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I'm an adult beginner and have been studying piano for four years. My library is small: I have a little bit of Bach - the two- and three-part inventions (Alfred edition), the Dover edition of the Well-Tempered Clavier - and a three-ring binder of photocopies of the pieces I've worked on. I'm going to be in New York in a couple of weeks and plan to treat myself to a sheet music shopping spree. What are some other essentials? Is there a standard book for scales, arpeggios, and the like?

Dale

Are you wanting to stock-up on music in general or only stuff that's around your level?

There are MANY books for scales, arpeggios, and things of the nature...try to find one that's as complete as possible; for instance, with fingerings for scales in 3rds, 4ths, 6ths, etc, and arpeggios in all forms and inversions. These books often include some basic theory things such as the circle of fifths and things like that...not a big deal, of course, but only a poor-quality book would lack those.
As for other things to look for, I'd recommend both volumes of the Beethoven Sonatas, at least one volume from the Haydn and Mozart sonatas, and then some various Chopin books. I own nearly all of the categories of Chopin for a few mixed reasons, and if you're a Chopin fan definetely look into getting the sets of things like: Nocturnes, Waltzes, Polonaises, Mazurkas, Scherzi, etc...the Alfred editions of these, while not the best (look for Henle or those edited by Paderewski for superb quality) run generally around $10-15. Also, I would suggest getting both sets of Rachmaninoff preludes...oh, and a collection of Scarlatti sonatas would be a wonderful addition to any library. Also, if it interests you, you might look into getting some concerti, even if only for fun.
After 5 years of playing, and gift-receveing, and, er, spree-ing of my own, I must say I have a very wide range of piano music, including practically all of Chopin's music (something which I'm quite proud of if you couldn't tell...), and at least 10 concerti. So, have fun with it...get pieces of music you find interesting. Even if you can't play it right away, you can watch the score as it's played and really learn some valuable lessons about phrasing and the like. Good luck on the spree!

Actually, if you are in this for the long haul, you might want to be careful which editions you purchase -- and see this as a long-term investment. Thus, one can avoid the common mistake of buying the cheap edition, only to have to purchase another edition later.

A teacher can be very helpful in this. Chopin - Paderewski edition is a commonly encouraged one. For Beethoven, Henle or I like Ricordi Casella editions are very good.

When all else fails, Henle is very good - but Palmer editions are very helpful for some composers with more fingering and suggestions on performance practices - See Clementi, Scarlatti, Bach, etc. Schumann is OK with Dover.

Music can be expensive -- especially in the better editions - so going slow isn't a bad idea.

Be sure to stop at Tower and check out some classical CD's -- maybe a complete set of the Beethoven piano sonatas (Goode, Kempff) -- or Rubinstein playing Chopin or Emmanuel Ax playing Haydn, etc...

Enjoy!
Ken

Get 60 Scarlatti Sonatas, edited by Ralph Kirkpatrick from Schirmers. The information in it is useful for much more than just Scarlatti. It's on sale through tomorrow from sheetmusicplus, over to the right of your screen. You might want to pick up the complete piano works of Brahms, edited by Mandyczewski from Schirmers at the same. That has corrections which are not in the Dover or Breitkopf publications, and it's laid out on the page better than the Henle.

Get the Mozart sonatas, but not from Schirmers. Dover, Presser, or Henle is better.

Bartok's Mikrokosmos is good, plus the couple of volumes of his early music which is published by Dover.

It is worth looking through the Dover catalog. Their reprints are well chosen, well bound, and well priced.

I agree with who ever said Henle is pretty much the best all around--at a price. Most Henle editions run around $30, depending on the size of the book. Another good edition though, if you happen to run into one, is Peters. Just be careful about clarity on the pages, because sometimes it's been poorly copied. Schirmer has the same problem, so really check it out before you get it...Henle, however, seems laser-precise (for lack of a better way to put it) and ultra clear.

This is a bit of a hijack, and you've probably already got these places lined up, but my favorites:

Patelson's
Frank Music Company
Stores @ Julliard, Carnegie Hall and Met Opera
Colony and Sam Ash for non-classical
New York Public Library (Lincoln Center). Free!

Have fun...

New Yorkers - which ones did I miss?

This is off topic and not helpful whatsoever (apologies...) but I must say when I was in New York last, I didn't really know where to look for sheet music...so I ended up finding a somewhat random store (it had a neon sign that said "Sheet Music" and "CDs" and I decided to go in, not expecting anything classical). I was quite surprised to see two rows full of classical sheet music, some of it fairly rare! On top of that, there were TONS of great CDs (I'm sure most of the people in the store had no idea of their actual value) such as hard-to-find Gould treasures and practically unknown pieces played by all varieties of pianists. It's a shame my wallet was rather empty when we got there...I left empty handed and highly disappointed at that.
Anyway, I'm not sure what my point is, I just thought I'd share that...

How exciting!

Let's say you are buying for the next couple of years, with some inspiration to look forward to?

First of all, buy editions that are nice looking, and are fingered. Avoid cheap editions, and very old editions that are "pre-hipp". If you buy French music in the original, Durand editions, they may fall apart, as the paper is very poor.
Don't buy stark white paper- it's horrible to read from. All in all, that makes Henle a good buy. The Dover editions are also interesting, as they are made from old editions, but well selected ones, and they do not fall apart.

