Piano · Beyond the first basics
Five piano pieces to build your skills
Let a melody sing, keep its accompaniment in the background and stay in time as the notes get faster. Each piece gives you a specific listening goal for your next practice session.
Step 01 · A connected melody
La Candeur
The right hand shapes flowing quavers above held chords. Giving every finger equal weight can turn the melody into a row of separate taps. Follow the slurs instead, carrying the sound towards the end of each phrase.
At the keyboard
Take the first four bars. Play the melody slowly on its own, then add the chords at a softer dynamic. Hold them for their full value; you do not need the pedal for this first task. In the middle of the piece, the moving line shifts to the bass and will need the same care.
Listen for this: you can play these four bars without stopping, with even quavers and a melody clearly audible above the chords. This is a first milestone before working through the whole piece.
The exercise develops one-hand reading through a new phrase. Return to the score to work on balance between the hands, then move to Pleyel’s Menuet.
Step 02 · A moving bass
Pleyel’s Menuet
Here the bass moves while the right hand plays two notes together. Keep the left-hand quavers easy and even, including when the right hand holds its notes for longer.
At the keyboard
Read the first eight bars with the left hand alone, then add the right hand in two-bar groups. Count three beats without thumping the first one. Before continuing, locate the sharps and flats later in the piece. Trace the ending too: “D.C. al Fine” sends you back to the beginning to finish at the word Fine.
Listen for this: the bass keeps moving as the right-hand pairs change. You can point to the return to the opening and show exactly where the piece ends.
Once the bass stays steady, explore the upbeat in Handel’s Menuet.
Step 03 · Starting before the strong beat
Menuet from the Aylesford Pieces
The first crotchet is an upbeat: it falls on beat three and leads into the first beat of the next bar. The key signature makes F and C sharp, even when there is no sharp printed beside an individual note.
At the keyboard
Say “one, two”, then play the upbeat on “three”. Continue through the next four bars. Play just the top note of each right-hand chord to hear the melody, then restore the inner notes more softly. The semiquaver runs and the triplet need separate practice before you attempt the complete page.
Listen for this: the upbeat enters confidently without an accent. The next strong beat arrives on time, and the melody remains clear above the chords.
The workshop helps you keep time; practise the upbeat itself in the menuet. La Pastorale then changes the way quavers are grouped.
Step 04 · Two broad beats
La Pastorale
The six quavers form two beats, with three quavers in each. Those two pulses create the lilting movement. Counting six equal small beats can help you read at first, but staying with that feel will weigh the phrase down.
At the keyboard
For the first eight bars, say “one-two-three, four-five-six”, gently stressing “one” and “four”. Play the melody alone with that movement, then add the left-hand chords without covering the tune. Introduce the little ornaments once the main rhythm is secure.
Listen for this: you feel two beats in each bar, even while the melody holds a note. The repeated chords stay in the background.
Practise the 6/8 counting exercise directly from the score: the sight-reading workshop currently offers 3/4 and 4/4. The last step introduces faster groups of notes.
Step 05 · Speed starts slowly
L’Arabesque
Groups of four semiquavers move from one hand to the other, framed by detached chords and rests. A light touch depends as much on releasing the hand after a group as on moving the fingers quickly.
At the keyboard
Begin with bars 3 to 6, after the two introductory bars. Choose a tempo slow enough to fit four equal notes into one beat. Reach the following quaver without rushing the final finger, then observe the rest. Repeat the same work later when the pattern moves into the left hand.
Listen for this: each group is even, the arrival note lands precisely, and the hand releases during the rest. Increase the speed only while all three qualities remain audible and comfortable.
The workshop prepares those basics; practise the semiquavers and their transfer between the hands from the score. This step may take longer than the earlier ones.
A fifteen-minute practice session
Spend three minutes on reading or rhythm, eight on a short passage, and four on playing it within a longer phrase. Choose a tempo that leaves your hands free to move. If tension builds, stop and return more slowly after a break.
Each listening goal helps you choose your next step; it does not mean the piece is finished. Return to repeats, dynamics and transitions to shape a complete performance. You can also alternate two pieces, using one to consolidate a skill and the other to explore something new.
Scores and editions
The five links lead to the editions already available in the catalogue, with PDF and MIDI files. Use the MIDI as a listening reference, not as a prescribed practice tempo or interpretation. Each PDF credits Bas Wassink’s engraving and carries a public-domain notice.
- La Candeur · Mutopia 202
- Pleyel’s Menuet · Mutopia 191: the score is headed “Menuett”; the Mutopia catalogue calls it “Rondo”.
- Handel’s Menuet · Mutopia 161
- La Pastorale · Mutopia 218
- L’Arabesque · Mutopia 203