Need music ideas for a young pianist

Cafe Society
1

My 15 year old has taught himself to play piano. He’s been playing for two years and plays at about an intermediate level. For example, he’s currently learning to play a piano version of Radioactive he found on the internet and his last piece was “Concerning Hobbits,” a piano version of one theme from the recent movie.

For music he mostly goes looking for free versions of stuff he feels like learning. It’s been great because it keeps him interested and enjoying the process of learning. He has quite the repertoire of rock pieces, video game sound tracks, etc. he has memorized and can play whenever he sits down at the piano.

I think he’s gotten to the point where he could be trying some of the easier classical piano pieces. I have almost zero musical experience and can’t remember the name of a piece three minutes after I’ve heard it, so I have no ideas. He’s not really enthused about trying Fur Elise and The Entertainer because those are so beaten to death by piano students. (Although he said he might be interested if I can find him the full versions of the pieces and not just the beginning sections that are in the student books.) I’d like to find him some interesting pieces that will challenge him, but not be too difficult for him to learn.

So, what would the Dopers suggest?

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Fur Elise is certainly a great piece for an intermediate pianist; accessible and easy enough without having to resort to a simplified edition. A few other pieces that might fit the bill are Prelude in C Major from the Well Tempered Clavier (Bach) or the Adagio from Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata.’

Depending on how intermediate your son really is, I enjoyed learning Maple Leaf Rag. It’s a little more exciting than The Entertainer, and not quite as over-done. It is a challenge though, as it likely will require techniques (stride left hand playing) that he has not attempted yet.

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Those sound like a good start. I’m not sure how exactly to quantify his ability. Like I said, I’m not a musician. The Maple Leaf Rag sounds like a good one to stretch his ability. He doesn’t have a problem with pieces that are difficult to him. He just spends more time learning it.

Moonlight Sonata sounds like a good one too. He would be familiar with the piece, but it’s definitely not overplayed at his level.