A Beginners Guide to Great Piano Classical Music

There is a multitude of piano classical music. From relaxing to invigorating, and everything in between, there is classical piano music for everyone, no matter the mood or the situation. For a beginner, which composers have the best piano music? Which pianists should you consider? These are just a few of the questions I'll answer for you in this easy to follow guide to classical piano music.

Styles of Classical Music for Piano

Some of you may have learned about the many styles of classical piano music in an article I wrote titled "Classical Piano Music Styles". But just in case, for sake of brevity, the most common styles of piano classical music are:

Piano Concerto
Piano Sonata
Piano Trio
Piano Quintet
Solo Piano, which includes
- Etude
- Prelude
- Polonaise
- Nocturne
- Mazurka
- Waltz
- Ballade
- and Scherzo.

The Great Composers of Piano Classical Music

For beginners, knowing which composer to start with can be an intimidating task. There are many wonderful composers, but some never wrote music for piano, while others wrote exclusively for it. To help you, I've put together a small list of the most well known composers that are without a doubt possibly the greatest piano classical music masters to have ever lived.

Frederic Chopin
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Franz Liszt
Johann Sebastian Bach (though the piano as we know it today wasn't invented during his lifetime)
Claude Debussy
Maurice Ravel
and last but certainly not least, Ludwig van Beethoven

If you are wanting to add great classical music for piano to your music library or playlist, these composers will provide you with a solid foundation and hundreds of hours of fantastic music.

Piano Classical Music - Recommended Works

To help you understand why I recommended the composers listed above, I scoured YouTube in search of the videos and recordings. To be honest, it wasn't an arduous task - I love listening to classical music. If you like any of the YouTube links I provided below, you should save them in your web browser and watch the related videos to discover other artists and composers.

Frederic Chopin - Polonaise Op. 53
Sergei Rachmaninoff - Prelude Op. 23 No. 5
Franz Liszt - Consolation No. 3
Johann Sebastian Bach - Well-Tempered Clavier 2, Prelude F Sharp minor
Claude Debussy - The Sunken Cathedral
Maurice Ravel - Miroirs, No. 5 La vallee des cloches
Ludwig van Beethoven - Sonata No. 28, mvmt. 3

Notable Pianists

If you're still not sure which composers have the best classical music for piano, turn your attention and focus on the pianist. Great pianists have extensive repertoires and collections of recordings, which means you'll get a large selection and wide variety of music from many different composers. I recommend listening to these highly esteemed and acclaimed pianists.