Relic's thread on what piece to play next got me to thinking about forum favorite David Nevue's music. One of the things I love about his music is that it contains such strong, beautiful melodies. Another thing I love about it is that much of it is easily accessible for a beginning to intermediate player.

Because we often get posts from new players who are eager to learn something that sounds good and is not an obvious "beginner" piece, I thought it might be useful to mention three of what I think are David Nevue's easiest pieces to learn. I'll post links to my recordings of the three, but you should visit David's website, www.davidnevue.com , to hear the clips (and of course purchase the sheet music).

1.) Solitude This one is the easiest of the three, and I think it is one that most beginners could play after only a couple or few months. The only part a new player may find disconcerting is that there is one stretch where the left hand is written in the treble clef (both hands are playing above middle C).

2.) Wonderland This one has a beautiful melody yet is straightforward technically...nothing harder than eighth notes in the left hand, even rhythm, very repetitive pattern, but soothing.

3.) A Moment Lost This one is the "hardest" of the three, but we're talking relatively speaking. It's also the prettiest of the three, imo. It uses many of the same patterns as Wonderland does, so if you learn Wonderland first, A Moment Lost will not be so hard. The trickiest part in this piece was a bridge section that requires playing some chords fairly quickly in succession, and it took a bit of practice for my hands to reach the chords at the required tempo. But this piece also sounds very pretty played considerably slower than the metronome marking.

Both of the last pieces share a David Nevue trait, which is when he repeats a theme he'll introduce a very subtle variation, so look closely at the notes and don't assume a stretch that sounds the same is going to be played exactly the same the second time.

Monica, nice post!

I'd like to second that. Certainly some of his music is more difficult, but there is no correlation between beauty and difficulty when it comes to David Nevue. All are wonderful, and playing a Nevue piece can really be satisfying. Also, once you've played one, they all suddenly get much easier. Because of this, I especially recommend starting with an easier piece, then it will open up a whole range of pieces to you.

(warning, potential thread drift) I've got "While the trees sleep" mostly worked up, though I don't know if I could call it polished. But it sure is a joy to play.

BTW, as an example of repeating themes with subtle variations, "While the Trees Sleep" is an excellent example of that! It can be very tricky to play from memory for that specific reason, though I think I've finally got it. (Which is good because it's too long to play from the score!)

These are really pretty, Monica, your piano sounds very nice as well, I loved the barely contained rumbling.

Oh Sid, thanks for posting that! I evidently can't read, because I didn't catch that these were Monica's recordings, and just thought she was linking them from David's page. Oops!

Monica, I just listened to them, very well done! Beautiful!

They are all wonderfully played, but you sound especially confident with A Moment Lost. Really nice "breathing," if you know what I mean.

Hmm, now I'm going to have to add another song to my list of "songs to start playing all immediately!" :p

yeah nice Monica. i like the sound of wonderland but the first one is just a bit to simple, but ofc good for 2 - 4 months beginners.

I especially like his greensleaves might pratice that one soon

Thanks, Monica, I'd already visited David's site when you mentioned it in Relic's thread but I didn't know what to start with. I was thinking at the weekend that I needed to start learning something new, so I'll definitely be downloading these three.

Donna

I should have mentioned that David's website also lets you look at a sample page from each piece, so you can get a better idea of their difficulty.

Shiro, I want to hear your "While the Trees Sleep" sometime.

Monica, I like all your three pieces, very smooth, little bit dreamy, and absolutelly peaceful. I played 2 of the David's pieces for my teacher, and she also loves them. One is "Emerald valley" that can be the Fourth beginner piece of David Nevue IMO.

Tvpiano, I love "Emerald Valley!"

Monica, maybe "Trees" can be my next recording project, it'll probably be ready before anything else (it's about ready now maybe.... hmmm, weekend plans are shaping up before my eyes...)

But don't have high expectations. That's another piece where the "flow" of the music is a lot more difficult to create than it is to just play the actual notes.

Very nice playing Monica I especially enjoyed the piece "A Moment Lost" .

Monica,

I downloaded "A Moment Lost" yesterday after listening to your beautiful playing of it. It was my favorite melody among those three. I hope to play it with the smoothness that you exhibited. Thanks for starting this thread!!!!

Could you give me some fingerings on meas. 47-52.

I couldn't seem to connect (in a computer way, not in an emotional way) to Monica's pieces. I listened to Solitude on David Nevue's site, but that's the only one of the three he has posted. I see he's coming to Atlanta in September, so maybe I'll get a chance to go see him. He's playing at the store that sells Estonia, Grotrian and Bosendorfer, so it could be a really expensive concert!

