Music Lessons in Tulsa | Wonderful Levels of Classical Piano Songs
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Hi, welcome to another podcast with Curtis Music Academy. Today, we are going to be learning about classical songs organized by difficulty level. And so a little bit of my background is I started taking music lessons in Tulsawhen I was eight years old, and it was a very traditional classical type of setting. And so in the lessons, we would typically have a finger up, a lesson book song, a hymn player and a gold song, possibly not a gold song, depending on what time of the year it was. And if it was Christmas time, we might do a fun song for that was like a Christmas theme.
And we also had Spring Fine Arts at the school we attended. And so the place where I took music lessons in Tulsawas really closely associated with the school. So she would help us prepare for the competition. And we would also have a spring recital where we would prepare two songs. We would usually do one classical song and we would also do one hymn song. So with that being said, it was always kind of like each year you would do a new classical song. And so now that I am a teacher, one of the things that I’ve done is create a list of songs that are organized by the difficulty level.
I have not played all the songs on this list. I just thought it would be interesting to kind of go through, search YouTube and see what other people listed as one of the most popular songs, for example, a Level three piano player. Now, I am going to pause right here and say, just because you’re playing out of a Level three book doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to branch upward and play songs that are more difficult. So I did this all the time when I was a student taking music lessons in Tulsa, and it just strengthens you and helps you grow quickly. And so it’s not something to be overwhelmed or discouraged if you play it, if you try a higher level of playing the piano.
But it’s something to sit down and say, OK, this is possibly beyond me, but I’m just going to sit down and give it my best shot when I am taking music lessons in Tulsa. Usually what happens is I find that students and myself from years ago rise to the occasion. So it’s interesting to sometimes put a song in front of a student that is a little bit too hard and there might be a little bit of struggle with that. But ultimately they rise to the level and just stay there. So that’s pretty cool to watch. So I have a list of songs here, level one piano to level 10 piano, and I’m just going to go down a list of them and talk about each song and why I put it on the list and some of the songs I’ve heard, but I’m not super familiar with.
But most of them are, I should say, some of them I have played. So let’s start with level one. Level one is just simply Churney number one. And I found this rated as a level one piano song and I thought that’s interesting. Most people who take music lessons in Tulsa would consider that a finger warmup. But this particular rater, a person who writes the songs, chose to put Churney one as a level one. I have played Cheramie one and it is a great level one workout. And also just just a fun way to get accustomed to playing the piano and accustom to the key of C.. OK, so level two, a song that we have there is Minuet in G by Buck.
This is a great song in the key of G. Just one sharp and it’s got some hand movements over and unders and just a fine, very classical song. Most people have heard it before, whether it’s from a movie or from a TV show or just at some point in their life. When you think of classical music, you will think of Minuet in G. Another level two song is Arabesque. Arabesque is a very fun quick song and it’s in the time signature to four, which is a little bit more unusual. There’s a lot of hand position changes, but it’s a very fun song and I find that most students taking music lessons in Tulsa are very capable of doing this.
Students have been applying themselves for several months. This would be a great song for them. It’s not too hard for many students taking music lessons in Tulsa. It’s just a little bit of a reach upward into some more difficulties. And by doing it, it also teaches you a little bit about moving your hands and playing at different parts. And it does include some sharps in it as well. Level three, the first one is. Prelude in C, again by Bach, this is a great one. This is one fun story is when I was like maybe 11 years old, my grandparents were coming to visit from across the country. Now, previously, my grandmother had been my piano teacher, and so that had been probably several months to a year previously.
And we had just moved far away from taking music lessons in Tulsa. They were coming to visit and I was going to try to impress my grandma by playing Prelude in C, and I learned about the first page of that or so, and she heard it. She was so impressed. And I was also just overjoyed that I could play a song like Prelude and see. Now, at that time, I didn’t really appreciate the dark tense chords that go on and go on in like the second page. There is a lot like the first page is very light and very pretty and harmonious. And in the second page it goes into kind of like dark chords and then it resolves to light chords and kind of goes back and forth a little bit.
And at the time I didn’t really appreciate that sound. So I really just kind of stopped at the first page. But that is a fun memory. So I did Prelude in C at that point. So another Level three song is Sonatina in C Major by Clementino. Not super familiar with that one. I think I have heard it before, but it’s not one that I have played. Another Level three song is Minuet in G k one by Mozart. Mozart is another fabulous composer of classical music. OK, moving on to level four for Elise by Beethoven. Everybody has heard this song and most people, when they’re adult beginners taking music lessons in Tulsa, when they want to play the piano, this is a song that possibly could come up as a goal song because it’s just so well known, relatively not too difficult to play, especially the first movement.
Another fun story about this song since, you know, fun stories are always memorable is I took it this song to competition in eighth grade. And so at Fine Arts Competition, you have to memorize the whole piece. And there’s three movements of this song. Of course, there’s the well-known first movement, the second movement, and then I believe there is a third movement as well. So it’s a great song to learn lots of movements, sharps, flats, all that kind of stuff. So it’s definitely a level for another Level four song is Moonlight Sonata, the first movement by Beethoven. Now I say the first movement because later on in the song it gets very tricky, but the first movement is pretty easy for music lessons in Tulsa
I don’t want to say simple because if you’re a beginner who is taking music lessons in Tulsa, it’s definitely not simple, but if you’ve been playing for a year or two, this might be a great song for you. Another level for song would be Prelude BWV nine nine nine by Bach. OK, going on to level five would be Rondo Electrica by Mozart. So this is a song I heard all the time growing up because my younger sister at some point in her musical career learned this song and played it all the time. So we just have a family joke going on that that we heard it so much. And that’s for for some time. It just seemed like that’s the only song that she played on the piano. So just kind of a fun inside joke.
But yes, Rondeau Electrica is a great one. Level five, if that’s the low level bug you’re playing, this might be a good go to for you. OK, going on to level number six, this song is one of my favorites, Vowels in E Flat by August Durand. OK, so we are going to wrap up this session with talking about Valse in E Flat because I took this song to contest in ninth grade and I said, hi, my name is Andrew Allansford. Today I will be playing fast and eat flat by August Derand and I played it through when taking music lessons in Tulsa
I was the first performer of that day of course had it memorized and I left because I think I was scheduled to be somewhere else. And then the girl after me apparently stood up and said, Hi, my name is Andrea, I can’t remember her last name and I will be playing Falsani Flat by Agusta. And so it was like this huge, really funny thing that I didn’t know about until later that day. So we’ll end on that story and I will continue the rest of the list in a later podcast. Thanks for joining in for another podcast about music lessons in Tulsa.