Piano Duet? Four Hands? Making a suggestion

[WandringMinstrel]

Hey everyone;
I've been making some piano duet arrangements lately and I've noticed something odd about the site with how it labels duets, and I'd like to make a suggestion so that it's less confusing.
Normally, "Piano Duet" can refer to either two players on one piano, or two players on two pianos. I see that the site uses "Two Pianos" for the latter, which works well ("piano duo" might be more common, but I agree with using "two pianos").

For two players on one piano, I've almost always seen "Piano four hands" or just "Four Hands".
I feel that seeing "Piano Duet" and "Two Pianos" next to each other on the site can be confusing, especially for newer players who might not know the difference at first. If I may, I suggest replacing "Piano Duet" with "Four Hands", which would A. help distinguish it from "two pianos" and B. be more familiar to people new to the site.

I don't know if this discussion has come up before, but I think it would a good change overall. Let me know what you think about it.

[Tobbeh99]

Something I've been thinking of too. Good idea, I agree with you. Something like Piano four hands, or four hands sounds better.

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

I've always refrained from using duet or duo, though for the record they mean two people on one piano and two pianos, respectively.
As far as on site sheet notation goes, generally speaking I think we always use either (four hands) or (Two Pianos).

[WandringMinstrel]

In my experience, duo means two pianos but duet can mean either; hence the confusion.

[mastersuperfan]

To be honest, I've never heard the term "Four Hands" before, only "Duet," which means two people on one piano in everything I've personally seen.

[WandringMinstrel]

Really? That's very surprising. I've rarely ever seen "Piano Duet" in a professional score, it's almost always "Piano, four hands" (or "Piano à quatre mains", really, because French music).

[TheMarioPianist]

Really? That's very surprising. I've rarely ever seen "Piano Duet" in a professional score, it's almost always "Piano, four hands" (or "Piano à quatre mains", really, because French music).

Yeah, I've seen Four Hands for a "duet" and Two Pianos for a "duo." However, I once saw "Four Hands on Two Pianos" once. Stupid Alfred Piano Lesson Books...

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

I would assume that means 4 players; two on each piano.

[TheMarioPianist]

I would assume that means 4 players; two on each piano.

You know what, you're right. I just went back and looked at that song. Duh.

[JDMEK5]

I've heard of Four Hands a lot actually. I approve of this idea. In my mind it's not difficult to distinguish Duet from Two Pianos because I've been around long enough to see the implementation of the Two Pianos label. Therefore, in my mind, everything else (labelled "Duet") would automatically be one piano by default. But for the average user, it would probably be confusing.