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?

I don't know about music stores, but most (all?) of his CDs are available through amazon.com.

You can also hear quite a few pieces on his website, and if you search the AB forum archives, several of us have posted recordings of various pieces of his.

Hi Monica and thanks for your suggestions. Playing the piano now for less that a year, I found these pieces perfect for beginners. May I suggest the song by David titled "The old country church" for those who want to play by ear.(since there is no sheets available,YET) I fell in love with the song and got it down in a few(hundred) tries,all except that run at the very ending. I also have "The Gift"in the rough, but wanted to get away from it for a while so I started "Wonderland". Wow, what a sweet song that is. I am beginning to learn to read music a little bit now to help me through the hard spots. Thanks for the suggestions Monica...Ray

Hi Ray, I'm very impressed you were able to play "The old country church" by ear! I listened to David's rendition on Rhapsody, and it's not as simple as some of his others. I'd love to hear your version if you feel like recording and posting it.

Incidentally, David has released the sheet music for "Song for Speyer Cathedral," which I would rate as easier than "A Moment Lost." It's also only 2 pages long, so if you're looking for another easy Nevue piece, that's a good candidate.

Thanks for re-reminding me, Monica, about David Nevue. I'd bookmarked his site as a "to do" and then... promptly forgot all about it!

His music is lovely. Really wonderful.

Best,

Kim

Monica, Guess I need to start learning how to record and then get it on the forum. My piano is acoustic but I also have a Casio 575 R with recording capibilities, but I don't have nearly the control over the dynamics as I do on the acoustic. There is no internet service at my home,(country folk) so Id have to get it on a memory card and from there, I'm lost. I would be reluctant to put anything I recorded out here untill I was satisfied with it,especially the way you folks play.
Actually Monica, I bet you could play the Country Church song in one night with your talent. It is in the key of D and only uses the 3 major chords D G and A. The bass part is a lot like Wonderland.( I hope I am correct on that)
I listened to Speyer Cathedral and I do like it.
Thanks..Ray

All three are so pretty, and your playing was excellent, Monica!

Thank you, mom3gram! I'm glad you resurrected this thread, actually, as I have been meaning to add yet another "easy David Nevue" recommendation:

"Twinkle twinkle little star" with a new age flair

This one is particularly good if you have small children or grandchildren to play for. But it's enough of a twist to entertain grownups, too.

In terms of difficulty, I'd rank this one as harder than Solitude and Wonderland but comparable to A Moment Lost.

one precaution:

these pieces are easy but they are not exactly "beginner" pieces. I would say the "easy" ones are at least mid book 2 of alfred which is a good 6-10 months into piano. And even at that time, its not sight-reading pieces, it takes some time to learn it and it takes longer to learn it than most of the lesson pieces that you guys are used to.

so don't get discourage when they label songs like twinkle little star as EASY BEGINNER, and yet you find it hard to play. It actually how they label that can be misleading.

Thought I'd resurrect this thread because David Nevue has released some new sheet music from his latest album, "Adoration." His arrangement of "Amazing Grace" is very very simple and beautiful. The first two pages (up through measure 31) in particular I'm guessing could be played by somebody with just a month or two of lessons under their belt and can stand alone without the rest of the piece. (But the rest of it is not all that challenging, either.)

"Amazing Grace"

As always, you can find the sheet music (including a sample page) at David's website, www.davidnevue.com.

Hi Nancy
I have always had problems with IE and downloading of quicktime music, video clips etc. what I did was download firefox browser. I still use my IE but I just copy paste the address into a firefox browser and it plays great. It is better than going into IE and trying to configure the browser.

Thanks for this thread Monica,

I am still too beginner to play those three pieces that you mentioned but I think I will be there soon. I already had his website bookmarked ( I think you mentioned it before to me ), But I didnt have all those pieces marked. I cant wait to be able to play them. They are wonderfull pieces. Something definitely to look forward too. Thank you............

