Waltz (Album for the Young Op. 39 No. 8)

Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski · Level 3 (Late beginner) · Romantic · Piano

A charming waltz in E-flat major: a supple melody over the left hand’s bass-chord-chord accompaniment. From the Album for the Young Op. 39 (1878), twenty-four easy pieces Tchaikovsky wrote for his nephew, on the model of Schumann’s Album for the Young. E♭ major, 3/4, 85 bars (about 4 minutes), complete score.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• Lean on the bass on the first beat and lighten the two chords that follow; let the melody breathe with the phrasing. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment. For chords, shape the hand in the air before landing, all notes together. Start hands separately in Wait mode, then put hands together at a slow tempo before speeding up gradually.

More pieces by Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski

• Swan Lake: Neapolitan Dance (piano arrangement)
• The Seasons: January (O 37,1)
• The Seasons: February (Carnival)
• The Seasons: August (Harvest)
• March of the Wooden Soldiers (Op. 39 No. 5)
• Morning Prayer (Op. 39 No. 1)
• Old French Song (Op. 39 No. 16)
• Swan Lake, swan theme

Source : PDMX / MuseScore · CC0 1.0