Here are a few easy, quality pieces suitable for someone who has been playing for only a few weeks or months.


Carulli: Waltz in E Minor, Page 1 .. Page 2 – Another piece from Carulli’s method, and here’s the midi file. Once again, faster isn’t necessarily better. The midi file is set for eighth notes=132/minute.


Carulli: Andante in G – This piece from Carulli’s method can be heard in the accompanying midi file. Try playing the piece for grace rather than speed. No faster than 60 bpm (beats per minute) should be sufficient.


Carulli: Country Dance – Since this piece is so easy and fun to play, a top speed of quarter notes=160/min is tempting (and can be heard in the accompanying midi file), but the piece also sounds fine much slower.


Sor: Op. 60, No.1 – This piece needn’t be played fast; quarter notes=110/min is sufficient. To hear this piece at that speed, listen to this midi file.

(A note on the part-writing in this piece: Part-writing is the same as voice-leading. It has to do with recognizing that sometimes a given note isn’t just a part of the harmony or part of a chord, but is rather a part of an individual line or “voice” within the music, such as a melody line, a bass line, or a third voice between the two, or sometimes even more voices put together in all kinds of creative and interesting ways. In Sor’s Op. 60, No.1, for instance, Sor wrote the entire piece as a single part, yet many editors like to make explicit what Sor merely implied, so they edit the piece to signify two distinct parts, which requires changing some the the note durations, the stem directions, and adding rests. This is more than most beginners want or need to know, which is probably why Sor — who was distinguished for his part-writing — decided to forego it in the first three pieces of his Op.60.)