AspenX

Oops!!! I just bought one of his albums...Shame on me!!!! :rolleyes:

I like The old country church also. I emailed David about the sheet music and he said he will have it finished in a few months. That was about a month ago.

Dale

Thanks for this thread, Monica.

Nevue's pieces are GREAT. I don't know why I haven't heard him before, as I'm a big New Age fan.

These are perfect for keeping me up 'til 4am learning them, and *really* giving my wife something to fuss about. (The headphones work great, but I get carried away, and really start banging on the keyboard).

Monica,

I also want to thank you for starting this thread. I have finally gone back to work and my practice time is now very limited - still every day - but not nearly as long as I would like (or need).

Since my time is much shorter I have gone back to my David Nevue music and was getting ready to look on his site for a couple more easy pieces to work on and came upon your thread this morning. I had forgotten how great Daivd's music is. After hearing you playing, "Wonderland" is next and maybe "Amazing Grace" at the same time.

Anyway, Thanks again,

Woody

Hello all!

I love David's pieces! I learned solitude and I would like to start learning "A moment Lost" soon. I was wondering if someone could point me to some easy music that have more of a joyful mood (maybe some other David's pieces?) I started Yiruma's "River flows in you" but it is a bit beyond my abilities right now. That A major scale is giving me some difficulties.

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum, Javarik! "River Flows in You" is a tough piece. Those ornamentations with the 4th and 5th fingers are not easy to rattle off at all.

Hmmm... other easy Nevue pieces that are joyful. "Wonderland" is a definite candidate, but I think your best bet might be "The Gift," which is not much harder than "Solitude."

Another pretty piece that is uplifting, but a bit harder than those (though still easier than River Flows in You) is "Waiting for the Sun." It starts of somber (like the night) but then quickly gets cheery and bright, like the sunrise. I made a recording of it, but the video quality was pretty bad (the sun was glaring too much) that I thought I'd try for a better take.

Thanks Monica,

Unfortunately, "waiting for the sun"'s bit on David's website is cut right before the sun actually rises which leaves me stranded in the chill of the night. Can you point me to your interpretation?

It's on my home computer. I'll upload a recording tonight. Maybe I'll go ahead and post at YouTube despite the glaring video and claim that it was a deliberate attempt to capture the metaphor of brilliant sunshine or some such nonsense.

Need a 4th song Monica. There is a special when you combine 4 pieces of sheet music.

Hmmm... if you want to go a little harder, Stearman, "A Moment Lost" is very pretty. If you want easier, and don't mind waiting a few days, David will soon be bringing out sheet music for two new pieces, "Song For Noelle," and "Winter Twilight." I just got through rating those and thought they were at the same level as "Solitude."

Javarik, thanks for the gentle nudging. I went ahead and uploaded my video of "Waiting for the Sun" tonight, so you can hear the whole piece. It's on the harder side of easy David Nevue pieces (if that makes any sense), but it's one of my favorites of his:

Hi Monica. Beautiful as always. Of course, you DO have one of the nicest pianos (mine being the other of course).

BTW, David's going to be getting some good music sales from this thread, you should make him do something like perform in our recital or something...(as a non-beginer of course!)

Side note: Nice shapely legs. Firm calves too. Get some sun though okay?

Oh, you are so warming my middle-aged heart.

...but I'm staying away from that sun. Malignant melanoma's no fun and I've got enough skin damage from growing up in southern Calif.

well! Didn't know this thread was here :)Here's David Nevue's arrangement of It Is Well with my Soul. I did make a few minor mistakes but hope you enjoy it anyway!

Hi Monica,

I have to thank you for introducing me to David's music. I first bought the sheet music to "Solitude" a couple of weeks ago. You had suggested it as an easy piece for someone. It is so beautiful. Now, I have downloaded four other pieces to try. Thanks for these suggestions. They have really jump started my enthusiasm for practicing.

