Difficulty setting

[Xaoz]

Moreso, just giving an overview of the hardest components is a good way to warn people.
Also, there IS easier Liszt, it's out there! He has a lovely E minor romance that's quite doable!

Not yet for me! But soon! Soon(ish)...

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

Then do some Chopin before we derail this thread more than we already have. PM me if you need suggestions!
(That goes for anyone else reading!)

[Cobraroll]

Actually, I do kinda like the "tags" idea. Basically, it would help users identify why some sheets could cause problems. Tags for stuff like "awkward transitions", "pieces that go really fast" or "chords span more than one octave" (less easy if you've not grown up yet), but also for things like "suitable for beginners". I know we have a couple of sheets here so easy you could play them within a month of playing the piano (SM64 File Select comes to mind), and simply singling out those would be a great benefit for some visitors. If you want to get into piano game music, it's a little disheartening to have to scroll through dozens of seemingly-impossible sheets before you find something you can play.

This is also why I advocate having two versions of some arrangements. Not one basic and one virtouso (because if you can play the virtouso level, you're probably good enough to spruce up the basic sheet through improvisation), but one basic sheet and one simplified version. Certain themes can be done simple, and serve as a great gateway to the wonderful world of NSM.

In due time, of course.

[InsigTurtle]

Would there also be tags for more stylistic and textural difficulties instead of just having tags for technical difficulties? I don't think those are much of a concern in video game music, but they're still things.

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

I actually really like the idea of a tag "suitable for beginners", or even perhaps a tab for beginner friendly sheets. Said sheets would also be in their proper place in the NSM library, but a separate beginner tab would be a great idea for the new piano players.

[Latios212]

I really support this idea of some kind of difficulty setting, and the tags idea seems like it would work well. When I first came here way back when I forgot how to play the piano I looked though tons of sheets before I found a few I was comfortable with.

And I had this idea of having simplified versions as well. In my head a "simplify some sheets" project seemed like a good idea but then again I don't want to disrespect the arranger by undoing their work and taking things out.

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

Could we also just have a section of user submitted songs (or, in this case, etudes) specifically for helping people learn piano? Not everyone can afford the method books they'd like...

[Xaoz]

Could we also just have a section of user submitted songs (or, in this case, etudes) specifically for helping people learn piano? Not everyone can afford the method books they'd like...

Of course we COULD, but aren't we going a bit offtopic with that? I have no idea how expensive those method books are, though.

[JDMEK5]

Could we also just have a section of user submitted songs (or, in this case, etudes) specifically for helping people learn piano? Not everyone can afford the method books they'd like...

This is a bad idea. Everything would have to be original for one thing or else we'd get sued and shut down. Also, we aren't aspiring-pianist-babysitters who are obligated to help people learn piano. I'm a teacher and I do that at work. I'm all for helping folks learn but let's make a different site for that. Not only that but we don't have to. There's tons of free music on the internet if you take the time to look.

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

No, we certainly don't have to. Also, any exercise that works on a technical skill is protected under fair use if given only for education. We just protect it with copyright XDDD
As for making a different site, that would imply keeping up another site... do we have the manpower for that? I honestly don't know so I'm asking.
Maybe have a separate section of the Creativity Corner for user submitted content. Which, in turn, could be etudes.
@Xaoz, they go upwards of $30 a volume where I'm at.

[JDMEK5]

It's perfectly fine to have a little board somewhere in the forums for such a thing if you want. But unless they're interested I don't think the higher-ups around here are going to be interested in starting a 'piano education' site. If they are, I and a number of other people are going to have something to say to them..

[Tobbeh99]

I kind of like the difficulty mark and the tags. If we're going to have a difficulty I think a scale of 5 is enough. 1=Really Easy, 2=Easy, 3=Moderate, 4=Hard, 5=Very Hard. We might take some of the site's arrangement as examples to facilitate grading. I think it's possible to make a fairly objective grading, we might take the easiest arrangements on the site and give them a 1, and the hardest arrangements and give them a 5, and after that cover up in between.  The only concern might be if it makes submitting take longer time or if other problems arise, then we might disregard it.

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

A scale wouldn't really work though, because then we have to establish the standard for something being difficult. And what if something is beyond 5? Most of Bespinben's stuff would probably fall into that XD
The tags idea is completely objective in that it's a list of technical difficulties. If say, the main difficult of a piece is chromatic octaves, then it would say something like "Rapid Chromatic Octaves". But, if you're like me and have a hand perfectly suited to such a task (shame it doesn't come up more really), then it wouldn't be an issue. But, if you can't play differing hand rhythms to save your life (Pyrite Town from Pokemon Colosseum comes to mind), then you'd know that it's harder, instead of just a scale.
A combination of the two would be interesting, but I see the tags being a lot more informative.

The issue with the tags, though, is that then we have to find someone to go through all new submitted sheets and tag them for difficulties. Do we put that on the arranger? That doesn't seem to make sense. Probably we'd have a volunteer group of people go through them (I'd be more than happy to!) or something of the sort.

[Bespinben]

Bespinben is, at best, a warm up. Trust me.

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It's a cool idea. I like it a lot. I just think with all the other lofty goals of NSM, this would fall at the bottom of the priority list. Keeping regular updates for the past 6 months is already an NSM miracle.

[SlowPokemon]

Why do we even need a scale that will only be relative in the end anyway. Literally looking at the sheet will be enough to tell the pianist if it's their skill level or not.