Just for now, you probably could use the Bach French suites, Mozart sonatas, Beethoven Book 1,
some nice studies such as Burgmuller Op 105 or Heller Op 45 and 47, (the Heller are actually repertoire with a technical purpose);

Some Beethoven Bagatelles;
Mendelssohn Songs Without Words;
Schumann Kinderscenen;
Chopin Mazurkas and perhaps the Preludes;

There is a lovely volume of intemediate works by Shostakovich that someone else will know the name of;

Bartok Rumanian Folk Dances (universal)

Debussy Reveries.

Satie Gnossiennes

Poulenc Suite Francais......

Wish I was coming. I have to ration myself to two trips a semester to the music stores!

Hi Squeaky88th, and welcome! I don't remember seeing your posts before. I'd say you've covered the bases well and in order too.

DaleH, if you go to Patelson's (and you must!) plan to spend an hour or so, they have lot's to browse through. BTW, are you going to be in NYC anytime aroung the 17th or 18th of October? If so, see the thread in Forum Member Parties & Meetings titled "new york city in October". We're having a PianoWorld meet!

Squeaky88th, are you coming to the PianoWorld get together on the 18th? Please do, the more the merrier. See above mentioned thread.

DaleH, getting back to your question. The Chopin Preludes are nice to have around--there's a wide range between moderate to difficult. The Paderewski editions from Instytut Fryderyka Chopina Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne are good. You have the Bach 24, that's good. Bach's Partitas and Suites are also nice to have. Of course, the Beethoven Sonatas. Probably an edition of Schubert's shorter works for piano. If I think of any more I'll post.

Have a nice trip and enjoy your stay in the Big Apple!

Having bought an enormous number of scores over the year, I can advise you to concentrate on the pieces you will learn.

Unless of course you can sightread fluently. In which case you are like someone who goes into a bookshop and say OK guys : what books could I buy.
Lucky you if it is your case.

Else I suggest you are careful to concentrate on mastering one piece at a time till you are an absolute fluent pianist.

Owning all Mozart's and Beethoven's sonata does not make me more happy. It is like living at the foot of a mountain and looking up.

My 2 euros.

Thank you all for the suggestions! I will take a copy of this thread with me on my spree :-)

Bernard, thank you for the pointer, but I will miss the Piano World meet by one week. Maybe next time...

Dale

I don't think I've ever thought in terms of "should" or "ought to" when buying music. I just buy things I really fancy and which I know I have the time to learn.

Thanks for the invitation Bernard.

Unfortunately, I have to work weekends lately, but will try and make it. I actually am shopping for a new piano and recently did the rounds on piano row and also went to Faust's factory in Dobbs Ferry, which was a nice treat.

Another place for dirt cheap sheet music but with poor selection is the Strand near Union Square. I got a couple of jazz/standard scores for 50 cents each and a Music for the Millions text for $1.

There's much good advice here. I agree that paying attention to editions is extremely important. Also, you are much better off with urtext rather than heavily edited, inferior editions.

A point that I wanted to include here is to buy collections rather than single pieces of sheet music whenever possible, even though it's more expensive (well, it is and it isn't--the book will be more, but if you were to multiply each piece therein by the price of each separate piece of sheet music, then the whole book suddenly looks very cheap.) The point is that as you progress you will very definitely be revisiting composers to study more of their works. Thus, if you are going to study, for example, Debussy's Prelude No. 6, Des pas sur la neige, chances are that you will return another day to do No. 10, La Cathedrale Engloutie. Or, if you are really enamoured of those preludes, you might decide to learn all 10! The principle works the same for others, whether it's the Chopin Nocturnes, the Brahms Short Pieces, Rachmaninoff's Preludes, etc. So your best bet is always to get the whole opus, the collection opus numbers, or in some cases the complete works. In the long run you'll be far better off, and never at a loss for available repertoire.

I had to put off my trip to New York in order to stay closer to my dog who is recovering from surgery (she's fine). To console myself I went on a music-buying spree in Boston - Music Espresso at 295 Huntington Ave. Here is what I came away with:
Bartok - Mikrokosmos, volume 1
Brahms - Shorter Piano Works (Dover)
Chopin - Preludes (Paderewski)
Dvorak - Piano Works (Dover)
Grieg - Lyric Pieces (Dover)
Scarlatti - 60 Sonatas (Schirmer)
Scriabin - Preludes & Etudes (Dover)
Schumann - Marchenbilder for viola & piano (Henle) (I also play viola.)

Rationale -
Bartok - I dropped out of a piano class in college for which this was the book; I want to conquer it now.
Chopin, Grieg, Scriabin - I have played one piece in each of these volumes and want to explore more and want to follow along with recordings.
Brahms - want to follow along and someday be able to play.
Dvorak - he's one of my favorite composers. I was delighted to find a transcription of a few of the Slavonic Dances for one player. Also, I won't be able to resist trying G-flat Humoresque (the famous one).
Scalatti - long foreword by Ralph Kirkpatrick on the composer and on performance practice; also, some of these look easy enough for me to play, especially if I disregard the tempo markings :-)
Schumann - the fourth movement will make a nice offertory.

As soon as I can play all of this, I'll go out and buy more.

Dale

Dale, next time you are a bit east, try Spectrum Music in Lexington. They have just about everything for piano, orchestra, band, strings, chorus etc. They can order anything and allow you to return things as well. I can say I have spent most of my music money there!
http://www.spectrum-music.com/index.html

Another idea is if you just want to try out a new piece before buying try the Sheetmusic Archive at
http://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/. You can get an idea if something is to your liking before you drop too much money.

Enjoy!