Quirky/lovely pieces for piano grade 5/6?

[minifingerz]

Can any of you recommend a lovely/interesting piece for ds aged 13 to learn. He's currently learning A river flows in you, by Yiruma and a couple of Melody Bober pieces, but his piano teacher has suggested he finds another couple for himself. Sadly he's a bit lacking in initiative on this one, though he enjoys his lessons and plays quite well.

Any suggestions welcome!

[TheMaestro]

It rather depends on what he's looking for. You can google the syllabuses from different years and choose pieces from those. I always enjoyed some Scarlatti sonatas, but it's not always easy to see what standard they all are.

Having a glimpse around the various syllabuses, these are the ones that caught my eye (and are available for free);

hz.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/f/f4/IMSLP217698-PMLP02387-Debussy_The_Little_Shepherd.pdf

hz.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/c/c5/IMSLP00968-1_Stick_Game.pdf

hz.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/6/62/IMSLP10496-Scriabin_-_Op.11.pdf

imslp.eu/files/imglnks/euimg/a/ac/IMSLP335007-PMLP534216-Scarlatti,Domenico-Sonates_Heugel_32.121_Volume_8_21_K.378_scan.pdf

hz.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/4/4a/IMSLP154645-WIMA.1d2a-hexe.pdf

hz.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/2/28/IMSLP429852-PMLP62417-5p_score.pdf

hz.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/7/76/IMSLP00857-Bartok-_For_Children_1-43.pdf

Some of those are albums, where only some of the pieces are of that standard, but it's always worth trying out other movements and seeing if he enjoys any of them. Search around IMSLP for free downloads of your favourite composers (only PD music, obviously), like some of the Chopin Preludes for example.

[minifingerz]

Thanks so much for those! I'll have a trawl through them tomorrow.

[Dlpdep]

I like playing more modern music. I'm probably at a grade 5/6 level - I've completed grade 8 but that was 20+ years ago and I only play for fun now. Einaudi has some nice pieces but I find them quite challenging to play.

Thomas Newman's stuff is beautiful - I particularly like 'Brooks was here' from the Shawshank redemption - you will probably know it if you Google it.

Musicnotes has some great chart stuff -

[ThinkFastNotSlow]

Mine liked pieces fron Amelie, Wolf Hall (v easy but beautiful) & Michael Nyman's The Piano, which they learnt away from their lessons. They're also quite keen on bits of Einaudi and Philip Glass.

[Dlpdep]

Whoops, too soon, ed sheeran's bloodstream is very satisfying to play, as is Kate bush's This woman's work. He could try November rain. (I realise that a 13 year old may not even know a lot of this music - old glimmer I am!), Sarah McLachlan's Angel, Kissing you from Romeo and Juliet soundtrack.

[Dlpdep]

I also really like Debussy to play if it must be classical.

[PhilODox]

Does he like video games? DS (currently grade 5) has a book of music from Legend of Zelda, which is fairly challenging, but manageable.