Customer Reviews

Little Pianist, Op. 823 (Complete): Piano Solo (Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this book on the recommendation of my teacher. I am an adult beginner with three years of lessons. I was able to quickly go through the first 25 exercises and then began to find them difficult for my advanced beginner level. This will be a great book for me for years to come.

I Have uploaded sample pages from the book in the customer images for you to sample.

Throughout half the book, it uses only the treble clef for both hands, and as you progress you start using more and more technique and then it adds the bass clef in.

If you are new to piano, start Alfred's All in One volume 1. That is a great book for raw beginners.

The little pianist is more for Alfred's All In One level 2 players.

If you compare this book with op. 139, you will see some simple patterns. For that matter, if you compare the pieces in this book with each other, you will see some simple patterns.

Both books begin with simple melodies which belabor the key of C major. Both books overdose on square melodies written in the binary form. Both books overdo block chords and broken chords. There are a few pieces in which the bass has the melody, and it is always right after the repeat sign. Counterpoint, what's that?

Czerny's harmonic vocabulary rivals that of a country western group. Until the first secondary dominant occurs in #37, it is all I, IV, and V. After that, there are 2 augmented sixths and 1 diminished seventh. They all occur on measure 29 our of 32.

The book was a fun sightreading exercise, though. The second half has sixteenth-note scale passages. #55 has some challenging rhythms. A complete performance takes about an hour and a half.

This is a wonderful book for teaching fingers to move and keep limber.