Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Isn't Bartok's Mikrokosmos a great book?

What do you think?

I am a beginner piano learner who very accidentally came across Bartok's Mikrokosmos book levels 1-6 and purchased them all. They seem to be very well laid out and in my opinion beat any method books I have ever tried. I like the simplicity of the approach and quite like the composition.

Why aren't they more popular?

Also would serious pianists use those as a stand alone method book a repertoire practice?

Warm Regards,

They are fun to play.

Mikrokosmos is my only piano method, currently I am working on the third volumen and am pretty pleased with it. I feel my playing improves a bit after learning every piece.

When I started playing I worked through volume 1.
I liked the progress I made, I think the book is didactical great.
But yet even if the pieces are brillant music, I don't get in love with them. Don't know why.
Maybe the hungarian touch is to weird to my ears.
Music is a matter of taste, and these pieces do not meet my taste.

I love those type of tunes. I've worked my way into the early parts of the third book plus played a smattering of stuff from the others. Bartok is one of the few 20th-century "classical" composers I dig.

Back before making the switch to piano I recorded some of his violin duos by playing both parts on my mandolin, overdubbed. Some of those are more "out there" than the Mikrokosmos, at least in the early book.

Why they aren't more popular is beyond me. For a beginning pianist they are first rate. For more advanced students they make an excellent course in sight reading.

The material is progressive and if you like one of the exercises it would make satisfying repertory material. The music appeals to young and old.

I personally would use no method as a stand alone course. My lad is using this along with John Thompson's, Beyer 101, Burgmuller Op. 100, Guhl's Keyboard Proficiency, Beatles music arranged by yours truly and some easier classics also hand picked by myself. He ditched Alfred's quite quickly as musically unsatisfying.

I am using it strictly for sight reading practice and warm up. I knew nothing of this series until I read a sight reading book that recommended it.

I use vol 1 for sight reading practice. Ideal for beginners like me.

Can you post examples of the type of pieces they contain? Thanks.

zrtf90,, I have read your post, here:

Why they aren't more popular is beyond me. For a beginning pianist they are first rate. For more advanced students they make an excellent course in sight reading.

The material is progressive and if you like one of the exercises it would make satisfying repertory material. The music appeals to young and old.

I personally would use no method as a stand alone course. My lad is using this along with John Thompson's, Beyer 101, Burgmuller Op. 100, Guhl's Keyboard Proficiency, Beatles music arranged by yours truly and some easier classics also hand picked by myself. He ditched Alfred's quite quickly as musically unsatisfying.

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Thanks, for the great post, Richard.

I am a beginner without a teacher so I am always looking for good things to play to help me grow.

I love Thompson. Just finished book 1 and excited about book 2.

I will check out Bartok's Mikrokosmos the next time I am at the music store.

I will also check out
Beyer 101,
Burgmuller Op. 100,
Guhl's Keyboard Proficiency.


I know that Alfred's is famous but the old Thompson books do it for me.

raikkU, there are youtube videos with the pieces:
Béla Bartók - Mikrokosmos, Volume I, 1-17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbEkw7WUhEg
and other similar videos.

BTW, IMSLP has a scan of Mikrokosmos
http://imslp.org/wiki/Mikrokosmos,_Sz.107_(Bart%C3%B3k,_B%C3%A9la)
It is from a Russian book it seems. But of course it does not affect the notes

These are definitely nice pieces for beginners. However somehow I did not like the music and played none of them.

Thanks for putting up the samples. I think it is a great resource and more people should give it a try. There is also a professional/ commercial CD of the pieces by Jeno Jando on Amazon. Please cheek those out.

Regards,

I have this on sheet, started going through it but then found Bach Inventions. I don't know if they can be compared, I have no idea, but with my limited time I decided I'll prioritise Bach (prefer to have that in my repertoire)...and hope to start going through that towards the end of this year.

I wasn't aware that either was intended to be memorized and re-played later. Mikrokosmos excels at sight reading practice, since it has odd and unexpected melodies.

I had my first look at Mikrokosmos a few weeks ago. There was a post a while back with recommended selections from it and I picked one of them, #82 in Book 3. I like it! I'm using the Bach Inventions for my technical practice though, so I'll probably use Mikrokosmos for fun and interest, just playing through them rather than practising them up to tempo. The Mikrokosmos tunes I will be listening to are from "Zoltán Kocsis plays Bartók"

The Inventions seem to be good for hand independence, practising counterpoint, and getting the fingers going, whereas Mikrokosmos is good for odd time signatures, rhythms, and intervals. They sound more mechanical whereas the Inventions are more flowing. They are probably quite complementary.

I've heard a quite a few people say the Inventions are great for your piano playing. I haven't heard so many say that for Mikrokosmos.

I have had more than one teacher look at Mikrocosmos with a particular fondness. Including my present teacher.
I am at a point that exercises are not yet for me. This is my teachers decision. The only thing I'm doing is the Hannon on pg78 of Alfred. She looks at me very determined as tells me nothing else.
I know from exercise physiology that there is something to what she is doing with me. Very important to develop physiologically in the right steps. From simple to sophisticated. Don't try sophisticated until you got the simple taken care of. Physiologically this can lead to failure.
In other words: I highly suggest a good teacher with exercises. They know the right time, place, and amount.

My second son uses Mikrokosmos, he is at the beginning of the second book. His teacher loves this method, she says that every exercise has a meaning and is useful.
I love the sound of the pieces, all of them. I bought also Books 3 and 4 when they were offered on Amazon at a low price.
Last year I read all book 1 and this year I tried book 2 (but not as sight reading exercise); the more advanced pieces are difficult but fascinating if you love Bartok.

I'm fairly certain that Mikrokosmos was never intended as a sight-reading practice material. Although obviously one can practice sight-reading on any sheet music they've never seen or heard before.

The books, taken together as a "method", seem to have a very good mixture of technical/facility improvement content and introduction to unusual modes and rhythms. Compared to something like the Bach Inventions the variety in Mikrokosmos is hugely greater, although the intensity of hand independence and pure technique workout in the Bach is much more.

IIRC, Mikrokosmos originated as a piano method Bartok created for his son. It was revised and refined as time passed and the son grew up, but I'm pretty sure that was its original intent.

I first heard of it being suggested for sight reading practice in this ebook, which used to be free, so many of us downloaded and read it. But I wouldn't be surprised if the idea hadn't originated elsewhere as well.

There's a certain logic in using Mikrokosmos for sight reading practice if you want to cultivate your responses to the unexpected, so as to make sure you're reading what is written instead of following your expectations.

OTOH, a big part of sight reading is learning what to expect, so that you can read by chord and pattern instead of note by note, and Mikrokosmos would be less helpful with that.

For more info, here's an interesting article about Mikrokosmos on AllMusic.com