Repertoire › With Alternate Hands › What to play next
What to play after With Alternate Hands ?
Béla Bartók · difficulty 18/100

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.

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Gentle step

The safest next step.

Gentle
3 Minuets, BWV.841-843
Johann Sebastian Bach
23/100 +5 pts 2-4 weeks
new reflexes low risk to confirm
A short step up, staying in Beginner (around grade 2 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Style baroque and Ornements baroque — the notes are not enough: articulation and ornaments follow performance conventions best checked in an urtext edition.
Gentle
In Lydian Mode
Béla Bartók
24/100 +6 pts 2-4 weeks
partial transfer low risk to confirm
A short step up, staying in Beginner (around grade 2 ABRSM/RCM). The skill that will carry the work: Indépendance des mains — practise it slowly and hands separately before any attempt at tempo: that is where tension builds up.
Gentle
Contrary Motion (2)
Béla Bartók
22/100 +4 pts 2-4 weeks
partial transfer low risk to confirm
A short step up, staying in Beginner (around grade 2 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Doigté complexe and Indépendance des mains — settle and write the fingering in at first reading: changing it later costs weeks.
Gentle
Prélude no. 1 in C major, op. 28
Frédéric Chopin
22/100 +4 pts 2-4 weeks
new reflexes low risk to confirm
A short step up, staying in Beginner (around grade 2 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Ornements baroque and Indépendance des mains — ornaments must be secure before the piece goes up to tempo, otherwise they break the line instead of decorating it.
Gentle
Piano Sonata B flat major K. 42
Domenico Scarlatti
25/100 +7 pts 2-4 weeks
new reflexes low risk to confirm
A short step up — but it is the one that moves you into Elementary (around grade 3 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Connaissance des formes and Style baroque — understand the form and the harmony before memorising, or memory collapses the moment you play for someone.
Balanced step

A genuine step up, without a jolt.

Balanced
Melody in the Mist
Béla Bartók
30/100 +12 pts 4-8 weeks
partial transfer moderate risk to confirm
A real step up: this piece moves you into Elementary (around grade 3 ABRSM/RCM). The skill that will carry the work: Indépendance des mains — practise it slowly and hands separately before any attempt at tempo: that is where tension builds up.
Balanced
Music for Piano 2
John Cage
30/100 +12 pts 6-12 weeks
partial transfer moderate risk to confirm
A real step up: this piece moves you into Elementary (around grade 3 ABRSM/RCM). The skill that will carry the work: Indépendance des mains — practise it slowly and hands separately before any attempt at tempo: that is where tension builds up.
Balanced
No.75 — Triplets
Béla Bartók
31/100 +12 pts 6-12 weeks
partial transfer moderate risk to confirm
A real step up: this piece moves you into Elementary (around grade 3 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Rythmes pointés and Indépendance des mains — the pitfall is the pulse drifting as soon as the writing thickens: subdivide with the metronome.
Balanced
Sonatina in G major Op.36 No.2
Muzio Clementi
27/100 +9 pts 4-8 weeks
new reflexes moderate risk to confirm
A real step up: this piece moves you into Elementary (around grade 3 ABRSM/RCM). New compared with the previous piece: Style classique and Connaissance des formes — the notes are not enough: articulation and ornaments follow performance conventions best checked in an urtext edition.
Ambitious challenge

A useful leap with guided practice.

Challenge
Invention No.8 in F major BWV 779
Johann Sebastian Bach
35/100 +17 pts 12-24 weeks
partial transfer high risk to confirm
An ambitious leap into Elementary (around grade 4 ABRSM/RCM) — only worth starting if the practice time is really there. New compared with the previous piece: Style baroque and Polyphonie à deux voix — the notes are not enough: articulation and ornaments follow performance conventions best checked in an urtext edition.
Challenge
Playsong (with two pentatonic scales)
Béla Bartók
35/100 +17 pts 12-24 weeks
new reflexes high risk to confirm
An ambitious leap into Elementary (around grade 4 ABRSM/RCM) — only worth starting if the practice time is really there. New compared with the previous piece: Lecture à vue — keep it up with daily reading of easy pieces rather than grinding one passage.
Challenge
6. Andante
Béla Bartók
40/100 +22 pts 12-24 weeks
new reflexes high risk to confirm
An ambitious leap into Elementary (around grade 4 ABRSM/RCM) — only worth starting if the practice time is really there. 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

To widen the repertoire without raising the level.

Same level
In the Hall of the Mountain King (arr.)
Edvard Grieg
19/100 same level 1-2 weeks
new reflexes low risk to confirm
Equivalent demands, still Beginner (around grade 2 ABRSM/RCM): what changes is the ground. What changes is the skill in play: Staccato — practise it slowly and hands separately before any attempt at tempo: that is where tension builds up.
Same level
No.13 — Change of Position
Béla Bartók
19/100 +1 pts 1-2 weeks
new reflexes low risk to confirm
Equivalent demands, still Beginner (around grade 2 ABRSM/RCM): what changes is the ground. What changes is the skill in play: Staccato and Rythmes pointés — practise it slowly and hands separately before any attempt at tempo: that is where tension builds up.
Same level
Parallel Motion
Béla Bartók
17/100 -1 pts 1-2 weeks
new reflexes low risk to confirm
Next piece in the same collection, Beginner (around grade 2 ABRSM/RCM): the order its editor chose, a progression already tested. What changes is the skill in play: Balance mains — what matters is quality of attack and evenness of tone, not speed.
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.