Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Something Flashy for Neighborhood "Talent Show"

I have no shame! One of my neighbor's middle schoolers is going to run a "Our street has talent" show over the summer and wants parents, not just kids. My daughter is anxious that I play piano ... fine, but I want something that will is showy without being too difficult to play! Like I said, no shame ..

I would put my level at around grade 4-5.

Any suggestions?

How about "Etude" by Aram Khatchaturian http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-PiZ3K4nfg

Eugenie Rocherolle has a book called Boogie Bonanza which has pieces that are quite entertaining that are quite doable (couldn't find any youtube recordings of these). I think Steppin'-Out Boogie is one that I liked from that book. Also Down Home Boogie was another good one.

I'll try and think of some more when I'm at my studio and can look over my books

My favorite "showstopper" is Croatian Rhapsody. Alas, I am clueless about grades and have no idea whether it's at the 4/5 level or not. If not, I would recommend something very lively and nonclassical. A boogie as Morodiene suggested or a rag would both be good ideas.

There are some ideas here though most are too advanced for me (at least, without spending the next six months learning them). But one of the suggestions - Satie's Gymnopedie Nr.1 might work. So long as I can get my left hand jumping between the bass notes and the chords, it's pretty simple.

Monica - any idea where I could find an orchestra to play along with me: I'm not sure the piano piece would stand up on it's own!

Morodiene - thanks for the idea. I've looked online and can't find anywhere that will show me a few bars of the score so I can see how tricky it would be. From what I can see from the You Tube it's probably a little too tricky for me to do as a "quick and dirty".

I might use the Chopin prelude Op. 27 no 7 that I was learning (my summer teacher has moved it to the "done" pile). It's beautiful and sounds harder than it really is.

The Etude is actually a bit easier than it sounds. That's the key . I have a student who is playing from the RCM level 3 books and is working on this. I would think around 4 or 5 it's easy. Finding the music might be a bit tough, though. Check with your local music store to see if you can find it.

There's actually two solo piano arrangements of Croatian Rhapsody floating around the web, and they sound fine as piano solos. There have been a couple of threads about CR in AB forum, including one long-running study group, which you can search for if you want to hear some people play the different versions.

The upside of the Satie piece is that it is very pretty, and many people will be familiar with it, so it would be a crowd-pleaser. But it's not exactly what I would consider "flashy" in the upbeat, lively sense.

That was an interesting list you posted the link to. I'd have to agree with many of the author's choices. Actually, "Comptine d'un autre ete" (the Tiersen piece from "Amelie") would be a choice I'd also recommend highly. It's short, very easy to learn and memorize, almost foolproof in terms of not risking any dreaded memory gaps, and it's incredibly beautiful. I tend to play it (and Einaudi) a lot whenever I'm at a public piano in a hotel lobby or whatever, and it is the one piece that people have most often walked up to me and spontaneously mentioned how much they liked it and asked what it was.

Any of the Chopin Études would be good. Suggestion of an easy one: Opus 10 no 8 - - Sunshine.
Donn Xavier.

True - and I did initially mean that. But I've always loved that piece and it's got the attention-getting element.



I'm going to look at this one too.

Thanks!