4 Tips for Choosing New Music

Pianists are the luckiest of instrumentalists. While some musicians have little written for their instruments, pianists have so much music that we’ll never live long enough to play everything.

But as exciting as it is to have so much music available, the sheer number of pieces can lead to choice paralysis. While we’re taking lessons, our instructors can help us choose; when we become self-directed, however, we’re tasked with becoming our own guides.The freedom can be dizzying. We play a little of this, muck around with a little of that, but eventually we sense that we’ll never be truly satisfied until we commit to learning a few pieces thoroughly and intimately. 

The most important thing we can do as we start looking for a new piece is abolish the word “should”—as in, someone said we “should” play this composer, or a friend loves that composer. Thank those internal voices and then stop listening to them. Your instincts, interests, and current life events are much better guides. Once you start listening to yourself, you’re free to embark on your search for new music. If you, like I, are a self-directed pianist, here are some things that may help you choose your next musical passion:

What do you listen to?

What’s on your playlist? Which composers are you most drawn to? What melodies run through your mind when you’re going through your day? This is where to start, because (to paraphrase a Biblical text), where you ear is, that’s where your heart is also. Again, remove “should” from consideration and commit to something that draws you to the piano every day. 

What is the level of difficulty?

OK, so you identified several pieces that attract you. Track down the sheet music. Now’s the time to decide if your level of playing is a good match for the technical demands of the piece. A good guide is to choose something that’s at or slightly above our playing level. As much as it may be fun to play bits of a composition way above our abilities, our inability to execute it confidently is musically unsatisfying and eventually becomes demoralizing. 

How much time can you devote to it?

My next-door neighbor—a gifted advanced pianist who makes his living as a neurosurgeon—plays Bach and Chopin to unwind. His repertoire, however, focuses on shorter works—Preludes and Fugues, and Études—because he hasn’t the time to learn longer pieces. Now that I’ve transitioned out of my piano career to focus on my writing, I’ve started learning many big pieces I never had time to dig into in the past. Some rare people are content to work on a big piece for years, but I’ve found that most of us need the satisfaction of mastering the music a little more quickly so as to not lose interest in playing it. When we don’t have enough time to devote to a piece, it’s too easy to become overwhelmed and abandon it before it’s completely learned. 

Do you love it enough to spend time with it?

Choosing a new piece of music is much like choosing a new friend: we get to know the piece slowly, we learn its quirks, we grimace at its challenges, and eventually we know it intimately. When we’re playing for pleasure, we play for the love of it—not because we “should,” or because we want to have another barnstormer in our repertoire. For those who play for joy, not for pay, our love of the music we’re learning is what brings us back to the keyboard every day.

The pleasure of making music is a life-long journey. The goal isn’t to play everything, it’s to find the “everything” in the music we play. In this way, the pieces we learn become friends, we express ourselves through the notes, and the joy of creating beauty draws us the the piano every day.