Hi,

Our family got belated Christmas presents yesterday and one of them was a Disney piano songbook. I guess they heard that my son & I are studying piano. Excitedly, I opened it up at the keyboard and with dismay realzied it was way out my league. At what grade/level, can you open such a basic looking songbook and after a few halting starts can you simply, play it. In other words, can you learn a song in say 10-15 minutes - the timeframe an average kid would be willing to wait for a recognizable tune. I'll duck behind this door and wait for your disheartening response of several years - grade 8 or whatnot... I only say this because I know how hard it is play my grade 1-2 pieces within that time frame - like impossible! Some of these "simple" repretoire pieces of 4 lines takes weeks to play at tempo with an occassionaly rare bird of a song that takes a couple of days to get up to speed. I'm just impatient to play my Christmas present

Three observations:

1) I don't think there's any consistency across songbooks or even songs within a book. My book of Beatles For Solo Piano (or whatever it's called) range from ones I could probably be able to fake my way through after an hour or two of practice, on up to ones I'll never even take a second look at because they would require a very, very good player to even get close. But I have other songbooks that are at a bit easier level.

2) Are you talking arrangement for piano-voice-guitar where the piano is just supposed to be accompanying someone singing vs. solo piano arrangements. There aren't many popular songs you're going to want to play in which an Easy Piano arrangement can bring across the melody, harmony, rhythm and accompaniment parts to something that was originally done by a five-piece band or maybe a whole orchestrated/studio production. Just too many moving parts for a beginner or intermediate pianist (whatever those mean!).

3) I don't know that "grades" match up well to songbooks written for popular songs, whether accompaniment or soloistic arrangements. Keep in mind the original purpose of the "grades" was to reflect progress toward playing the classical concert repertoire, not for general-purpose piano playing of other types of music.

Hi. I don't believe you will need to reach grade 8 to play Christmas songs. This book may be too advanced now but what you can try is:

- go through each song and see how far you get reading/playing the melody line. You may find a few you can get through fairly decently.
- if there are 2 or 3 note chords in the melody try playing just the top note.
- how is the left hand part? Are the chord names written on top of the music? You can try just playing that note for the left hand for now Or simplify the part.

Basically I'm saying to start with one of the easier ones in the book and see if you can get through it in your own way. You may only be able to play the melody but that's ok.

You can get supplemental materials for some popular songs and Christmas sons too. Depending on the method you look at and these will likely be more at your level. I know Faber and Faber has excellent series called Big Time Piano and Fun Time Piano. I believe Alfreds has some too.

It does take some time to be able to pick up a song and get it decent in a short amount of time but it will come in time. And it works best with materials near or just below your level. It could be this book is just too difficult for now and that's ok. I have tons of stuff I can't play and every once in awhile I follow the process above and one starts to sound musical and feel like it's maybe getting within reach. I bet if you go back to some of your earlier books what once took days will only take a few minutes to get through.

If it's Christmas songs there are lots of specifically "Easy Piano" arrangement books out there. But still, the difference between a song that sounds good and is fun to play and a song that you can learn from scratch in 15 minutes is HUGE for a beginner.

I do find popular songs less enjoyable to play because they don't sound much like the song on the radio. (but didn't find that with the Christmas songs). I'm also not advanced enough to get the songs sounding musical from basic songbooks.

But if they are written as supplemental songs as mentioned above they often sound quite nice.

My biggest challenge when getting books are getting them at or near my level and/or enjoying the arrangements. For me sticking to the leveled books still works best for doing what you want.

Brent you are right. I think most brginners (whick i include myself in) need to go down a level or two to be able to pick up a new song and play it in 15 minutes.

This past Christmas I went and got level 4 Christmas book from Faber's big time series. I feel this book was easier than the classical pieces I am working on for my exam but basically at my level. I could get the melody fairly quick but putting it all together still took from a few days to a week or so. And polishing took another. I made faster progress than on other things but not at the 15 minute pace. But for fun I pulled out some level 2 of the Faber books and did find I could get a song sounding fairly polished within an hour. It was quite gratifying actually. But because of their simpler arrangements quickly found the challenge had gone and the level 4 stuff was funner to play and sounded nicer to me so that's where input all my effort.

I bet Nancy you would find the same thing. It would be great to zip off a song but shortly after you will be looking for another challenge! Isn't piano funny that way!!!

Until you reach the level of the music "as is" you might be able to simplify some of it.

OP here, Thanks guys for the repsonses. The book after closer examination is quite peculiar. First, there are no lyrics or guitar chords, so I have to mental play through to find the melody. We are talking songs like it's a Small World. I would love to simply pick out the singing line, but nope - just a bunch of chords in the right hand even! I am not sure who this book was directed to, but it wasn't me, LOL! I'll keep it and dust it off occassionally.
Here is the link on amazon if anyone is curious: http://www.amazon.com/Disney-Classics-Ha...mp;sr=8-2-spell
Maybe I should try and trade it for: http://www.amazon.com/Disney-Collection-Easy-Piano/dp/0793508304/ref=pd_sim_b_2 Looks more my speed (or slower) with lyrics even! LOL.

In the Amazon description are the words "arranged for solo piano". That's the toughest kind of arrangement to play because they're putting all the harmony and rhythm that were handled by multiple instruments (or a whole orchestra) into either the left-hand or right-hand piano part. For a lot of popular songs, show tunes and so forth that can make for some tough sledding!

The other book will definitely be more up your alley (or mine). I looked at one arrangement using the "Search Inside" and it was very straight-forward and simplified.

OP Here again,

After reading the comments here, I went on an Amazon shopping spree and got my first new book today - Journey Easy Piano. Wow - what a confidence boost I was able to play "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'" within minutes, lol. I guess, Easy is too easy for me. I tried some of the other songs but the arrangements where so bare bones to be pale facisimiles- like Separate Ways and Who's Crying Now made me want to cry. I immediately ordered the regular piano version and expect it to be harder, but I do want something to work towards and is not near as difficult as 'Piano Solo'. Thanks again for the responses.