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Für Elise

Ludwig van Beethoven · Key of A minor · 3/8 · ♪ = 120

Beethoven wrote Für Elise (Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59) around 1810, and it may be the piano piece more people want to learn than any other. Pianory’s arrangement covers the famous theme in A minor, 3/8, at ♪ = 120 (the same as ♩ = 60), 17 bars long.

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What makes it tricky

It is almost all sixteenth notes, and the opening rocks between E and D sharp, an accidental that keeps coming back. The hands rarely play at the same time: the left hand plays a rising broken chord and hands off to the right, so the joins between hands must be seamless.

How to practice it

  1. Pick Right hand at 50% and play only E, D sharp, E, D sharp, E, B, D, C, A until you know it by heart.
  2. Pick Left hand and practice the broken chords in bass clef, rising from low A and from low E.
  3. Pick Both at 50%. Drill the spots where the left hand passes to the right, and go up to 75% once it sounds like one line.