Writing for piano.

Sorry guys, I'm fairly new, and if this is in the wrong forum I apologize. I'm a junior in high school, and I've been writing for about 6 months now. I've written a few things for band, and several smaller projects, but there's one thing that just kicks my butt. Writing for piano. I can never seem to make it interesting enough, complex enough, good sounding. I do use piano in some of my concert pieces, but that's just to add something to it. Writing for solo or accompaniment piano just doesn't seem possible to me. Anyone got any suggestions on how to start writing for it, at least on a very basic level?

You can try looking at some simple piano pieces, analysing the texture, how the chords are voiced, what the seperate hands are doing, then maybe try taking some of the pieces you've looked at as models for your own pieces (if for example you're looking at a Grieg piece that has the left hand playing arpeggios and the right hand a melody, use that same idea with your own melody and harmonies). After some time doing exercises like this and studying more of the piano literature you'll start to get a much better idea of what's possible on a piano and how to make best use of its versatility.

Some recommendations (scores):

Schumann's 'Album for the Young'

Grieg's Op.12 Lyric Pieces

(also check out his other sets of lyric pieces, there are several, all full of excellent piano writing and beautiful music)

Chopin's Op.28 Preludes

They should keep you going for a while ;). Also worth checking out are Mozart and Beethoven's piano sonatas, though I do recomemnd sticking to little miniatures for a while first.

Good luck, and welcome to YC :)

Whooops, forgot to mention:

If you want to listen to any of the pieces from the sets I suggested I recommend www.pianosociety.com, they have loads of public domain recordings of much of the reportoire.

Enjoy ;)

Thanks for the welcome and suggestions. It's much appreciated.

Playing Piano is about sound.

Dont think "oh dear! I have to think doubleling!". Just as long as it sounds okay. Or good.

Pedal - and una corda - changes a LOT to the sound and tone. Try experimenting with that.

Try working with dynamics as well.

PS

Oh hey, this looks like the thread for me as well. As I write this I'm sitting around waiting to go into my composition lesson to show my piano teacher the one and a half mediocre short piano pieces I turned out this week. My issue with writing for piano is that I'm sort-of-but-not-really a pianist. That is, I play enough to plunk out one or two lines at a time, which is fine for writing for many single-voiced instruments, but if I wrote piano pieces to my own playing ability, they would be horrendously boring, and it's very difficult for me to write more complex pieces because, well, I don't have the ability to play them. So yeah, I'm listening for advice too ^^ (and any ideas on how to overcome the whole piano-music-by-a-mediocre-pianist thing would be welcome too--Mr. Trumpeter, are you [also] a pianist?)

My very tiny bit of advice, from maybe the three weeks I've been working on piano pieces, is to jump right in and not worry about quality at first. Maybe try to turn out a few really short (0:30-1:30) pieces, perhaps each with a specific theme or central conceit (like, two independent melody lines, melody + accompaniment, completely choral, etc.), and then stop and reflect. Quantity over quality at the beginning, to get used to the medium and not freeze up because of perfectionism (which is my problem) may be helpful.

I think that the most difficult thing about composing for the piano is the fact that it is a polyphonic instrument with tremendous capabilities. When I first started composing, I would write a line for the right hand, but then I had difficulty to write something for the left hand. It takes time to get used to writing for it.

I think that best advice is to study scores and start from writing simple pieces or compositional exercises such as canons where you don't really have to worry how to fill the one or the other hand and slowly progress from that point.

I've written a brief example so that I can explain a few of the things that I did which might help you.

First I wrote a very simple melody. I added arpeggios to the left hand, but then I decided I wanted to give a line to the left hand too so I had to adjust the arpeggios a bit as well as the melody. Towards the cadence, the line of the left hand descends and gives more emphasis and power to the harmony, while the arpeggios ascend so that after the cadence the melody will be sung by the alto voice while the arpeggios by the soprano voice. It's a very simple composition, but I hope that it'll be of some help to you...

Alexandros

Example.pdf

Example.mid

I think that the most difficult thing about composing for the piano is the fact that it is a polyphonic instrument with tremendous capabilities. When I first started composing, I would write a line for the right hand, but then I had difficulty to write something for the left hand. It takes time to get used to writing for it.

Actually I love just having a monophonic voice played by a piano. I think it should be done more often. While it is certainly useful to know the full possibilities of an instrument, it is by no means always necessary to employ them. And actually, being a pianist, I feel much more free writing stupidly simple stuff for the piano than for other instruments, because in this case I don't have any performers who think I'm just doing it out of ignorance :P

It's kind of funny how all performers for whom I write always show me the latest weird extended techniques one can do with their instruments and expect me to jump all over it and make a piece with everything one can possible do - while I'm just happy with some nice normal notes

Actually I love just having a monophonic voice played by a piano. I think it should be done more often. While it is certainly useful to know the full possibilities of an instrument, it is by no means always necessary to employ them. And actually, being a pianist, I feel much more free writing stupidly simple stuff for the piano than for other instruments, because in this case I don't have any performers who think I'm just doing it out of ignorance

It's kind of funny how all performers for whom I write always show me the latest weird extended techniques one can do with their instruments and expect me to jump all over it and make a piece with everything one can possible do - while I'm just happy with some nice normal notes…

Absolutely! So am I, but I wasn't like that back then... :)

Sorry guys, I'm fairly new, and if this is in the wrong forum I apologize. I'm a junior in high school, and I've been writing for about 6 months now. I've written a few things for band, and several smaller projects, but there's one thing that just kicks my butt. Writing for piano. I can never seem to make it interesting enough, complex enough, good sounding. I do use piano in some of my concert pieces, but that's just to add something to it. Writing for solo or accompaniment piano just doesn't seem possible to me. Anyone got any suggestions on how to start writing for it, at least on a very basic level?

Yes. Pertend that the piano is an entire band, and write for it.

I know this sounds like a joke, but I'm dead serious. In a way, the piano is an entire band. It is a band of 10 fingers playing together. So you got to stop thinking of the piano as "a solo instrument", especially if "solo instrument" means a trumpet for you.

Here is an exercise for you:

Take one of your favourite pieces you've wrote for band, and transcribe it for solo piano. If you're interested, I'll be happy to help you through this project.

Here is an exercise for you:

Take one of your favourite pieces you've wrote for band' date=' and transcribe it for solo piano. If you're interested, I'll be happy to help you through this project.[/quote']

I think this is an excellent idea.