Note after Note
The site’s original compositions: progressive studies and pieces in varied styles (blues, jazz, bossa, contemporary music), each focused on one specific skill.
“Note after Note” is the signature of the pieces written especially for this site. They fill gaps in the repertoire: early music rarely offers a very short piece that targets exactly one difficulty, or a gentle introduction to blues and jazz.
The first ten studies form a step-by-step progression: five-finger position, a singing left hand, staccato and legato, dialogue between the hands, a little waltz, eighth notes, first chords, then arpeggios and a miniature nocturne. A second series of studies targets one technique each: thumb-under, Alberti bass, repeated notes, hand-crossing, thirds, octaves, trills, wide leaps, two against three, velocity.
Other pieces open the door to popular and modern styles: blues, boogie-woogie, stride, rag, bossa nova, ii–V–I comping, but also whole-tone scales, fourths, clusters, five- and seven-beat meters. For guitar, studies and pieces teach open strings, p-i-m-a arpeggios, barre chords, slurs, tremolo, strumming, fingerpicking and riffs.
Each piece states what it teaches. They are short, learnable in a few sessions, and prepare you for classical and jazz repertoire.
Piano sheet music (44)
- Velocity study · level 2
- Thumb-under study · level 3
- Alberti bass study · level 3
- Repeated-note study · level 4
- Music box — crossing-hands study · level 4
- Study in thirds · level 5
- Octave study · level 5
- Two-octave arpeggio study · level 5
- Melody and accompaniment in one hand · level 5
- Two against three · level 5
- Trill study · level 5
- Wide-leap study · level 6
- Three-note blues · level 1
- Blues in C · level 2
- Midnight blues · level 3
- ii–V–I comping in three keys · level 3
- Monday boogie · level 4
- Walking in F · level 4
- Harbour bossa · level 4
- Cool in D · level 4
- Ballad for B♭ · level 5
- Matchstick rag · level 5
- Batignolles stride · level 6
- The black-key pond · level 1
- Echo in D · level 1
- Slow waltz of the clouds · level 2
- Ostinato · level 2
- Whole-tone haze · level 3
- The unsent letter · level 3
- Fourths · level 4
- Five-beat dance · level 4
- Clusters · level 4
- March in two keys · level 5
- Seven-beat toccata · level 6
- Study No. 1 — Five fingers · level 1
- Study No. 2 — The left hand sings · level 1
- Study No. 3 — Detached and smooth · level 1
- Study No. 4 — Question and answer · level 1
- Study No. 5 — Little waltz · level 2
- Study No. 6 — Eighth notes in G · level 2
- Study No. 7 — First chords · level 2
- Study No. 8 — Little march in D · level 3
- Study No. 9 — Arpeggios in A minor · level 3
- Study No. 10 — Miniature nocturne · level 4
Guitar sheet music (28)
- Raga in open D · level 3
- Thumb blues in open G · level 3
- Little rag in C · level 4
- Pastorale in open C · level 2
- Lament in D (drop D) · level 3
- Valley walk (fingerpicking in C) · level 2
- Appalachian hoedown in open D · level 3
- Dr. Ragtime rag in open G · level 4
- Alap and gat in DADGAD (Yaman mode) · level 5
- Philadelphia morning in open C · level 5
- Fog on the Schuylkill in open D minor · level 5
- Study No. 1 — Open strings · level 1
- Study No. 2 — E, F, G, B, C, D · level 1
- Strumming No. 1 — E minor and A minor · level 1
- Arpeggio No. 1 — p i m a · level 1
- Strumming No. 2 — C, G, A minor, F · level 2
- Arpeggio No. 2 — Little waltz in E minor · level 2
- Study No. 3 — C major scale in first position · level 2
- Fingerpicking No. 1 — Travis picking · level 3
- Blues shuffle in A · level 3
- Rock riff with power chords · level 3
- E minor pentatonic — scale and licks · level 3
- Study No. 4 — Hammer-ons and pull-offs · level 3
- Bossa in A minor · level 4
- Andalusian cadence · level 4
- Study No. 5 — Barre chords · level 4
- Blues licks in E · level 4
- Study No. 6 — Tremolo · level 5