Suggestions for easy piano music of a certain type

[WaverOfSticks]

DS has got an obvious ear for music, but we're struggling to get him off his gaming and interested in it. His latest in a line of piano teachers (through his school - they keep moving on, so he's had 4 in the last 5 years) is as much use as a chocolate teapot. She gives us no feedback, however often we ask, and is just making him practise the same pieces over and over without even entering him for an exam. No sight reading, aural, or even scales! He's said he'd rather just play some pieces he'd like for a while and just enjoy it. He's probably grade 2-3 standard.

One piece he has previously particularly enjoyed playing is "Ivan Sings" by Khachaturian.

Can anyone suggest music of a similar vein, of a similar kind of standard? He's obviously not interested in the lighter Mozart kind of thing but finds the moodier style more interesting. Is there any Rachmaninov that's easy to play?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I do like the way Lang Lang describes the piece!

Try more khachaturiab, kabelevsky, tchaikovsky and grieg. Maybe albeniz.

tchaikovsky ´old french song’
Kabelevsky ´clowns’
Khachuturian - try other pieces from his ´album for children’
grieg - album leaf
albeniz is the right sort of feel but I’l not sure if anything is suitable for grade 3 actually

Thanks!

I'm looking at other pieces from the Khachaturian album.
Grieg usually sounds easier than it actually is, but I've got a load somewhere to look at!
I've got a load of Albeniz as well, but I'm pretty sure there's nothing at that level!

Go to a music shop and ask for music at the standard you want.
There's so much available....

My tastes skew fairly similarly. I've not been able to find an English language piano book that has that much late Romantic / Russian 20th century music, so am interested to see if someone recommends one. If you can cope with the titles being in German (obviously the language is irrelevant for the music itself) this German book really hits the mark https://www.thomann.de/gb/sikorski_russische_klavierschule_2.htm . Ivan Sings is titled as Andantino and is number 14 in the table of contents. It's a standard German teaching book, and if you look on YouTube for 'russische Klavierschule band 2' you can find full play throughs of all the pieces. If nothing else those might be a source of inspiration on individual pieces to look into.

That's very interesting, thank you. I might have to invest in that!

Ivan Sings has always been one of my favourite pieces.

Perhaps try Satie's Gnossiennes. They are similarly atmospheric (one of the directions is "sans orguiel") and they are of similar levels of difficulty.

I'm going to throw a complete wild card into the mix - Elton John. He trained at the Royal College and a lot of his stuff is relatively straightforward to play.

Ooh, I've got a book of Satie buried away somewhere, I'll have to have a look. I think his hands may not be big enough yet.

I'll have a look, but I don't think Elton John is going to be his thing, but I'll see what's out there.

Find a better teacher.
He may as well just play for pleasure at home and forget the lessons. Nothing wrong with playing for pleasure btw but a more inspiring and ambitious teacher would actually help him learn.

That's the thing, we've been advised that there is a teacher who might "get" him a lot better, but we've got to wait until he has availability. We're definitely binning this teacher.

I can help him with the music, but being his parent he will refuse to learn from me! Also, I'm really not that good as a pianist.

Where are you based? I can recommend a good teacher who takes time to listen to what kids are interested in.

Also, I had a series of books called Classics to Moderns - Ivan Sings was in one of them - maybe the 3rd one? And the other music was quite similar and composers mentioned here - Satie etc

Einaudi maybe?

Ooh, the Classics to Moderns looks interesting. I'm sure I had some of those when I was young!

Thanks for the offer, but we'd rather he went through the school, as it would be difficult to fit in lessons at other times.

No problem, it's tricky fitting in the hobbies isn't it?!

Hope you find something he likes 😊

I have no suggestions but I like his downbeat moody style!