Charles Wu

The breadth and variety of educational pieces

available for piano are staggering compared to

other instruments, but this does present additional

dilemma: which ones are worthwhile to learn or

assign to our students? In assembling this

collection, I have curated pieces I genuinely enjoy

playing and teaching to my students. Whether you

are a learner or a teacher, I hope you find this

collection an enjoyable addition to your musical life.

FOREWORD

Charles Wu

BA (Hons) Piano Performance

LRSM(Performance)

LRSM (Teaching)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Andantino page 15

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Ludwig van Beethoven

Muzio Clementi

Carl Reinecke

Louis Köhler

Amy Beach

Bela Bartok

March in D page 6

Bagatelle page 9

Sonatina page 12

Prelude in C page 3

A Chicken’s Waltz page 18

Secrets page 21

Jest page 24

Félix Le Couppey

Friedrich Burgmüller

No.15 page 27

Ave Maria page 30

Etudes/Exercises

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TIPS AND TRICKS

• While the Prelude will sound just fine if you

play it in time, applying rubato throughout will

enhance its improvisatory feel. You can start

each phrase slower then gradually increase

the speed before broadening again near the

end

• Play the fortes in this Prelude grandly. Imagine

the majestic sound of a pipe organ

DID YOU KNOW?

• The title “Prelude” is non-descript, but it is

usually used for a piece that is short and

improvisatory

• In the past it was customary to begin a

performance with a Prelude-like piece

KNOW THE COMPOSER

• Johann Sebastian Bach was a German

keyboardist and composer of the Baroque

period

• He worked as kapellmeister (music director)

for royal courts and churches, composing

prolific amount of both sacred and secular

music

• Though he was not very famous during his

lifetime, Bach’s music was revered and

continued to be studied by later famous

composers like Beethoven, Brahms and

Chopin

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)Prelude in C BWV 939From 5 Little Preludes BWV 939-943

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TIPS AND TRICKS

• Keep the beat steady throughout. Imagine

little toy wooden soldiers marching

• There are a few places here where terraced

approach to dynamics changes can work well;

I have suggested a few places where the

music can suddenly drop to piano from forte

e.g. Bar 1

DID YOU KNOW?

• This March is part of Notebook for Anna

Magdalena that in a nutshell is a collection of

pieces that J.S.Bach compiled for C.P.E.Bach’s

stepmother Anna Magdalena

• A March is a piece with strong steady rhythm

that can be marched on. Its time signature is

usually in 2s or 4s

KNOW THE COMPOSER

• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a German

keyboardist and composer of the late Baroque

and early Classical period

• He was perhaps J.S.Bach’s most well-known

and prolific son; his music was also admired

by many composers afterwards

• Like his father J.S.Bach, he worked as

kapellmeister (music director) for royal courts

and churches

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)March in DFrom Notebook for Anna Magdalena

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TIPS AND TRICKS

• Beethoven loves dramatic contrasts. Treat the

pianos that come after the crescendos in this

piece as sudden pianos rather than gradually

easing into them

• The two-octaves ascending broken chord

patterns in the right hand might seem

intimidating at first. Think of the first eight

quaver/eighth notes as two groups of four; you

will realise they actually fit the notes of two

block chords

DID YOU KNOW?

• A Bagatelle is simply a generic term for a short

piece usually one or two pages long,

sometimes a bit longer like the famous “Fur

Elise”

• This Bagatelle was written late in Beethoven’s

life when he was practically deaf

KNOW THE COMPOSER

• Ludwig van Beethoven was a German pianist

and composer of the Classical period

• He composed countless masterpieces for

piano many of which still remain popular today

like “Moonlight” and “Fur Elise”

• Beethoven started to become deaf in his early

30s but continued composing great

masterworks like the famous “Ode to Joy” from

his Symphony No. 9

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Bagatelle Op.119 No.9

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TIPS AND TRICKS

• It is easy to accidentally accent the off-beat

notes in the recurring motif first appearing in

Bar 1. Only the first beat note in this motif

needs to be stronger

• The broken octaves at bars 20-21 might be

tricky to play if you have smaller hands. Keep

your right hand relaxed and turn your arm right

and left like turning a doorknob

• Check that your left hand crotchet/quarter

notes sound even in length. It is easy to play

them too short when the left hand is jumping

around

DID YOU KNOW?

• A Sonatina is a multi-movement composition

that is smaller in scale and usually technically

easier compared to a Sonata

• Sonatinas were especially popular with

students and amateurs during the Classical

era in 18th century

KNOW THE COMPOSER

• Muzio Clementi was a British pianist and

composer of Italian birth of the Classical

period

• Besides being one of the first composers to

write primarily for piano, he was also

successful as a piano maker and publisher

• He once had a piano duel with Mozart which

ended in a supposed draw

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) Allegro, 1st movement From Sonatina in C Op.36 No.1

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TIPS AND TRICKS

• Don’t start this movement too slowly. The

given tempo Andantino suggests a brisker

tempo that provides a better contrast with the

slower sweeter major key middle section

• The numerous semi-staccatos in this piece

need to sound more sustained. I recommend

not the lift the fingers off the keys while

playing them

DID YOU KNOW?