Does anyone know why my Internet Explorer "must shut down" when it tries to open these pieces? I didn't have a problem with any of the recital pieces I listened to.

Nancy

That is a VERY important distinction isn't it!

Have you tried right-clicking and downloading first? (save file as...) That's probably the only advice I can give, sorry!

I'm at work right now, so this is the best I can remember from attempting to play it on my desk. I'll check it tonight and if I'm wrong I'll post again.

(Parentheses mean chord)

Measure 47: (5 2 1) 5 4 (3 1) 4 5
Measure 48: (5 2 1) 5 4 (3 1) 2 3
Measure 49: 4 5 4 2 5 4
Measure 50: 1 1 2

51 and 52 same as 47 & 48

That was, obviously, the section I was talking about as being the trickiest.

Other people have said the same thing, Nancy, but I don't know why. I should probably open a boxnet account as that seems trouble-free for everybody. I'm just such a computer dummy I resist the learning curve.

Monica,

Thanks for the fingerings. They seem to work well.
Do you take your music to work?

-Monica you are my hero! beautiful playing!

LOL! No, I just do most of my downloading of the files from work where I have a good quality printer, so I had the sheet music on my hard drive. Fortunately none of my colleagues happened by as I was trying to "play" my desk.

p.s. to johnhelmer: thanks! [blushes] But it's really David Nevue who deserves the credit. The man's a genius with a melody.

[note to self: playing desktop is nothing like playing the real thing]

joangolfing, I just tried playing A Moment Lost at home, and that fingering I gave you earlier is not what I *really* use. I went back and edited that post. Try the new fingering and see if it works better for you.

[slinks away embarrassed]

Thanks, Monica
That works much better. I can now play that section.

I didn't realise you could go back and edit a post once it's online. How is that done?

Just click on the little icon showing a piece of paper and a pencil.

Nice find and very nice playing.... I just bought the 3 pdf's, and will be attempting to learn these myself in the coming months.

David Nevue's has released some more new sheet music There's one piece in there called "Words Left Unsaid" which IMO has a beautiful melody.

(Off to purchase some of David's music........ )

Just wanted to give a big 'ol thanks to you for this post, Monica! I visited Mr. Nevue's website for the first time yesterday and see I have much to look forward to - he's brilliant. Anyhooo, I printed the sample pg for Solitude and worked on it for 30 minutes or so last night to see how it felt and WOW, it's soooo pretty! Was nice to hear a different kind of sound coming from my piano, as I've mosly been playing classical in the 6 months I've had my piano. Before I order the music, does it get much tougher beyond what's given in the sample page? It came along quite well last night, but I'm learning on my own and have not played much tougher than Brahm's Waltz and Beethoven's Sonatina in G Major. Thanks a bunch! I think I'm hooked! :-)

I decided to go ahead and buy it a few minutes ago. Just downloaded it and it looks like something I can tackle. BONUS - just found out I'm getting off work early today, so I can go right home and play now, yay!

Well, I got to this thread too late to answer your question TThomas, but as you no doubt discovered, "Solitude" doesn't really get any trickier past the first page.

How's it going for you?

No problem, Monica! I probably would have caved and bought it sometime soon anyway - for some reason I seem to have acquired an inordinate amount of sheet music in a very small amount of time, some which is even beyond my ability so far! I could not wait to get home this afternoon to play it. Thought about it all day. (jeesh, is that weird?). I reallllly enjoy it so far and it is coming along fairly well. I just have to maintain my focus on mastering THIS song, as I've also printed the sample page for Wonderland, which also felt wonderful to play. Quite beautiful.
Tina

Hey everyone,

On the topic of the ease or difficulty of my pieces, I just wanted to let you know that you can now opt to view all of my sheet music by difficulty, starting with the easiest. The "difficulty ratings" for each piece are averaged based upon ratings given by piano teachers and players (a couple of which are regulars on this forum).

Anyway, go to http://www.davidnevue.com/sheetmusic.htm#Difficulty and you'll see them sorted easiest to hardest.

David Nevue
http://www.davidnevue.com
http://www.myspace.com/davidnevue

I did that today, as a matter of fact, and purchased Wonderland. I've been practicing Solitude like crazy, which is a quite addicting piece. It's beautiful and a joy to play, although I have much more work ahead of me in order to do it any semblance of justice I'm so much looking forward to working on my new purchase this evening!

Tina

Is David Nevue's music available in music stores?