Piano six hands facts for kids

Piano six hands is a special way to play music! It means that three different people are playing on just one piano at the same time. Imagine all those hands on the keys!

This is different from a piano duet, where only two people play on one piano. It's also not the same as a piano trio, which is usually a group of three musicians playing different instruments: a piano, a violin, and a cello.

Not a lot of music has been written especially for three pianists on one piano. However, musicians often arrange songs that were originally for other instruments so they can be played this fun way!

What Music Can Be Played?

Even though it's a unique setup, some cool pieces have been written or arranged for piano six hands. Here are a few examples:

• Percy Grainger wrote 5 pieces for this setup.
• Sergei Rachmaninoff created a "Romance" and a "Valse" (a type of dance music).
• Alfred Schnittke composed a piece called "Hommage."
• Carl Czerny wrote pieces known as op.17 and 741.
• Jean Cras composed "Âmes d’enfants," which means "Children's Souls."
• Paul Robinson (composer) wrote "Pensees" and "Monmartre."
• The German composer Armin Fuchs has several pieces.
• Tomislav Baynov from Bulgaria wrote "Metrorhythmia 1."
• John Pitts created "Are You Going?"
• Greek composer Dionysis Boukouvalas made a "Fantasy on a theme by Steve Reich."
• Canadian composer Paul Frehner wrote a piece called "Slowdown."