Für Elise: the theme

A theme people know from two notes

This is the main theme of Ludwig van Beethoven's Für Elise: bars 1–8 with the repeat, with both hands. Press “Listen”.

Two notes before the first bar line, signs right inside the bars and two endings over bar 8.

People recognise it from its first two notes: E, D♯. There is plenty to read in the score again. There is no key signature, but sharps stand by the notes themselves, and in bar 1 there is an unfamiliar sign before D. The theme starts with two notes before the first bar line. Over bar 8 there are two brackets with the numbers 1 and 2, and between them a double bar line with two dots. Under the first note is pp from lesson 4: the theme starts very quietly.

Beethoven wrote the theme in 3/8 time, in sixteenth notes. The course's easy version writes the same notes in 3/4, in eighth notes: every note value is twice as long, and the bars and their numbers stay the same. The right hand plays the notes of the original; the left hand plays one bass note per bar. The original with the pedal comes in lesson 10. The lesson builds on lesson 3 and lesson 4: 3/4 time, eighth notes, the sharp, the pickup.

The whole pickup

3/4 has three beats, and nearly everything in the theme is eighth notes, two to a beat. Count in eighths: “one-and-two-and-three-and”. The pickup here is two eighth notes, E and D♯, on “three-and”. Before them, count “one-and-two-and” silently and come in on “three”. Listen to the opening: E, D♯, E, D♯, E, B, D, C, A.

A pickup is an incomplete bar. The missing beats come at the end: the first ending, bar 8, is a single half-note A, “one-and-two-and”, and “three-and” goes to the pickup that starts the theme again. Together they make exactly three beats. The whole theme ends the same way: a half-note A in bar 22. In the course's score the pickup is bar 0. What happens if the theme starts straight on “one”?

The pickup and bars 1–3 with the right hand, the count under every note. The switch moves every bar line two eighths earlier. “Listen” plays with a metronome: a bell on “one”, and the notes on “one” a little stronger.

The notes are the same, but the theme sounds different. The downbeat is a footing: the long A and B fall on it, and the bass comes in on it. The pickup leads up to it, like a run-up to a jump. Bar lines do more than cut the notes into portions: they say which notes matter most.

The right hand's rhythms, bar by bar. “h 8 8” is the first ending together with the pickup. Tap each one after the count-in, counting the eighths aloud; count the rests too.

Signs inside the bar

The sharp before the pickup D stands by the note itself, not by the clef. A sign like this is called an accidental. It applies to that note in that octave, on the same line or in the same space, from the sign to the end of the bar. The bar line cancels it, which is why the sharp before D is written again in bar 1.

In bar 1, after D♯, there is another D: E, D♯, E, B, D, C. The sharp is still in force, and without a new sign this D would be D♯ too. The sign before it is a natural, ♮. It cancels a sharp or a flat, and the note sounds without a sign: D is a white key. A natural is an accidental too, holding until the end of the bar.

In bar 3 there is a sharp before G. The theme is in A minor: there are no signs by the clef, as in C major, and it ends on A. In A minor G is often raised: G♯ leans towards A by a semitone, as F♯ leans towards G in the Minuet. Signs by the clef and by a note are written the same way; only their place tells them apart. A sign by the clef holds for the whole piece, a sign by a note until the bar line.

Bar 1: E, D♯, E, B, D, C. What would the fifth note be if the natural were rubbed out?

D: the sharp stood by a different note D♯: the sharp holds until the end of the bar D♭: without a sign the note goes down

An accidental holds until the bar line for every note on the same line or in the same space. The D♯ on the second eighth of bar 1 would turn the following Ds black too, so Beethoven writes a natural.

A note appears on a staff with no key signature, sometimes with a sharp. Play it in the right octave; a sharp means the black key to the right.

Moving the hand

Five keys under the hand are not enough for this theme. In bars 1–4 the right hand sits in three places, and each time the thumb moves it. It starts in the A position. E, D♯, E with fingers 5, 4, 5; the D without a sign with the same finger 4, on the white key.

The A position: the thumb on A, finger 4 on D♯, the little finger on E5.

In bar 2 the thumb takes A, and at once it flies down to middle C. The hand opens wider than five keys in a row.

Bar 2: the thumb on C, finger 2 on E, finger 4 on A, the little finger over B.

In bar 3, B with the little finger, and the thumb moves the hand again, to E4: G♯ with finger 3, B with finger 4, and C in bar 4 with the little finger. Then E with the thumb, E5 with the little finger, an octave higher, and the hand is back in the A position: D♯ with finger 4.

Bar 3: the thumb on E, finger 3 on G♯, finger 4 on B, the little finger on C.

Move the whole hand rather than reaching for the key with a finger. There is time for the move: the long note and the rest after it. While A is sounding, your eyes are already on C and the hand is flying there, and the thumb is over its key before it has to press it. Then the eighth note after the rest arrives on time.

The pickup E with the little finger, D♯ with finger 4, A with the thumb; in bar 2 the thumb moves the hand to C. Any tempo.

Three moves in a row: to C, to E, and with the little finger on E5 back to the A position.

Even eighth notes

Nearly all of the theme is eighth notes, and they go evenly, like the ticking of a clock. An eighth rest is a tick of that clock too, only a silent one. Two mistakes come up more often than others. The E–D♯–E turns run away, because fingers 5 and 4 sit side by side and easily speed up. And before a move the hand waits: the eighth note after the rest comes late.

The pickup and bars 1–3 with the right hand on a line of eighths. Empty circles mark where the notes stand on the grid, diamonds the notes after a hand shift. Below them is where the notes actually came.

In “Your turn”, play the same notes at any tempo of your own. The grid fits itself to it and shows which note came late and which came early. If the note after a move is late, move the hand sooner, during the A and the rest. If the turns run away, count the eighths aloud and play more slowly: even and slow is better than fast with a stumble.

