Lesson 10 of 10 Step 2: the full versions ≈ 60 min 4 exercises Piece: Für Elise
Für Elise: the theme with pedal
The same theme as it was printed: in 3/8, in sixteenth notes, with the left hand's arpeggio and the pedal. The last lesson of the course.
In this lesson
- read 3/8 and sixteenth notes as the same music written twice as short
- read pedal marks: where to press the pedal and where to let it up
- carry an arpeggio from the left hand into the right in even sixteenth notes
- press and release the pedal bar by bar, together with the bass
- play the whole theme with its repeats in “Wait for me” and in tempo, and on the EZ-310 connect a pedal and record your playing
The theme as it was printed
This is the opening of Für Elise as Breitkopf & Härtel printed it in 1888: the pickup and bars 1–8 with both hands, with the repeat. Press “Listen”.
In lesson 5 you played the easy version. The right-hand notes here are the same, note for note to the last bar, only written differently: in 3/8 time, in sixteenth notes. Instead of one long note the left hand plays three quick ones, and the right hand picks up the line. And the pedal holds these sounds while the bar goes on.
Section A has 22 bars, and with its two repeats 44 bars and the pickup are heard. This is the last lesson of the course: at the end you will play the whole theme as Beethoven wrote it.
Twice as short: 3/8 time
You have been reading the two numbers of a time signature since lesson 1. In 3/8 a bar has three beats, and the eighth note counts as the beat. Each beat splits into two sixteenth notes from lesson 9. The theme runs in sixteenths: E, D♯, E, B, D, C, six sixteenths, a whole bar.
In the easy version the same six notes were eighths in a bar of 3/4. In 3/8 every note value is twice as short, but so is the beat. That is why the count under the notes does not change: “one-and, two-and, three-and”. If an eighth in 3/8 lasts as long as a quarter in 3/4, the music sounds the same.
Over the notes Beethoven wrote only Poco moto, “with a little motion”, with no metronome figure. The course's recording goes at ♪ = 144: a bar lasts 1.25 seconds. The easy version went at ♩ = 60, and a bar lasted 3 seconds, 2.4 times as long.
Tap the bar shown after the count-in: three clicks are three eighths. “8 16r 16 16 16” is bar 2: A, a rest, C, E, A. “8. 16 16 16” is bar 9.
In the easy version bar 2 is a quarter-note A, an eighth rest and three eighths: C, E, A. How is this bar written in 3/8?
In 3/8 everything is twice as short: the quarter has become an eighth, the eighth rest a sixteenth rest, the eighths sixteenths. Together that is three eighths, exactly one bar of 3/8.
In bars 9–11 the right hand first holds a long top note, a dotted eighth. Then the thumb jumps down, and three sixteenths follow. This is the same music as in lesson 5, where a dotted quarter and three eighths stood here.
The long note with finger 5 or 3, the low note after it with the thumb. While the long note sounds, the hand opens out towards the low one.
3/8 is three eighths to a bar, and the beat is an eighth. The same music in 3/8 is written twice as short as in 3/4: an eighth becomes a sixteenth, a quarter an eighth. It sounds the same if the beat lasts as long.
An arpeggio across two hands
In bar 2 the left hand plays three sixteenth notes: A2, E3 and A3. The notes of the chord go one after another from the bottom up. This is an arpeggio, in Italian “as on a harp”: the same broken chord as in lesson 7, only quick.
On the fourth sixteenth the right hand picks up the line: C, E and A4. The result is one line of six notes, from A2 to A4, two octaves up. This is A minor: A, C, E. In bar 3 E major sounds the same way: E, G♯, B.
The place where one hand hands the line to the other must not be heard. The six sixteenths go evenly, as if one hand were playing them. While the left hand plays its three notes, the right thumb is already over C.
These are the notes of the left-hand arpeggio in bars 2–11. E2 sits on a ledger line below the staff.
Three sixteenths, then a rest to the end of the bar. The little finger on the bottom note, the thumb on the top one.
In bars 12–14 the hands play in turn. The left hand moves into the treble clef and plays E5 and D♯5 between the right hand's notes. E–D♯ sounds without a break, while the hands take over from each other. In bar 16 the left hand goes back to the bass clef.
An arpeggio is the notes of a chord in turn. In Für Elise the left hand starts it and the right hand carries it on: six even sixteenths, as if from one hand.
The pedal
Every string of a piano has a damper, a felt pad. When a key is let go, the damper settles on the string, and the sound dies away. The right pedal, the sustain pedal, lifts all the dampers at once. While it is down, the sound goes on even after the key has been let go.
Where to press the pedal and where to let it up is written under the lower staff. These are pedal marks: Ped. means press, the asterisk means let up. In Für Elise, Ped. stands on the first bass note and the asterisk at the end of the bar. Under the pedal the three left-hand notes merge into a chord and sound through the whole bar, and the bass is held, even though its key was let go at once.
Before a new bar the pedal is let up, or the A minor of bar 2 would mix with the E major of bar 3. In the pickup and in bars 1 and 5 there is no pedal: there the right hand plays E–D♯ alone, and under the pedal two neighbouring notes would blur together.
