FERDINAND BEYER

ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION BOOK

FOR THE PIANO (OPUS 101)

Revised and enlarged by Ad. Ruthardt

CARL CZERNY

ONE HUNDRED

PROGRESSIVE RECREATIONS

and

ONE HUNDRED AND TEN EASY AND

PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES (OPUS 453)

To complement the BEYER COURSE

Transcribed to

KLAVARSCORE

(Course pages not optimized for cellphone viewing)

> To download the Klavarscore Beyer Piano Course in Tablet format (Half Letter/A5), in 4 separate parts. With links for free download of Teacher audio parts:

Part 1    (6 MB)   (Half Letter/A5)
Part 2   (6 MB)   (Half Letter/A5)
Part 3   (9 MB)   (Half Letter/A5)
Part 4   (9 MB)   (Half Letter/A5)

> To download the Klavarscore Beyer Piano Course in Letter/A4 format, made to be printed, in 4 separate parts. With QR codes for free download of Teacher audio parts:

Part-1   (5MB)    (Letter/A4)
Part-2  (5MB)    (Letter/A4)
Part-3  (8MB)    (Letter/A4)
Part-4  (9MB)    (Letter/A4)

To see examples of the Beyer method: Click here

Additional information and Supplementary Exercises:

Lesson 00-09     Accompanying Left-Hand/Right-Hand Audio players
Lesson 10-19        Additional Song "The Bells" including RH/LH parts
                                Staccato dots and Slurs
Lesson 20-29      Additional Song: The First Violet of Spring / Four Hands
Lesson 30-39      Seconda Audio files for Lesson 32, 33, 34
Lesson 40-49      Overview and explanation about Tempo Indications
                                Seconda Audio files for Lesson 41, 42, 43, 44
Lesson 50-59      LH/RH Accompanying Audio files
Lesson 60-69     Scale in C-Major
                                Scale in D-Major
                                Scale in G-Major
                                Additional Song:  "Ring Around a Rosy. A Play time" by J.Schmidt
Lesson 70-79      The use of the Sustain Pedal
                                Triplets
                                Scale of A Major
Lesson 80-89     Scale of E Major
                                Ornaments:  1 - On Graces indicated by Small Notes
                                Czerny Exercises Opus 453-No. 1,2,3
Lesson 90-99     Scale of F Major, Explanation of minor scales
                                Czerny Exercises Op. 453-No. 4,5,6
Lesson 100-109   Czerny Exercises Op. 453-No. 7,8,9

Download: Dictionary-of-musical-terms
Download: Tempo Values
To read a comprehensive article about note values in music of Carl Czerny Click here.

These pages will regularly be supplemented with new information, exercises and songs.

Ferdinand Beyer (1803 – 1863)

Ferdinand Beyer was a German composer and Pianist. Well known in his day for his light music and piano arrangements of popular orchestral works, he is now mainly known for his book Vorschule im Klavierspiel  (Beginning Piano School or Elementary Instruction Book for the Piano) op.101.

The Vorschule im Klavierspiel  has been a major influence in piano pedagogy since its publication, being the foundation of elementary piano education in many countries, as is attested by the many anthologies containing parts of the Vorschule as well as the curriculum followed in many countries.
Source: Wikipedia

Over the years, different editions have addressed certain shortcomings of the Beyer approach. These involve the lack of complete explanations and the limited exposure to difficulties (e.g. Beyer doesn’t show pieces with bass clef notation for the left hand until half way through the book). Most of the difficulties frequently cited are not present in the klavar notation system (e.g. different clefs do not exist because they are not needed).

This course is transcribed to KlavarSore and presented as the core of an e-learning environment that everybody can use in his/her own way with or without the help of a teacher.
On this website are a number of accompanying pages where additional information, exercises and listening examples may be found to compensate some of the shortcomings of the Beyer approach.

Furthermore, klavar notation is so easy to learn and to understand, it is much more suitable for self-learning. A simple explanation to the system is provided on this website titled "Learning to play".

How to use this course

This course is the core of an e-learning environment that everybody can use in his/her own way with or without a teacher. On the "Contents" page of the course are links to bring the user to dedicated pages of this website where additional information, exercises and listening examples may be found. The course is designed for beginners, but also for those who already have some experience in playing the piano.

The course is made to be used on a Tablet or suitable Laptop, a music app, e-book reader or a PDF reader app is necessary. Printing is also possible (see below). Most of the pages with scores can be downloaded separately if desired.

