking little piece which seemed having stucked in your mind ever since. that might be why many people start playing piano just to learn to play this one!

And everybody is playing the beginning usually! And it's the middle that's interesting. That piece is definitive Beethoven in Reader's Digest "condensed" form, but only if you realize all the depth is the middle where all that defiance surfaces amid all the mannerliness of the beginning and end. There's some real passion in that middle and it's not even very hard. Great little piece to learn a range of expression.

CoolNerd! How are you? I have missed you! Is your sister lurking? We would love to include her in any New England PW events!

I don't remember my first piece, I do remember Fur Elise when I was about 13. (All my old John Thompson books have the date written when each piece was assigned..scary! )

As an adult starting over after 25 years, the first piece I felt I "knew" was known as "First Loss" from Schumann's Scene's from Childhood.

While relatively easy technically, this was a difficult exercise in playing musically and learning all the subtle ways to get the sound to speak....My teacher taught me much with that "simple" piece...

I remember Good King Wenceslas and Little Brown Jug in Alfred's Adult I book. Among my first Classical pieces were the Clementi Sonatinas Op 36 1-3. I'm playing Jig by Archer, Verso in E minor and a Beethoven Sonatina in F in the gd 5 Repertoire. Fur Elise is in the RCM gd 7 Repertoire. I think teachers are avoiding this piece. I haven't heard Fur Elise played in any recitals.

The first two pieces I ever learned as a child were "Chopsticks" and "The Entertainer." I think that was followed by heart and soul. I think that's one of everyone's firsts!

my first piece learned to performance level was Chopin Prelude in Eminor. I still love playing it!

Let's get serious folks....you're probably all talking about the first "serious" or "real" piece that you learned. But in so doing, you are overlooking all the joys of the first pieces that many learned as children including "When the Saints Go Marching In", "Big Chief Indian", and "Jingle Bells". Sheesh....Chopin? Beethoven? Gimme a break. Too mature.

my first piece was "march of the wee folk" if memory serves.

Ken

Isn't this forum for Adult Beginners? it would imply then that we didn't learn tunes as children :-)

actually I think, as an adult, the first thing I learned, from page 2 or whatever of a method book, was, umm, a stripped down Danny Boy theme!

I progressed quickly, I was learning Chopin's Prelude in Eminor after 2 months of lessons I think.


-Paul

Mound,

SPot on about the children comment. I studied for a year when I was about 11 or 12 because my parents forced me too (though obviously not hard or long enough). As such, a full 20 years later, I am at it again, having just taken my second lesson in 1.5 weeks. This stuff ain't easy, that's for sure, but it sure is fun. It's the tempo that gets me bogged down more than the notes.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I can still remember "Big Chief Indian" after all these years. What's worrisome is the notion that it has been playing around in my head for all these years.

Working on Mozart's Minuet in B flat now. Apparently, he wrote it when he was 6. At that age, I think I was just discovering that you shouldn't eat rocks or dirt.

You are right, Chick - it's the beginning and middle that make it a piece worth learning, in my opinion. And it isn't very hard.

I'm probably dating myself, but as a kid I remember "Spinning Song" from one of the Michael Aaron method books. Anyone remember that one?

WynnBear - I played that one just last year. Spinning Song, Albert Ellmenreich OP 14 No 3.

I remember talking with my teacher when I was a child. I remember how I told her I hated Beethoven and I didn't want to learn anything he had written. My father had recordings of the symphonies which he played nightly, alternating with recordings of other of Beethoven's works. I learned the Bach's prelude in C and fell in love with its quiet cadence and reflection of life living. On and on, over and over; I've rocked myself out of sorrow, lived my life in minutes and resolved all my problems.

I learned Fur Elise on classical guitar. I too am kinda sick of hearing it though..

WynnBear: That's too strange, my teacher just handed me two new pieces last Saturday, Spinning Song and the theme from Mystic River.
Jon