Repertoire › Romanian Polka BB 68,5 › What to play next
What to play after Romanian Polka BB 68,5 ?
Béla Bartók · difficulty 39/100

Choose your level of commitment: consolidate, move up a tier or prepare a challenge. The top-ranked cards combine difficulty, risk, shared skills and confidence.

Back to the full work page
Gentle step

The safest next step.

Gentle
Waltz Op.12 No.2
Edvard Grieg
44/100 +5 pts 4-8 weeks
partial transfer low risk to confirm
A short step up, staying in Elementary (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Staccato — practise it slowly and hands separately before any attempt at tempo: that is where tension builds up.
Gentle
Balbina Valverde, polka, for piano
Isaac Albéniz
45/100 +6 pts 4-8 weeks
partial transfer low risk to confirm
A short step up — but it is the one that moves you into Intermediate (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Staccato — practise it slowly and hands separately before any attempt at tempo: that is where tension builds up.
Gentle
Tarantella in D
Alexander Borodin
45/100 +6 pts 4-8 weeks
partial transfer low risk to confirm
A short step up — but it is the one that moves you into Intermediate (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM). The skill that will carry the work: Rythme général — the pitfall is the pulse drifting as soon as the writing thickens: subdivide with the metronome.
Gentle
Jig, for piano, H.179
Gustav Holst
45/100 +6 pts 4-8 weeks
partial transfer low risk to confirm
A short step up — but it is the one that moves you into Intermediate (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Staccato — practise it slowly and hands separately before any attempt at tempo: that is where tension builds up.
Balanced step

A genuine step up, without a jolt.

Balanced
Polka italienne, for piano 4-Hands in E flat minor/E flat major, TN ii/21
Sergei Rachmaninoff
50/100 +11 pts 10-20 weeks
new reflexes moderate risk to confirm
A real step up: this piece moves you into Intermediate (around grade 6 ABRSM/RCM). The demand here is musical rather than mechanical: Style romantique — the notes are not enough: articulation and ornaments follow performance conventions best checked in an urtext edition.
Balanced
Prelude a la polka de Borodine, S.207a
Franz Liszt
50/100 +11 pts 10-20 weeks
new reflexes moderate risk to confirm
A real step up: this piece moves you into Intermediate (around grade 6 ABRSM/RCM). The demand here is musical rather than mechanical: Style romantique — the notes are not enough: articulation and ornaments follow performance conventions best checked in an urtext edition.
Balanced
Souvenir de Bohême en forme de polkas, Book 1, JB 1:76, op. 12
Bedrich Smetana
50/100 +11 pts 10-20 weeks
new reflexes moderate risk to confirm
A real step up: this piece moves you into Intermediate (around grade 6 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Staccato — practise it slowly and hands separately before any attempt at tempo: that is where tension builds up.
Balanced
Three Écossaises, Op. posth. 72, No. 3
Frédéric Chopin
48/100 +9 pts 8-16 weeks
partial transfer moderate risk to confirm
A real step up: this piece moves you into Intermediate (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Staccato — practise it slowly and hands separately before any attempt at tempo: that is where tension builds up.
Ambitious challenge

A useful leap with guided practice.

Challenge
Behr: Lachtaubchen, op. 303, "Polka de WR"
Sergei Rachmaninoff
58/100 +19 pts 20-40 weeks
new reflexes high risk to confirm
An ambitious leap into Intermediate (around grade 6 ABRSM/RCM) — only worth starting if the practice time is really there. New compared with the previous piece: Rythmes pointés — the pitfall is the pulse drifting as soon as the writing thickens: subdivide with the metronome.
Challenge
Valse romantique
Claude Debussy
56/100 +17 pts 20-40 weeks
partial transfer high risk to confirm
An ambitious leap into Intermediate (around grade 6 ABRSM/RCM) — only worth starting if the practice time is really there. New compared with the previous piece: Staccato — practise it slowly and hands separately before any attempt at tempo: that is where tension builds up.
Challenge
Polka, WWV 84
Richard Wagner
55/100 +16 pts 20-40 weeks
new reflexes high risk to confirm
An ambitious leap into Intermediate (around grade 6 ABRSM/RCM) — only worth starting if the practice time is really there. The demand here is musical rather than mechanical: Style romantique — the notes are not enough: articulation and ornaments follow performance conventions best checked in an urtext edition.
Same level

To widen the repertoire without raising the level.

Same level
Waltz in A-flat major Op.69 No.1
Frédéric Chopin
39/100 same level 2-3 weeks
new reflexes low risk to confirm
Equivalent demands, still Elementary (around grade 4 ABRSM/RCM): what changes is the ground. What changes is the skill in play: Ornements romantiques — ornaments must be secure before the piece goes up to tempo, otherwise they break the line instead of decorating it.
Same level
Waltz in E minor (posthumous)
Frédéric Chopin
40/100 +1 pts 3-4 weeks
partial transfer low risk to confirm
Equivalent demands, still Elementary (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM): what changes is the ground. The demand here is musical rather than mechanical: Phrasé — the notes will be secure long before the musical line: work in whole phrases, singing the main voice.
Same level
12 German Ländler, D.790, op. posth.171
Franz Schubert
42/100 +2 pts 3-4 weeks
new reflexes low risk to confirm
Equivalent demands, still Elementary (around grade 5 ABRSM/RCM): what changes is the ground. The demand here is musical rather than mechanical: Style romantique — the notes are not enough: articulation and ornaments follow performance conventions best checked in an urtext edition.
Progressions computed from difficulty, skill overlap and style between works. A What do we play next? recommendation should remain a pedagogical starting point, not an automatic prescription.