How about Little Serenade by Haydn? It may be too easy. I don't know. My ten-year-old learned this piece without too much difficulty. This is not my video that I linked to. It shows the book that I am assuming he used, so that may be helpful.

I looked up Haydn and it does not appear he falls into the romantic era. It's still a nice little song to learn.

Nice piece, but too classical (that's the period Haydn's from). My son wants later stuff (Chopin is from the Romantic 19th century).

Is he listening to classical music beyond his playing?

Classical music may be the meat & potatoes, but make sure he gets some Professor Longhair for dessert.

He is listening to some classical music (wait -- is Nirvana considered "classical"? How about Del the Homo Sapien?).

I play the piano, up to intermediate Beethoven sonatas, and I could NEVER do what the Professor does (I even got a series of teaching cassettes by Dr.John way back, and couldn't do those left-hand stretches).

I was wondering if, e.g. Rachmaninoff had some easy pieces. How do you find out something like that?

I'm trying to think of romantic era composers my kids have played besdides Bach. My kid played and adaptation of the Emperor Concerto No. 5 by Beethoven for his recital a few weeks ago. It seems that Beethoven is early Romantic era, not sure if you're interested. He and his piano teacher altered the music a lot because the way it was written in this particular book was pretty flat. It's a beautiful piece though.

Not sure about Rachmaninoff.

an adaptation...

Sounds like he is doing great on what you have been giving him, but I would mix it up a little unless he really likes the Romantic era. When I was playing piano, I felt very elegant playing the classical stuff, but I LOVED learning "Rhythm is a Dancer" as a break. Get him the sheet music to some of those Nirvana songs he likes and let him play around with other styles.
The best advice you will get on the next books you should get him will come from a music store or a piano teacher (maybe his school's music teacher as well). I'd go into one of the music shops, tell them what he has learned, and ask for the next level book from there.

Here is a list of Romantic composers- I'd recommend Brahms from that list.
Intermezzo Op 116 No 4 (in E major) could be an interesting one to give your son since the notes aren't very complex but it is a completely different pacing than he might be used to and he can learn how much emphasis and style play into a piece.

Check out the Classics to Moderns series. My mom is a piano teacher, and those were pretty fun for me to try while they were lying around the house.

Other Romantic composers: Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, Liszt, Tchaikovsky... of course you'll have to find actual suggestions of pieces, but that's a start.

What does he like about the Romantics, per se? The thing about Bach, Mozart, etc. is that they provide such a great foundation for what you're learning after that. Bach has the smaller structure with phrases, fugues, etc.; Mozart expands to sonata form with themes and so on (this is a hugely simplified version). I didn't used to like Bach, but after I studied more of it in college I became a huge fan. (Still think Haydn is boring.)

So you might actually go in the other direction, with more modern composers such as Kabalevsky, Prokofiev, Ravel, Satie, Debussy, etc. I can't remember what the Kabalevsky piece is that's so fun, but there are a fair amount of not-as-hard ones.

And keep listening! Listen, listen, listen to find pieces and composers and techniques you like. That's the unfortunate part about studying on your own; a teacher can provide guidance for the next piece in a sequence, or some lesser-known pieces/composers.

I'll ask my mom if she has some other suggestions.

...where "you" mostly means "him" :P

I think you'll struggle to find anything easy by Rachmaninov - the guy had giant hands and was a virtuoso, and wrote concert pieces for himself. There might be simplified arrangements, but it might be good to expose him to some recordings of really complicated Rachmaninov, as an idea of what he could aspire to in future.

Rachmaninov Had Big Hands

Madamina - I remember playing the Kabalevsky Sonatina as a kid, and it's not too hard and is lots of fun. Perhaps that's the one you're remembering?

I think I played from Classics to Moderns and remember they were good short pieces, nicely graded in difficulty, and with some good Romantic stuff.

Here's a relatively simple and lovely piece by Tchaikovsky (the Barcarolle from the Seasons, some of which are harder).

Oh my god, altolinguistic, thank you so much for that reference to "Rachmaninov Had Big Hands" - completely hysterical.

I'll check out the other stuff. The _Classics to Moderns_ books sound particularly interesting. I had been thinking of the name Khachaturian, and now I realize that it was, in fact, Kabalevsky that I meant. I remember playing something by him when I was a kid.

I'll check out that sonatina too.

Thank you all.