The heel stays on the floor, and the pedal is pressed with the front of the foot. Press together with the bass, hold for the whole bar, let up on the last sixteenth, before the new bass.
First listen to the three examples: as written, with no pedal, and with the pedal held down. Then press “Your turn”: the music goes at half speed, and the pedal is yours to work. The sound follows your pedal, and the widget checks every bar.
In bar 3 there is Ped. under the bass and an asterisk at the end of the bar. When do you let the pedal up?
The asterisk means let up, and it stands at the end of the bar. That way the E major of bar 3 does not mix with the A minor of bar 4. In bar 4 the pedal is pressed afresh, together with the bass A.
In bars 11–13 our edition holds one pedal for three bars in a row, and in bar 21, which repeats bar 7, there is no pedal. When the theme comes back for the last time, at the end of the whole piece, the pedal in these places is marked a little differently. Play as printed and listen: if the sound turns muddy, let the pedal up sooner.
Ped. means press, the asterisk means let up. In Für Elise: press together with the bass, hold for the whole bar, let up before the next bass. Where there are no marks, there is no pedal.
The pedal and recording on the EZ-310
The EZ-310 does not come with a pedal. The Yamaha FC4A and FC5 footswitches fit, and they are sold separately. The footswitch plugs into the [SUSTAIN] jack on the rear panel and works as a pedal: it holds the sound while it is pressed.
Plug the pedal in and out with the instrument switched off, and do not press it while switching on: otherwise it will work the other way round. What the pedal does is set by function 033 “Pedal Function”; by default it is Sustain, which is what you want. Leave Panel Sustain from lesson 9 switched off: it lengthens every note by itself, while the pedal does so only while it is down. And do not confuse this lesson's arpeggio with the [HARMONY/ARPEGGIO] button: that one switches on arpeggios the instrument plays by itself.
According to the MIDI table in the manual, the EZ-310 also sends pedal presses over the cable. Then the pedal widget above hears your real pedal. If the presses do not come through, use the Space bar or the “Pedal” button.
Recording your playing
The EZ-310 records what you play into one of five User Songs. Play the theme and listen to yourself from the outside: that makes it easier to hear where a hand hurries and where the pedal turns muddy.
User Songs are numbers 153–157; one place in the reference manual gives 126–130. A recording has two tracks, [R/1] and [L/2]: if you hold [REC] and press one of them, only that one is recorded. The reverb level, the metronome clicks, transposition and tuning are not recorded. The 3-Step Lesson does not work with your own recording, and it cannot be copied to a computer as a separate file. To erase a recording: choose it with [USER&STORAGE], hold [SHIFT] and press [REC], then [+/YES] twice.
The theme on the instrument
With the cable, put the course's recording of the full theme onto the EZ-310: both hands, with the repeats, ♪ = 144. 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, and the 3-Step Lesson from lesson 5 will wait for the hand you choose.
Without the cable, the EZ-310 has songs 078, 094 and 095, “Für Elise”, from lesson 5. These are Yamaha's arrangements, not the course's score. The course's score plays from the “Listen” button by the notes on this page, and the tempo there goes down to 40%.
The whole theme with the pedal
Section A has 22 bars. With the repeats, 44 bars and the pickup are heard: bars 1–8 twice, then bars 9–22 twice, each time with its own ending. In all, 133 eighths; at ♪ = 144 that is 55 seconds, and at 75% 1 min 14 s.
In “Wait for me” the pedal is not checked: notes first, pedal later. Start with the left hand: the arpeggio, the little finger on the bass. The right hand is played by the “teacher”.
Both hands, from the pickup. Make sure the six sixteenths of the arpeggio go as one line.
The middle, bars 9–14. First the right hand: the long notes and the thumb's jumps down, then the high E6 in bar 13.
Now the left hand alone: the new basses C and G in bars 9 and 10, and in bar 12 the move into the treble clef.
The same bars with both hands. In bars 12–14 the hands play in turn: “Wait for me” waits for each note from the hand it belongs to.
Bars 15–22: the theme once more and the end of section A, the three chords of the second ending.
The whole theme in “Wait for me”, with both repeats.
Now in tempo and with the pedal, if you have one: bars 1–8 with the repeat at 75%, which is ♪ = 108. The count-in bar is three clicks.
And the course's last rung: the whole theme with both hands in tempo. 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, ♪ = 144, is the tempo the course's score of the theme is written in.
What next
Test yourself at the keys: record the theme on the EZ-310 with the pedal and listen to the recording; you do not need the cable for that. Do the six sixteenths of the arpeggio go evenly, and does the sound turn muddy at the change of bar? With the cable, the last “In tempo” run shows the same thing: the result line and the bars marked in red.
The course is complete. You read music in two clefs, with rests, signs and repeats, in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 and 3/8. You play five pieces with both hands: each first in its easy version, then as it was printed. The last of them has an arpeggio across two hands and the pedal.
The Für Elise theme is heard three times in the piece, and between its appearances stand two episodes with other music. The course has not covered them: the very first bar of an episode already has a new sign, a grace note. The story of the piece is on the Für Elise page in the repertoire.
All the course's terms are collected in the glossary, and the pieces in the repertoire: you can go back to any of them and play it again in “Wait for me” or in tempo.