• A Sonatina is a multi-movement composition

that is smaller in scale and usually technically

easier compared to a Sonata

• Sonatinas were especially popular with

students and amateurs during the Classical

era in 18th century

KNOW THE COMPOSER

• Carl Reinecke was a German pianist,

composer, and teacher of the Romantic period

• Unlike his contemporaries in Romantic era, his

music still very much was styled after Classical

era compositions

Carl Reinecke (1824-1910) Andantino, 2nd movementFrom Sonatina Op.136 No.1

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TIPS AND TRICKS

• Be careful not to accidentally accent the last

notes of the phrases, otherwise this waltz will

lose much of its elegance

• Despite what the title of this piece might

suggest, the staccatos should feel not feel

jumpy at all in an elegant waltz like this; you

can simply think of them as shorter instead

DID YOU KNOW?

• A waltz is a very popular ballroom dance for

couples in triple-time during the 18th and 19th

centuries in Europe

• Waltzes were considered rather indecent when

they were first introduced because the

dancers would need to embrace when dancing

them

KNOW THE COMPOSER

• Louis Köhler was a German composer, critic

and piano teacher of the Romantic period

• He mostly wrote educational piano pieces and

music theory books

Louis Köhler (1820-1886)A Chicken’s WaltzFrom Kindefreund Op.243

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TIPS AND TRICKS

• The phrases in this piece throughout are four

bars in length and rubato can be used to make

them more expressive. Slightly slow down

starting from the last few notes of each phrase

then gradually pick up the tempo again at the

following phrase

• For better clarity, I recommend only

emphasizing left hand double stem notes and

ignoring the ones on the right hand

• You can actually opt not to use the damper

pedal in this piece. Holding down the bottom

left hand double stem notes longer to two

crotchet/quarter counts can approximate the

pedal effect

DID YOU KNOW?

• Children’s Carnival is a collection of pieces

depicting characters of early European

pantomime popular in America at the time

KNOW THE COMPOSER

• Amy Beach was an American pianist and

composer of the late Romantic and early

Modern period

• She was arguably the most well-known and

acclaimed female composer up to early 20th

century

Amy Beach (1867-1944) SecretsNo. 5 from Children’s Carnival Op.25

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TIPS AND TRICKS

• Count out the beats during ritardandos to

carefully to prevent losing the pulse. I would

also recommend counting the fermata-ed bar

rests as simply double their lengths

• Follow the articulation markings precisely. The

staccatos have to be sharp and short. Take

care that the staccato notes with the tenutos

sound longer and not jumpy. The ends of the

slurs should be staccato-ed also

• If you find the acciaccaturas at the last few

bars tricky, you could try counting of them as

semiquaver/sixteenth notes instead

DID YOU KNOW?

• The pieces in the collection For Children are

based on actual folk tunes

• “Jest” is the most common title for this lively

piece, though you might find it titled “A Happy

Dance” or “A Joke” in some editions instead

KNOW THE COMPOSER

• Bela Bartok was a Hungarian pianist,

composer, and ethnomusicologist of early

Modern period

• He had a lifelong project of documenting and

cataloguing Eastern European folk songs

Béla Bartók (1881-1945)JestNo.27 From For Children Sz 42

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TIPS AND TRICKS

• The number of high notes on the ledger lines

might appear intimidating at first. Figure out

the start, highest, and end of each scale

passage then think of the it as a scale going

up and down

• Most of the notes in this etude belong to E-Flat

major scale

• Be careful not to accent the thumb notes at

the beginnings of the scale ascents

• The higher the registers the more weight you

need to produce the same volume compared

to lower registers

WHAT DOES THIS ETUDE IMPROVE?

• Scales passageworks on higher registers of

the piano

KNOW THE COMPOSER

• Félix Le Couppey was a French pianist and

composer of the Romantic period

• He composed mainly method books and

educational pieces for piano

Félix Le Couppey (1811-1887)No.15 From L'agilité Op.20

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TIPS AND TRICKS

• The top notes of the right hand are the melody

notes of this piece. The exception is bars 9-10

where the melody is played by the left hand

• The pedal should be changed every time the

harmony or chord changes. Use only half-pedal

throughout to prevent the sound from

becoming smudged

• When initially learning to voice the melody you

might want to exaggerate the difference

between the melody and harmony notes by

playing them ff and pp first. I would also

suggest to ignore the printed dynamics

markings first until the chord voicing could be

done consistently

WHAT DOES THIS ETUDE IMPROVE?

• Voicing top melody note within a chord

• Legato pedalling

• Control of gradual dynamics changes

KNOW THE COMPOSER

• Friedrich Bürgmuller was a German pianist

and composer of the Romantic period

• His main compositional output were salon and

educational piano music

Friedrich Burgmüller (1806-1874)Ave MariaNo.19 From 25 Progressive Studies Op.100

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