15 Easy Classical Piano Pieces for Adult Beginners

Adult beginners want to play real music, not exercises. Luckily the classical repertoire is full of short, beautiful pieces that are easy to read and satisfying to play. Here are fifteen easy classical piano pieces for adult beginners and returning players.

Baroque: clear lines and patterns

• Minuet in G major (Petzold, from the Anna Magdalena notebook): the classic first piece.
• Minuet in G minor (Petzold): the same style in a darker key.
• Musette in D major (from the Anna Magdalena notebook): cheerful, with a repeating bass.
• Bach, Prelude in C major, BWV 846: broken chords that sound grand and lie easily under the hands.
• Purcell, Trumpet Tune: festive and short.

Classical: melody and accompaniment

• Beethoven, Ode to Joy: the tune everyone knows.
• Beethoven, Für Elise (opening section): the most famous piano melody of all.
• Beethoven, Sonatina in G: a first taste of a real sonata.
• Leopold Mozart, Burleske: playful and quick to learn.
• Schumann, The Happy Farmer: melody in the left hand, a great reading exercise.

Romantic and later: mood and colour

• Tchaikovsky, Mother Dear and Morning Prayer, from the Album for the Young.
• Burgmüller, Arabesque: lively and satisfying.
• Chopin, Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 No. 4: slow and deeply expressive.
• Satie, Gymnopédie No. 1: calm, floating and much loved.

Read them, don't just learn them

These pieces are ideal for sight-reading practice: read a new one each week before you learn it properly. All of them are available in iCanPiano Style, where every black key shows in the note, in the iCanPiano player and as printable sheet music.

• F sharp: right half black. Play the black key to the right of F.
• B flat: left half black. Play the black key to the left of B.
• B natural: no natural sign. A note that is all black or all white is played on a white key.

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