A Sampling of Intermediate Piano Music

I wanted to list out a few collections of classical works for piano that I highly recommend the late beginner or early intermediate student become familiar with. These pieces represent the first few rungs on the ladder of classical music. Students who wish to eventually progress to the advanced level will want to move out of the beginner materials and into this material as soon as possible. 

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Timing Your Entry into Classical Music

I generally suggest these music collections right when students have finished their method book training. Additionally, I use this material to assist students who may wish to exit method books early. 

A prime example of this would be an adult student who has finished both Adult Piano Adventures books. Rather than proceeding onward to the main books in the series (as would be suggested), we can start the easiest works of Burgmüller or Bach (mentioned below) and dispense with the method books altogether. 

Most of my students end up taking this path with the exception of those who are not open to the idea of classical music. Many of these pieces actually start appearing in the method books, in their entirety or as excerpts, around the 4th and 5th levels. This is when I generally help students make the transition out of method books.

Public Domain vs Printed Editions

You can find all this music from the public domain, and I will even include links to the IMSLP website (a well-established public domain library). I will also include links to Amazon so that you can purchase higher quality editions if you like.

Public domain music is wonderful for surveying music (especially if you own a tablet). However, the experience of learning this music is much more enjoyable when using high quality editions.

Here are a few reasons to consider purchasing this music rather than downloading it:

• High quality editions with modern editing are not available in the public domain.

• Many published editions often use larger print that is significantly more comfortable to read.

• Some of these editions include important biographical information, performance notes, and optimal fingerings.

• These editions generally contain less errors.

• You can start building your sheet music library. 

With all that said, I will now move on to the collections themselves. 

Developing Artist Series – Faber

The Developing Artist series is a set of 5 books (including a preparatory level) published by the same folks who did the Piano Adventures series. For students currently in Piano Adventures, these books will match up in difficulty and provide supplemental material, although the levels are not the same (for instance, Developing Artist Book 4 matches up against Piano Adventures Level 5+). 

This collection only includes classical pieces with no additional instruction. The pieces are categorized into one of 4 historical periods: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern. The early books (Preparatory and Books 1-2) are easier than anything else on this page, but the 4th book is the most difficult (which includes a Chopin Waltz and Mazurka among other pieces of comparable difficulty).

I wanted to mention this series first because I have found it to be an excellent compilation of classical music (especially books 3 and 4) with an accessible path right from when students first learn how to read music up to the late intermediate level, even if the student did not use Piano Adventures. Although most of these pieces can be found individually for free online, the value in this series is in the convenience of this collection. 

Developing Artist Series on Amazon

Keyboard Literature Volume 1

If you don’t know what time period or style you wish to focus on yet, a collection such as the Keyboard Literature series will serve you well. This collection is basically a survey of late beginner and early intermediate music and will introduce you to many pieces and composers from Baroque to Modern periods. Please note that a few of these pieces are also found in the other collections listed on this page. 

The order of pieces is chronological as opposed to progressive in difficulty, but the difficulty range is relatively narrow. Beginners should stick to shorter pieces in easier keys (the book does make a few recommendations of the very easiest pieces that you can start with). Some pieces will feel accessible to the beginner immediately, while others will take another year or so of study. 

There are several volumes of this collection, each with similar difficulty ranges but different sets of pieces. The difficulty does not progress from book to book, however, students who enjoy playing music at this level will find use in owning multiple volumes. Additionally, advanced students may find collections such as these to be a useful source of sight-reading material. 

Keyboard Literature Volume 1 on Amazon

First Lessons in Bach

The first lessons in Bach collection is an indispensable introduction to Baroque material. Many of the earlier works in this collection were not written by Bach himself but may have been attributed to him at some point. That being said, these works will serve as a fine entry point into Bach’s music. 

First lessons in Bach is divided into two books, the second of which is much more difficult but worth working towards. The Schirmer Performance edition includes selected works from both editions. These works are really quite beautiful and will greatly interest students who are looking for pieces that sound more complicated than they actually are. 

First Lessons in Bach (Schirmer Performance Edition) on Amazon
First Lessons in Bach on IMSLP – Book 1

Sonatina Album

The Sonatina Album is a collection of mostly classical Sonatinas (along with some others thrown in). These include the works of Clementi, Kuhlau, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, among others. 

This book probably has the widest skill level gap between the easier and more difficult pieces compared to everything else on this page. That being said, there are a ton of pieces and they are mostly arranged in progressive difficulty. The progressive difficulty is especially helpful with a book containing this many pieces.

I find this collection particularly helpful for training students in the ways of classical technique, since the book focuses on classical era material. You really can’t go wrong with sonatinas. I generally have students pick a few pieces from each composer and then move along. 

Sonatina Album on Amazon
Public Domain – you can find many of the individual selections by searching “Clementi” or “Kuhlau” and “Sonatinas IMSLP” in the google search box.

Album for the Young

Schumann’s Album for the Young contains several short character pieces that many people will recognize (Wild Rider and Melody come to mind). These pieces are probably more different from each other more so than the other collections mentioned in this article, which is nice for those looking for a little variation. 

One thing to mention is that some of these pieces are quite deceptive in how easy they look. Only the first few of them are genuinely easy, in my opinion. 

Album for the Young on Amazon (Schirmer Performamnce Edition)
Album for the Young on IMSLP

Burgmüller – 25 Progressive Pieces (Op. 100)

The Op. 100 pieces by Burgmüller are some of the most charming and satisfying pieces on this list. While every piece may not appeal to every student, there is huge variety across the included 25 pieces. There is a good chance most students will find several things they like. 

Additionally, the first 2 or 3 pieces are very appropriate for late beginners and are quite satisfying to learn. Compared to the Schumann, I have found more of these pieces accessible to more students. 

Burgmüller Op. 100 (Schirmer Performamnce Edition) on Amazon
Burgmüller Op. 100 on IMSLP

Czerny – Practical Exercises for Beginners (Op. 599)

The Czerny Op. 599 is a collection of etudes rather than pieces. Despite this, you will generally want to be working out of this book at the same time as everything else on this page. 

These studies are very helpful in training students to play and recognize patterns that are frequently encountered in classical music. I generally recommend starting at exercise #11, but you are welcome to use the book as you wish. 

Czerny Op. 599 (Schirmer Performance Edition) on Amazon
Czerny Op. 599 on IMSLP

Closing Thoughts

I find the Burgmüller collection to be the most accessible from this list, followed by many of the works of the Keyboard Collection, and then the Bach (and others). However, as these books start to increase in difficulty, you may which to sub in some additional material, so that each level can really be mastered before moving to the next level. 

Students will probably need to work through several of these (though not necessarily every piece) to advance in the reading and technical skills necessary for more demanding literature. Infact, students should really be reading and playing as many pieces as possible at each level because there is no substitute for experience.

This post was originally published on the Clarion Clavier blog in August, 2019. It has since been updated and relocated to this site.