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KLAVARSCORE BEYER PIANO COURSE



Contents:

The use of the Piano Pedal
Scale of A Major
Lesson 74  Triplets
Additional Song "Song without Words - Canción sin palabras"



Additional information and accompanying files for Lesson 70-79



For an explanation on how to use the Scrolling files as a valuable practice tool, see the Scrolling page



Music Vocabulary

Marcato (marc.)     Made prominent ; strongly marked.
poco                         A little.



The use of the Piano Sustain Pedal

Czerny on the Proper Use of the Sustain Pedal

In the first measure of Lesson 78 you see that the left hand note D lasts half the measure, while the eighth notes should also sound. This will not be a problem here, the fingers 3, 4 or 5 could be held for the lowest note while playing the eighth notes with the other fingers. But what if the lowest note is much lower and your little finger is too short? In this case the Sustain Pedal can help us.

This Pedal [also called "Damper Pedal"], as the principal one, is situated on the right side of the instrument and is of course to be moved by the right foot. This is the most essential of the Pedals; and the foot should always be kept close to it, so as to allow its being applied to it at any moment with ease and certainty. The old denomination of Forte pedal ("loud pedal") gave rise to an idea that this pedal could only be employed in playing very loud. But this is extremely erroneous. It may be used in every degree of loud and soft, supposing only that it is introduced in the right place.

In modern piano playing, this pedal has become extremely important, and its application must be well studied; for many striking effects may be produced by its means, and an apparent fullness of tone and harmony, which seems even to multiply the number of our hands.

Let the player accustom himself to press the pedal firmly and quickly down, with the point of the foot raised, while the heel remains on the ground, and to relinquish it with equal rapidity, yet so gently, that no noise shall be heard, either from the action of the foot on the pedal, or from the raising of the dampers. In relinquishing the Pedal, the foot must quit it entirely; yet so adroitly and so slightly, that in quickly pressing it again, the contact of the foot shall not be heard at all.

The first essential advantage which this pedal offers, is that by it, we are enabled to make the bass-notes [notes furthest to the left in a piece on the klavar staff] sustain as if we had a third hand at our disposal, while two hands are engaged in playing the melody and the distant accompaniment. By this the different harmonies obtain a compass and fullness, which could never be given to them by the two hands alone.

Example: Notice how in the piece excerpt on the right, starting on measure 5, the left hand notes that fall on the downbeats (1st beat of each measure) are too distant to be sustained while playing the left hand chords which begin on beat 2 but there is a continue dot on beat 2 which informs us that these notes must be sustained over beats 2 and 3. To accomplish this, the Sustain Pedal must be employed at the same moment that the notes on the downbeats of such measures are struck, and the player must not relinquish the Pedal until just prior to the new measure where it must again be employed in the same manner.



Fundamental Rule:
The Pedal must be kept down only so long as the passage consists of just one chord.



How detestable it would sound if the Pedal were kept down all the time.

Without an understanding of the music theory which allows one to identify different chord types, one may think of a chord as a group of notes that have a harmonious sound when played together at the same time. In the example piece excerpt below, notice how there is no change of notes sounded at the same time from the start of measure 23 to the end of measure 24 with the exception of the C in the melodic right hand part of measure 24. Since this note is simply added to the notes of the same chord found in measure 23, one need not relinquish the pedal prior to the start of measure 24 to comply with this rule.

Download this article about the use of the Sustain Pedal: Sustain Pedal


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Scale of A-Major

The scale of A major begins at the note "A". The pattern of whole and half steps for major scales has been explained on Page 60-60. Using that pattern, the A Major scale is built as follows:

Note:        A       B       C#     D       E       F#    G#      A
No.:           1        2        3        4       5        6        7      8 (=1)
Distance:     1    -   1    -   ½  -   1    -   1    -    1   -   ½ 
In Words:    w  -  w   -   h   -   w  -   w  -  w  -   h

 


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Lesson 74  -  Triplets

Up until now you have only seen pieces with an even number of notes per count. This piece introduces tuplets (irregular rhythms) known as triplets which in the 4 beat bar of Lesson #74 can be counted as follows: Wuh-uh-un (one), too-oo-oo (two), three-ee-ee (three), fo-oh-ohr (four) or Am-ster-dam. When tuplets are encountered, one must play the indicated number of notes over the count of the beat(s) or beat fragment on which they appear in the score.
Note: In measures 18 and 22 of the lesson you will see triplets where the first note appears to be missing. In these instances, the first note is heard but not seen as it is a continuation of the note that begins on beat one of these measures.

LH/RH Exercises:

Example of the complete song:          

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Right Hand, you play the Left Hand: 

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Left Hand, you play the Right Hand: 

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Additional Song

"Song without Words - Canción sin palabras"


No. 3 from "Six short pieces for Recreation" in the Scharfenberg edition of the Beyer piano lessons, composed by the German pianist and composer Fritz Spindler (1817-1905).
 

 

Tempo 95 BPM

To download this exercise in
Tablet format:                click here
Scrolling format:           click here
Audio file:                        click here
Right Hand Audio file:  click here
Left Hand Audio file:    click here

Because the Right Hand and the Left Hand do not begin at the same time, COUNTING IS VERY IMPORTANT!

For practicing start the Video first, then the Audio:

The complete Song:

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This piece is in 4/4 measure, it begins with an upbeat: 3 ticks in advance.

Right Hand, you play the Left Hand:

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This piece is in 4/4 measure, it begins with an upbeat: 3 ticks in advance.

Left Hand, you play the Right Hand:

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This piece is in 4/4 measure, it begins with an upbeat and the Left Hand begins one measure later as the Right Hand: 7 ticks in advance (the first tick in every measure sounds louder).


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