A suitable sheet music reader app is recommended because this will make it possible to display the sheet music  while accompanying you with the audio file of the Teacher's  part (“Seconda” part of the many duets which make up a large part of the course).

Playing with accompaniment (with or without a teacher)    
Many pieces in the course are made to be played "Three Hands" or "Four Hands". That means that you and your teacher are playing the same piece together, usually at one piano, each playing his/her own part. The teacher plays the "Seconda" part (the difficult one), and you play the "Prima" part. Together you make beautiful music.

If your teacher prefers to play from the traditional notation a link is provided on the "Introduction" page of the course to download the original complete course in traditional notation.

For those learning without a teacher, the "Seconda" parts are pre-recorded and you can download them from the course. Using a suitable sheet music reader app (see recommendation above) on your tablet, each prima score can be "connected" to the corresponding seconda audio file (mp3) so that when you select your score, the appropriate audio file will automatically load along with it.

Instructions for the use of the MobileSheets app on an Android tablet or Windows PC/laptop can be found on the "Manuals" page by tapping here.

At the bottom of the Prima/Student pages are links to download the accompanying Seconda/Teacher audio files.      

Tablet  with PDF/e-book reader app    
If not downloading scores for accessing via a sheet musice reader app along with accompanying audio, a separate MP3 player could be used for this.

Printing
Since the downloadable sheet music pages in this course are sized for Tablet viewing, when printed on A4/Letter size paper, the texts and scores will appear twice as big (if stretched to fit the page) which can be very beneficial for those with poor eyesight. It is also possible to print two pages on one sheet in landscape position so that the texts and KlavarScores appear the same size as on a tablet screen.

When you prefer the use of printed scores, you could use a tablet or cellphone that is connected to this website to make the Teacher's/Seconda parts audible. All these parts can be played from the dedicated pages on this website. A PC speaker system connected to this device will amplify the sound.

Carl Czerny  (1791-1857)

Carl Czerny was an Austrian composer, teacher, and pianist of Czech origin whose vast musical production amounted to over a thousand works. His books of studies for the piano are still widely used in piano teaching. He was one of Beethoven's numerous pupils, Franz Liszt was his most famous pupil.
Source: Wikipedia.

ONE HUNDRED PROGRESSIVE RECREATIONS/100 ERHOLUNGEN
Supplementary pieces by Carl Czerny to complement the Beyer course

We recommend that students begin with these pieces from Lesson 20 of the Beyer course.
These "RECREATIONS" are available at SheetMusicPlus in five e-books (PDF format) of twenty pieces, for USD 2.98 each. For a link to SheetMusicPlus see the page "sheet-music"

ONE HUNDRED AND TEN EASY AND PROGRESSIVE EXERCISES Opus 453

Supplementary pieces by Carl Czerny to complement the Beyer Course

These pieces begin at a higher level than the RECREATIONS, and can bring the student to the advanced level. The first 9 of these exercises have been included in the additional pages of the KlavarScore Beyer Piano Course from lessons 80-89 on this website.
However self-studying may be able to progress to an advanced level without the aid of a teacher, we strongly advice the student to ask for the assistance of a teacher.

Since Czerny was a firm believer that the practice of scales should be considered an indispensable part of the daily practice session, we also provided a set of scales which Czerny recommends all students commit to memory and practice daily either in whole or in part. You will find all the 24 Major and Minor scales at the end of the Beyer Course, where they can also be downloaded as a separate file (PDF format).

Piano playing should be pleasure, from the first moment!

Many pupils consider exercising musical scales and practising the use of the right fingers very boring. Beyer had the right answer for this: he composed music for the teacher who could accompany the pupil while playing these exercises.

Look at the example on the right.
When you have visited the "learning to play" page on this website you will know some basics of the Klavarscore notation. You will understand that this is not an exciting melody, not at least for the people who have to hear this all the time. But it is an essential excercise to learn the use of the right finger for each note. This is from Lesson No.02, Variation 8. The measures 9-16 (the right staff) have to be played two times.

Listen (three ticks in advance):

Javascript is required for the audio players, but it is not enabled in your browser. You can still download the file:

• br/intro/No.02_V8_PDA.mp3

Now the "Beyer Method", with the teacher playing the teacher part:

Not yet fully convinced?
Another example (below), this is Lesson No. 44 from the Beyer course.

This is what the pupil should play:

And now with the help of the (virtual) teacher:

These examples are made in a digital way, your teacher could play this much better.
But if you don't have a teacher, you can download these audio files from the course.

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