Carol

Glad you like the pieces, Heirborne Groupie, and I'm glad you resurrected this thread. I recorded yet another easy Nevue piece the other day and was thinking I should add it here. It's called "Winter Twilight":



In my YouTube description of the piece, I called it "somber but lovely," which I think captures the tone of the piece well. The nice thing about it is that it is possibly Nevue's easiest piece to learn yet. The tempo ranges from 'glacially slow' to 'very easy to handle slow.' The left hand is mostly whole- or quarter-note chords involving two keys. And it's only a page and a half long.

Yeah, I should chime in here that I also recently started on Solitude because of that thread. Fun to play!

Wow. Winter Twilight Is beautiful as well. And you played it with so much feeling. Lovely performance.

If i may comment here.

I have been playing Twinkle Twinkle for about the last 4/5 months - off and on. It is labelled as a beginner piece but i am finding it difficult to polish. There is a lot going on with it for my level (about 18 months playing) - and i wonder how David grades the pieces in terms of difficulty.

Hi Ingersoll, David's difficulty ratings are the average provided by a small group of raters, including David himself, some teachers, and a few adult beginners (of which I am one ). He tries to avoid giving the pieces any kind of "absolute" assessment of difficulty and stresses to us, his raters, that we should be using the 5-point scale in terms of the typical David Nevue piece. Here's how he describes it on his website:

"Note these difficulty rankings are all relative to each other. My most difficult works may be ranked near a five, but even so I would consider them no more than an "Early Advanced" piano student level. So you can't compare a David Nevue selection ranked at a 5 with a Chopin selection you'd rank at 5. These rankings are just to give you an idea of how my sheet music ranks, from easiest to more difficult."

"Twinkle Twinkle" is definitely one of the "harder" easy pieces that I included on this thread (except for "Waiting for the Sun"), and there's a few measures where getting the right off-beat rhythm is tough. Don't be reluctant to pour on the rubato and give it a nice relaxed feel. And it might help to think of those 16th notes more as ornamentations.

Monica,

I could not find Winter Twilight on David's page. Did you buy the score somewhere else?

Oops... I should've checked to make sure he had put it up on his website before I posted my recording. It will be available soon, Edtek; I got a sneak peek at it because I am one of the people David asks to rate his sheet music.

Hi Monica,
Do I gather that twinkle is not on the first to try music list?....Rank beginner here and I won't have my DP for another month as we are traveling but I really liked the arraignment and have already down loaded it. I guess I should select something "easier".

A maybe stupid question.....generally do piano teachers expect you as a student long term or will most accept a student for say three months?

Thanks as always
H

No, I'd start with Solitude or (when it becomes available) Winter Twilight first. But if by "rank beginner" you mean you've just found out where middle C is, you will need to wait for some weeks, maybe months before tackling them. The first few steps for you will be learning to read basic music notation and getting the fundamentals of hand independence down. That can take a frustratingly long time, and it's best to do it with material that's specifically designed for people new to piano.

You may want to start a thread on the teacher's forum to get their perspective on your second question. My sense is that teachers naturally prefer to have a student for the long term. However, I think most teachers would also agree that they'd much rather have a new beginner take lessons for three months and then quit, if necessary, than try to self-teach. The early weeks are very important for establishing proper posture and hand/arm movements etc.

p.s. By suggesting you wait on "Twinkle Twinkle," I'm answering from a pure logical perspective. However, if it's a piece that's captured your heart and you're just dying to learn it, a case could be made that--why the heck not?--just go ahead and work on it in addition to your regular material. There have been many threads debating the wisdom, or sheer folly, of working on pieces that are too advanced for one's level. I usually fall on the side that it's better to be enthusiastic about piano, so go ahead and work on dream pieces as long as you don't get too frustrated over the difficulty and as long as you recognize you probably won't be able to get it sounding like the original right away. Others disagree with that position and argue that once a piece is learned badly, it's extremely difficult to go back and learn it right later.