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Visiting the house of my composer friend Matthew Smith (who has an outstanding CD out now, by the way), I noticed the score to Chopin\u2019s E minor prelude out on the piano. It turns out that his wife, children\u2019s book illustrator and author Lauren Stringer, is taking piano lessons, and she has been working on it. I was delighted \u2014 the piece is a favorite of mine. I dug out my recording of it for her to hear, and thought I\u2019d bring it back to the podcast as well.

The piece has been a popular one on In the Hands \u2014 people have left many comments on it. I suspect that\u2019s because it\u2019s so popular with advanced beginner / intermediate piano students like Lauren. All of us who are, or once were, beginners owe Chopin our thanks for this piece: it is a great one, yet it\u2019s within reach of a beginning pianist. (That\u2019s not to undercut the task of learning it. Any pianist who has learned to play it well ought to be proud of their accomplishment! It is not in any way a trivial thing. In reach of a dedicated beginner, perhaps, but not easy.)

I abhor the idea that material for beginners should be dumbed down. Simplicity is necessary, but simplicity need not be dumb. We are especially guilty of doing this to children, but it happens to beginners of all ages. It\u2019s kind of bait and switch: somebody loves music so much that they find the courage to start taking lessons, then we give them music that\u2019s not worth loving, holding off the real stuff until they\u2019re more advanced. It\u2019s disrespectful, and it\u2019s counterproductive: the lessons of substance and meaning do not need to follow years and years after the lessons of reading and technique. We do the same thing with reading, with math \u2014 especially with math! \u2014\xa0oh, don\u2019t get me started.

I see it as a challenge to us composers: Chopin, who wrote some of the most difficult piano music out there, managed to produce this music of tremendous depth without needing to make it tremendously difficult. If he can do it, why can\u2019t we? OK, actually, making something both great and simple is one of the most difficult artistic challenges there is, but it\u2019s also one of the worthiest. Lauren certainly knows that: the best picture books can tell compelling stories that tackle layered, subtle, and difficult ideas using only a very few words and elemental artwork, and they are powerful for their simplicity. Her gorgeous latest book is a nice essay on how the choices we make in our perception of reality shape that reality and our lives \u2014\xa0though she says it much more simply, and more effectively!

I\u2019ve paired the E minor prelude with the E major one. The latter is a bit more difficult (mostly because of the wider stretches), but is also within a dedicated beginner\u2019s reach, and also a great one. It has a wonderful chord progression, and a very interesting structure: we set out from the same point of departure three times (0:00, 0:28, 0:58), each time finding a new path with newly surprising modulations. I learned these two preludes one after the other, and think they make a great segue. I do like the big contrasts!

\n\n\n\n\n\nFr\xe9d\xe9ric Chopin\n\n\n\n\u25b6\ufe0f\nPrelude Op 28 No 4 (in E minor)\n\n\nPaul Cantrell, piano\n\n\n\n\n\n\u2b07\ufe0f\nDownload\n\n\n(2:41 / 3.7 M)\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n\nFr\xe9d\xe9ric Chopin\n\n\n\n\u25b6\ufe0f\nPrelude Op 28 No 9 (in E major)\n\n\nPaul Cantrell, piano\n\n\n\n\n\n\u2b07\ufe0f\nDownload\n\n\n(1:36 / 2.4 M)\n\n\n\n

Attention, beginners, would-be beginners, and especially those who say, \u201cOh, I wish I could learn to play the piano! But I\u2019m just too old / too busy / too tonedeaf / too whatever.\u201d Rubbish! Balderdash! Pish, piffle, and poppycock! It is never too late to start. Be bold! Lauren was; you can be too. Great music is not out of your reach.