lessons

20 Showstopper Piano Recital Pieces

Looking for the perfect recital piece for your student? Check out these twenty arrangements, recommended by an experienced piano teacher!

Musicnotes

• 4 min read
piano recital

Piano recital season is coming! Many piano teachers and studios host an end-of-the-school-year recital to showcase their students’ progress each year. This is the perfect occasion to find really special music for students to play to show off their skills and dazzle the audience.

Finding just the right recital performance piece for each student can be a challenge. You want to find something that is interesting for the student to learn and will also sound impressive to the audience. It needs to be written in a pedagogical way to make the most of the skills that many piano students learn in piano lessons. It should be just a little bit challenging for the student, but not so much that they can’t complete it or polish it up before the recital date.

Here are some selections that make great recital pieces because they are well-written for piano students and the audience will love hearing them:

Beginner:

"Ode to Joy" - arr. by MakingMusicFun

1. "Beauty and the Beast" - arranged by Jennifer Eklund

This arrangement is great for a student who has had a couple of years of piano lessons. Each hand stays mostly in or near C position, which many beginning piano students can easily work with.
Watch Jennifer's performance here.

2. "Popcorn" by Carolyn Miller

This is a catchy piece with a lot of staccato and legato contrast as well as scale-like runs. The range of notes and chords should work well for most students who have 2-3 years of piano lessons.

3. "Grizzly Bear Growl" by Jennifer Linn

This piece is played low on the piano, giving it a strong, growling sound. It’s great for students who are new to reading but excited to play something that sounds big!

4. "Star Wars (Main Theme)" by John Williams

It’s easy to get a Star Wars fan excited to perform with this arrangement. This one is just right for a student with a couple of years of lessons behind them.

5. "Do Re Mi" - arranged by Jennifer Eklund

Here’s an arrangement that has been simplified so that a beginner can figure it out. The right hand stays within a C scale and the left hand is centered in C position.

6. "PBJ Blues" by Carol Klose

This cute tune is in a swing style. The left hand has some simple chord shells that move around to different positions while the right hand plays a melody line.

7. "Jumpin’ Jazz" by Eric Baumgartner

Here's a good jazzy selection for a beginner. The left hand always plays a broken, root-position triad, while the right hand plays short jazzy motifs in between.

8. "Linus and Lucy" - arranged by Phillip Keveren

This is an iconic piano tune that parents and grandparents love to hear. This arrangement is just right for beginners because both hands stay in C Position for the whole song.

9. "Lean On Me" by Bill Withers

Here’s another tune that audiences love to hear. This arrangement is short and keeps the left hand harmonies in simple positions.

10. "Ode to Joy" - arranged by MakingMusicFun

This is a great song for beginners to perform because it’s so well known and it naturally falls within a simple C-Position range of notes.

Intermediate:

"Canon in D" - arr. by Jennifer Eklund

11. "Moon Mist" by David Carr Glover

David Carr Glover wrote many wonderful performance pieces for piano students. Moon Mist includes inverted chords and arpeggios that fall easily under student hands but still sound full and beautiful.

12. "Canon in D" - arranged by Jennifer Eklund

"Canon in D" makes a lovely recital song and it can be hard to find an arrangement that feels complete but is also manageable for piano learners. This arrangement fits the bill. It’s 3 pages and features all of the key moments you would expect in "Canon in D" while also staying in a range that is easy to read and play.

13. "The Bubbling Brook" by Carolyn Miller

Carolyn Miller has a number of wonderful performance pieces. This piece features some beautiful cross-hand arpeggios with a melodic bassline that is engaging to play and listen to.

14. "Barn Dance" by Wendy Stevens

This is a fun and lively piece that audiences and performers will love. It has some syncopation and ornamentation to play up the barn dance style.

15. "Easy Does It" by Fred Kern

Swing music makes a great addition to any recital and this piece is a great option!

16. "Spanish Tango" by Mona Rejino

This piece has drama and flair with the left hand tango rhythm. It’s not too tricky but sounds great for intermediate students.

17. "Fountain in the Rain" by William Gillock

This piece has quickly arpeggiated triads in the right hand with a moving bassline that creates a sparkling sound.

18. "Le Papillon" by Glenda Austin

This piece has a simple left hand pattern with a fluttering right hand melody. Even with a thin texture, it sounds mature and impressive.

19. "River Flows In You" by Yiruma

This piece is always a winner! Students love playing it and audiences love hearing it. It does have some big left hand stretches and some fast technical right hand work, but it’s highly motivating for a lot of students to learn.

20. "The Pink Panther" - arranged by Dan Coates

Here’s a not-too-difficult arrangement of this favorite!


This post was written by Megan, piano teacher and author of Pianissimo: A Very Piano Blog. Visit her website for more piano related blogs for teachers, parents, students, and all things piano.