Simplified Chopin editions, compared
Kilhamn keeps the most. Chopin Left Hand leaves the right hand alone.
Every simplified Chopin edition takes something away, and what matters is what you have to unlearn when you want the real piece. Henrik Kilhamn’s Simple Solutions keep the most and change the least, the Alfred and Hal Leonard collections arrange whole pieces for easy piano at under a dollar each, and Chopin Left Hand keeps Chopin’s melody note for note and reduces only the left hand to one chord per harmony, so the move to the original is a change in one hand.
Simple Solutions Edition, Henrik Kilhamn
Kilhamn is a Gothenburg pianist with a master’s from the Academy of Music and Drama at Göteborg University, and his Sonata Secrets channel, over 200 videos and 65,000 subscribers, walks through pieces from the first bar to the last. His rule for the arrangements is that “all musical ideas are carefully conserved. They are just a little bit easier.” The intermediate Op. 9 No. 2, $4.90 for three pages with fingering and pedalling, stays in E♭, folds the left hand’s bass-chord-chord pattern into one comfortable position per harmony, keeps the complete melodic line, simplifies only the dense ornament variations, and prints the cadenza twice, a shorter one and one closer to the original. He grades it 5 on his 1 to 8 scale.
The elementary version, also $4.90, moves to C major, simplifies the left hand, keeps the melody mostly intact and drops the cadenza. Op. 9 No. 1 comes in A minor and the original B♭ minor for $5.50, with the polyrhythms rounded to even triplets and the middle section’s octaves thinned to single lines. Volume 1 (elementary, $19.90) and Volume 2 (intermediate, $22.90) both include Op. 9 No. 2.
Simply Chopin (Alfred), arr. Jerry Ray
Twenty-five pieces in 80 large-print pages for $13.99, with phrase marks, articulation, fingering and dynamics written in. Several move to easier keys: the Berceuse and the Fantaisie-Impromptu both leave D♭ major, and the Étude Op. 10 No. 3 leaves E major. The Ballade, the Revolutionary Étude and the Fantaisie-Impromptu are in the book.
Chopin for Easy Piano (Hal Leonard, Cherry Lane)
Twenty pieces in 40 pages for $11.99, two pages each on average, with Op. 9 No. 2, the Prelude in E minor, Op. 15 No. 1, Op. 37 No. 1, the Polonaise Op. 53 and themes from both concertos. Hal Leonard says the melodies, harmonies and rhythms are “newly arranged so that virtually all pianists” can play them, and names no arranger.
Musicnotes easy piano downloads
Musicnotes sells Op. 9 No. 2 from several arrangers at “easy” level, one download at a time: The Piano Keys puts it in C major, Piano Tutorial Easy keeps E♭. What each changes beyond the key depends on the arranger, so read the first-page preview before you pay.
Hoffman Academy, arr. Alex Isackson
A three-page simplified Op. 9 No. 2 in E♭ for $4.99, graded intermediate, sold as “an easier version of this beloved piece, with all the lyricism and rich harmony of the original”.
Chopin Left Hand
Our edition changes one thing. The right hand is exactly as Chopin wrote it, ornaments and cadenza included. The left hand is one plain root-position chord per harmony, with the chord symbol above the staff (E♭, B♭⁷, Fm, D°⁷) and the roman numeral below (I, V⁷, ii, vii°⁷), boxed section letters with a one-line description, and a one-page analysis at the end that explains the notable chords, the form and why the piece ends the way it does. One piece is $9. Op. 9 No. 2 is four pages and the Prelude in E minor is two. Every piece page shows the form and the opening chords free, and a person reviews every edition before it goes on sale.
Side by side
| Edition | What changes | What you keep | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Solutions, Op. 9 No. 2 intermediate | Left hand into one position per harmony, dense ornaments simplified, shorter cadenza offered | The key, the whole melodic line, fingering and pedalling | $4.90 |
| Simple Solutions, Op. 9 No. 2 elementary | Transposed to C major, left hand simplified, cadenza cut | Most of the melody | $4.90 |
| Simply Chopin (Alfred) | Arranged for easy piano, several pieces transposed | The tunes of 25 pieces, large print, fingering | $13.99 |
| Chopin for Easy Piano (Hal Leonard) | Melodies, harmonies and rhythms newly arranged, two pages a piece | The tunes of 20 pieces | $11.99 |
| Musicnotes easy arrangements | Varies by arranger, some in C major | The tune | Per download |
| Hoffman Academy, arr. Isackson | An easier version in the original key | Original key, three pages | $4.99 |
| Chopin Left Hand | Left hand only: one root-position chord per harmony | Chopin’s right hand note for note, the key, the harmony labelled, the analysis page | $7 to $12 |
Chopin Left Hand is $7 to $12 a piece, by length. The right hand is Chopin’s, note for note, with the chord symbol above the staff and the numeral below.
Kilhamn’s intermediate Op. 9 No. 2 is $4.90. It stays in E♭ and keeps the whole melody.
Op. 9 No. 2 and the E minor prelude
Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 is the piece most of these editions simplify, and ours keeps all 34 bars of the right hand. Prelude Op. 28 No. 4 is 25 bars at level 3 of 8, and its left hand is the lesson: chords sinking by half steps under a melody that barely moves. The urtexts to read Chopin’s left hand from are compared in best edition of the Chopin nocturnes, and the wider list is best resources for learning Chopin.