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Pillow Dance (For Children, Vol. 1)

Béla Bartók (1881–1945) · sheet music

  • Time 2/4
  • Levels 2–8
  • Passages 28

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Béla Bartók, Hungarian modern (1881–1945). The reading release has 28 passages from this piece at levels 2–8; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 4–7 for the right hand alone.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 1–24 at level 8.

Your practice path

Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of Pillow Dance (For Children, Vol. 1).

  1. Right hand alone · bars 4–7 level 2
  2. Left hand alone · bars 4–7 level 3
  3. Hands together · bars 4–11 level 4
  4. The hardest bars · bars 1–24 level 8

How to play Pillow Dance (For Children, Vol. 1)

  1. Tempo:Allegro in 2/4 means a lively two-in-a-bar feel. Start well below that pace and make sure the eighth notes stay even.
  2. Right hand:The right hand sings the tune in eighth notes. Shape it with small rises and falls, and keep the finger action light.
  3. Left hand:The left hand opens alone with a rocking two-note figure, then circles a held low note under the tune. Keep it quieter and steadier than the right hand, like a drone under a folk song.
  4. Hands together:Because both hands play in steady eighth notes, the coordination is about independence: the left hand should not follow the right hand's dynamics.
  5. Dynamics:Plan the marked cresc. so the music grows steadily rather than suddenly. Start quietly enough to leave room.
  6. Practice:Learn the tune alone, sing it, then add the left hand a few notes at a time. Repeat each phrase until the left hand no longer needs thinking.
  7. Reading:With no key signature, every note is natural. When the tune returns a fifth higher, compare it with the first version and read it as the same shape shifted up.

Common mistakes

  • Letting the left hand pattern get louder with the right hand. Fix: Practice the left hand alone at a whisper, then add the tune above it.
  • Rushing during the crescendo. Fix: Keep the metronome steady and let volume, not speed, create the build.
  • Treating the tune like a march with even accents. Fix: Lean on the first eighth of each pair and shape the phrase.

Structure: folk-tune miniature (tune stated, then repeated a fifth higher)

In the passages on this page the left hand opens alone with a rocking two-note figure. The right hand then plays a short folk-style tune twice, closing on C, while the left hand weaves broken patterns over a held low note. After another left-hand interlude the tune returns a fifth higher, now closing on G, and a cresc. marking pushes the dance forward.

Intro · Rocking left hand
The left hand alone swings between two neighboring notes in steady eighths. Set the tempo here before the tune enters.
A · The tune
A right-hand tune in even eighth notes that steps down and back within a small range, stated twice and ending on C, over left-hand patterns anchored on a low C.
A' · The tune a fifth higher
After the rocking figure returns, the tune comes back a fifth higher, ending on G, with the left hand now circling a low G. Read it as the same shape moved up, not as new notes.

About Pillow Dance (For Children, Vol. 1)

Béla Bartók wrote For Children, Sz. 42, in 1908 and 1909: 85 short piano pieces in four volumes, written for students, with the difficulty rising slightly through each half. Every piece is based on a folk tune; the first two volumes use Hungarian tunes and the last two Slovak ones. In 1945 Bartók revised the set into 79 pieces in two volumes.

Pillow Dance, in Hungarian Párnatánc, is the fourth piece of Volume 1 in the revised edition and is marked Allegro. It follows Children at Play, Children's Song and an untitled Quasi adagio, and comes just before Play and Study for the Left Hand.

The engraving here is in 2/4 with no key signature. The left hand starts alone, rocking between two neighboring notes, and then the right hand enters with a short tune in even eighth notes that is later repeated a fifth higher. It is a good first Bartók piece: the sounds are fresh but the notes are easy to find.

  • For Children exists in two forms: the original 85 pieces in four volumes from 1908-09, and the 1945 revision of 79 pieces in two volumes.
  • Bartók removed six pieces in the revision because they were inaccurate transcriptions or were not original folk tunes.
  • Pianist Zoltán Kocsis included some of the pieces from For Children in his recitals for their musical value.

Why the first passage is level 2

That passage is level 2 rather than 1 because notes come faster than one per beat, it leaps a major third, it moves in eighth notes.

No key signature and a 2/4 meter. The tune moves stepwise in a small range and comes back a fifth higher, and the left hand repeats short patterns, so read both hands by shape.

Questions about Pillow Dance (For Children, Vol. 1)

How hard is Pillow Dance (For Children, Vol. 1) to play?
Its passages grade from level 2 to level 8 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 1–24 at level 8.
Is there an easy part of Pillow Dance (For Children, Vol. 1) for beginners?
Yes. Start with bars 4–7 for the right hand alone, the level-2 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 2 because notes come faster than one per beat and it leaps a major third.
What key and time signature is Pillow Dance (For Children, Vol. 1) in?
The engraving on this page is in 2/4 time.
Who composed Pillow Dance (For Children, Vol. 1)?
Béla Bartók, Hungarian modern (1881–1945). Béla Bartók wrote For Children, Sz.
Can I practice Pillow Dance (For Children, Vol. 1) online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 28 graded passages from Pillow Dance (For Children, Vol. 1) in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What does Párnatánc mean?
It is Hungarian for Pillow Dance, the title of the fourth piece in Volume 1 of Bartók's For Children.
Is Pillow Dance based on a real folk tune?
Every piece in For Children is based on a folk tune, and the first two volumes of the original edition use Hungarian tunes. No source checked identifies the specific tune behind Pillow Dance.
Why are there two versions of For Children?
Bartók published 85 pieces in four volumes in 1908-09 and revised the set in 1945 as 79 pieces in two volumes, removing six pieces and substantially changing the harmony of others.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 28 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 2
bars 4–7 right hand · bars 10–13 right hand · bars 16–19 right hand · bars 21–24 right hand
Level 3
bars 4–7 left hand · bars 4–9 right hand · bars 5–8 left hand · bars 5–8 right hand · bars 9–12 left hand · bars 10–13 left hand · bars 16–19 left hand · bars 16–21 right hand · bars 17–20 left hand · bars 17–24 right hand · bars 17–20 right hand
Level 4
bars 4–11 both hands · bars 5–8 both hands · bars 9–12 both hands · bars 16–19 both hands · bars 17–20 both hands · bars 22–25 both hands
Level 5
bars 1–8 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands · bars 10–15 both hands · bars 16–23 both hands · bars 17–24 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands
Level 8
bars 1–24 both hands

More pieces to sight-read

Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.

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