Did you know that “song” is one of the most commonly misused music terms? A lot of people ask about which “songs” are good to play on the piano, but most of the time what they really want to know are which “pieces” they could learn to play.
So what’s the difference?
Songs are, to put it very simply, things you sing! Pieces, on the other hand, are musical compositions that are played
Now, you can play songs on the piano. If you want to learn to play John Lennon’s Imagine, it’s still a song, whether you sing to it or not. You’re playing the accompaniment to a song or you’re playing an arrangement of a song, but either way, the composition is a song – it has lyrics, it’s meant to be sung, it’s a song.
But a solo piano sonata is never a song! Ever. Never ever. If the original version of a composition was not created for singing, it is a piece, not a song.
Want a funny gray area? There is a genre that exists called “songs without words” – these works are instrumental compositions created to imitate singing. I would still call them pieces, but to each their own.
Ready to test your knowledge?
Prelude in C Major by Johann Sebastian Bach
Piece! This was composed for keyboard solo (pianos weren’t around yet) and is therefore a piece.
Ave Maria by Bach/Gounod
Song! The composer Charles Gounod used Bach’s piece as the basis for his own Ave Maria, but with a singer this work can only be defined as a song.
Una Mattina by Ludovico Einaudo
Piece! This work is part of the soundtrack from the film “Intouchables” and doesn’t have any lyrics or singing.
Piano Man by Billy Joel as a piano solo
…I would say a song! It is a piano solo arrangement, but since the original is a song, I would still put it in the song category.
Franz Liszt’s piano arrangement of Robert Schumann’s song “Widmung”
This is also an example of a work for solo piano that could be called a song!
Share your thoughts in the comments below, and let me know if you have any questions.
Interested in using chord charts to help you better understand music theory? Check out this list to help get you started.
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