Piano/18 studies ranked by difficulty

This list is ranked by approximately by difficulty. Scores for all should be readily available at no cost (most can be IMSLP.)

Beginner pianists should not be daunted by the size of the list, especially its latter half; working through these studies should take months if not years of devoted practice. Take note that the above list consists only of suggestions, and are not "mandatory for any and all pianists." However, in the process of studying a piece, a pianist ought not to put emphasis on snapping up the piece as quickly as possible; rather, he should take time ensure that the technique is being properly developed. It is difficult to correct technical errors once they have been practiced solidly into a piece.


 * 1) Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises
 * 2) Short pieces from The Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach by Johann Sebastian Bach
 * 3) Nineteenth-Century Pedagogical Character Pieces such as those of Cornelius Gurlitt or Friedrich Burgmuller
 * 4) School of Velocity and Other Studies by Carl Czerny.
 * 5) Mikrokosmos of Bela Bartok
 * 6) Tewntieth-Century Character pieces such as those of Dimitri Kabalevsky, Alexander Gretchaninoff or Samuel Maykapar
 * 7) Two- and Three-Part Inventions of Johann Sebastian Bach
 * 8) Multi-movement sonatinas such as those of Muzio Clementi
 * 9) More difficult Nineteenth-Century Character Pieces such as those of Robert Schumann, Edvard Grieg or Felix Mendelssohn
 * 10) More Complex Sonata forms such as those of Franz Josef Haydn or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 * 11) Nocturnes of Frederic Chopin
 * 12) "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky
 * 13) Preludes and Fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier
 * 14) Sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven
 * 15) Etudes by Frederic Chopin
 * 16) Etudes-Tableaux by Sergei Rachmaninoff
 * 17) Douze Études d'exécution transcendante by Franz Liszt
 * 18) Other works by Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Chopin