The bass, one note at a time

In the easy version the left hand stays in one place: the little finger on E2, finger 3 on G, finger 2 on A, the thumb on C3. E2 is written below the bass staff on a ledger line, just as middle C is below the treble staff.

Every bar has one note for the whole bar: a dotted half note, and in the first ending and the last bar a half note. The hand comes in in bar 2, on A together with the right hand. In bars 1, 5, 13–15 and 19 it rests for the whole bar. In bars 9–12 the bass goes C, G, A, E. In Beethoven's original the left hand begins each of these bars with three sixteenth notes under the pedal: the bottom note and two above it. The easy version keeps only the bottom one and holds it for the whole bar.

A note appears on the bass staff. Play it with the left hand in the right octave; E sits on a ledger line below the staff.

C with the thumb, G with finger 3, A with finger 2, E with the little finger. Each note lasts the whole bar.

A repeat and two endings

At the end of bar 8 there is a double bar line with two dots before it: the repeat sign from lesson 2. There is no bar line with dots at the start, so you go back to the very beginning, here to the pickup. What is new is something else: the first time and the second time, bar 8 sounds different.

Over bar 8 there are two brackets. These are first and second endings, different ways to finish. The first time, play the bar under bracket 1: a half-note A and straight into the pickup, E and D♯, back to bar 1. The second time, skip bracket 1 and play the bar under bracket 2: A, a rest, B, C, D. These three eighth notes lead up to bar 9. So it goes: the pickup and bars 1–8 with the first ending, the pickup and bars 1–7 again, the second ending, bars 9–22. In the course's score both endings are bar 8.

You have played bar 8 under bracket 1. What comes next?

Bar 8 under bracket 2 The pickup and bar 1: the repeat from the very start Bar 9: the repeat has already happened

The dots by the bar line say to repeat, and there is no bar line with dots at the start, so the repeat goes back to the very beginning, to the pickup. The second ending sounds only the second time, in place of the first.

Bars 9–14 are the middle of the theme, with music of their own. In bars 9–11 each bar starts with a long note, and then the thumb jumps down, to G, F and E, and the little finger takes the top note: the hand opens to nearly an octave. These are moves again. In bar 12, B, a rest, E with the thumb and E5 with the little finger. In bar 13 the thumb settles on that E, and the little finger reaches E6, on the third ledger line above the staff. Then the hand comes back down, to D♯ with finger 4, and in bar 14 the E–D♯ turns lead to the beginning: bars 15–22 repeat bars 1–8, and bar 22 is a half-note A, the end.

The long notes with fingers 5, 3, 3 and 3; the G, F and E after them with the thumb, the top notes with the little finger and finger 4.

A lesson on the instrument

With the cable you can put the course's recording of the theme onto the EZ-310: both hands, ♩ = 60. The file is loaded just like the Ode in lesson 1. In it the right hand is on channel 1 and the left on channel 2: according to the manual, that is how the EZ-310 splits songs from a computer into hands for its lessons.

The EZ-310 has a lesson in three steps, the 3-Step Lesson: first listening, then playing in time, then playing on your own. The keys to press next light up one after another.

The 3-Step Lesson on the course's song

After Lessons 2 and 3 the instrument gives a grade, “Excellent!”, “Very Good!”, “Good” or “OK”, and the lesson starts again. Begin with the right hand, then the left, then both.

The whole theme with two hands

The theme is built like this. The pickup and bars 1–8, twice, with two endings. The middle, bars 9–14. And the opening again, bars 15–22, up to the last A. In the published score bars 9–22 are repeated too, and after them different music begins; in the course the theme ends on this A. Learn bars 1–8 and the middle, and you know the whole theme.

The pickup and bars 1–8 with the repeat, right hand. The turns even, the moves during the A and the B. At the end of the first time through, a half-note A and straight into the pickup.

The same bars with the left hand: A with finger 2 and E with the little finger, each for the whole bar.

The middle, right hand. The thumb jumps down after each long note; in bar 13, E6 with the little finger and back down to D♯.

The middle with both hands. The bass is C, G, A, E; in bars 13 and 14 the left hand is silent.

The whole theme in “Wait for me”. Bars 15–22 are the opening again, which you already know.

Now in tempo: bars 1–8 with the repeat at 75%, which is ♩ = 45. The count-in bar is three clicks; play the pickup E on the third click, D♯ straight after it, and bar 1 starts on the next “one”.

And the last rung: the whole theme with both hands in tempo. At 75% it takes two minutes. Add 5% each time a run is passed: the result line shows at least 90% right notes and 75% “on time”. A hundred per cent, ♩ = 60, is the tempo the course's score of the theme is written in.

What next

Now you read accidentals and the natural and know that a sign holds until the bar line. You come in on a pickup on its own beat, play through a repeat with two endings, move the hand without stopping and keep the eighth notes even. The whole theme sounds with both hands. This is the last lesson of the first stage: you play all five pieces in their easy versions.

Test yourself at the keys:

• Tap the pickup and bar 1, counting aloud “three-and, one-and-two-and-three-and”.
• Name every accidental in bars 1–4 and say which notes each one applies to.
• In “Even eighths”, play the pickup and bars 1–3 yourself: on average no more than 10% of an eighth off the grid.
• The whole theme “In tempo” at 75%: 90% right notes or more.
• On the EZ-310: the 3-Step Lesson on the course's song or on song 094, right hand, Lesson 3 Waiting to the end.

Next comes the second stage, the full versions. The first wall is the Ode again, but now the left hand has three notes at once.

The same tune, with chords under it. Reading them is for lesson 6.

Triads and chord symbols come in lesson 6.