Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39
Béla Bartók (1881–1945) · sheet music
- Time 2/4
- Levels 3–7
- Passages 9
Your turn · both hands
Preparing your passage…
Béla Bartók, Hungarian modern (1881–1945). The reading release has 9 passages from this piece at levels 3–7; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 4–9 for the left hand alone.
The hardest stretch is bars 1–8 at level 7.
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 Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39.
- Left hand alone · bars 4–9 level 3
- Hands together · bars 13–16 level 5
- The hardest bars · bars 1–8 level 7
How to play Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39
- Tempo:Choose each piece's tempo from its character: slow and quiet for the Dedication and the evening pieces, lively and clear for the dances. Count the beat steadily, since Bartók's rhythms are often irregular.
- Right hand:Let the right hand sing or dance depending on the piece, and shape the folk-like melodies in short phrases. Play the modal and pentatonic notes with a clean, even touch.
- Left hand:The left hand often repeats a short pattern or a bouncing bass note. Keep these patterns steady and soft so the melody stays on top.
- Hands together:Listen to how the two hands fit together, since the harmony is often unusual. Practice slowly until you hear each chord as a deliberate sound.
- Dynamics:Bartók marks his dynamics clearly. Observe each one, and make contrasts between loud and soft clear but not exaggerated.
- Rhythm:Count out the beat for each piece before you play. In the dances, keep the pulse firm and the accents in place.
- Reading:There are few key signatures, so most of the work is reading accidentals and modal notes. Mark each accidental and name the scale of each piece before you start.
- Practice:Practice one piece at a time, starting hands separately. Because the pieces are short, you can repeat each several times at slow tempo before moving on.
Common mistakes
- Treating the unusual harmonies as wrong notes and correcting them. Fix: Check the score and trust it, then play slowly until the chords sound intentional.
- Letting the repeating left-hand pattern grow louder than the melody. Fix: Practice the left hand alone at a quiet level and add the right hand over it.
- Rushing the dances so the rhythm turns uneven. Fix: Count the beats aloud and keep a firm pulse.
- Skipping the accidentals in the modal passages. Fix: Mark each accidental in your copy and play the passage slowly until it is secure.
Structure: suite of ten miniatures with an opening dedication
The Ten Easy Pieces are separate miniatures, not one work in several movements. A slow, unnumbered Dedication opens the set, followed by ten short pieces of one or two minutes each, ranging from a finger exercise to a closing dance.
- Ded. · Dedication
- A short, slow opening built on a four-note motive tied to Stefi Geyer. It is an exercise in listening and in careful shaping of quiet chords.
- 1-3 · Peasant Song, Frustration, Slovakian Boys' Dance
- Peasant Song opens with a simple melody played by both hands in unison. Slovakian Boys' Dance is an arrangement of a real folk tune; expect irregular phrases and fresh, modal harmony.
- 4-8 · Sostenuto, Evening in Transylvania, Hungarian Folksong, Dawn, Slovakian Folksong
- The slower middle of the set includes two more folk-song arrangements and Evening in Transylvania, the longest piece, which alternates two ideas in an A-B-A-B-A pattern with the melody always in the right hand.
- 9 · Five-Finger Exercise
- A scale study that uses all five fingers and trains evenness and coordination.
- 10 · Bear Dance
- A closing dance in which a well-known tune rides over a bouncing repeated note in the bass. Bartók himself recorded it, together with Evening in Transylvania, in 1929.
About Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39
Béla Bartók composed the Ten Easy Pieces in 1908, and they were published in Budapest in 1909 by Rozsnyai Károly. He first planned an Eleven Piano Recital Pieces set, but one piece was moved into his Fourteen Bagatelles. His publisher's contract still called for eleven, so Bartók wrote an unnumbered Dedication to fill the gap.
The set was planned as an easy preparation in contemporary style for students. Bartók drew on his fascination with folk music and his admiration for Claude Debussy, and the pieces use pentatonic scales, modes, novel harmonies and ostinato. Only three are arrangements of real folk tunes, Slovakian Boys' Dance, Hungarian Folksong and Slovakian Folksong; the rest are Bartók's own folk-like inventions.
Each piece runs about one to two minutes, and the whole set lasts about seventeen minutes. It is used alongside Bartók's For Children as intermediate repertoire.
- The Dedication's slow four-note motive is linked to the violinist Stefi Geyer, and the same motive runs through Bartók's First Violin Concerto, his Two Portraits and the last of his Fourteen Bagatelles.
- Bartók recorded two of the pieces, Evening in Transylvania and Bear Dance, on November 20, 1929.
- The ninth piece, Five-Finger Exercise, is a scale study that uses all five fingers.
- The set was first conceived as eleven pieces, and one was removed to become part of the Fourteen Bagatelles.
Why the first passage is level 3
That passage is level 3 rather than 2 because it carries accidentals outside the key, a hand covers more than one position, the line roams across the staff, it leaves the five-finger position.
The passages on this page are in two-four with no sharps or flats in the opening, and range from easy to moderately demanding. Read the intervals and accidentals closely, since the harmony avoids the usual major and minor patterns.
Questions about Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39
- How hard is Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39 to play?
- Its passages grade from level 3 to level 7 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 1–8 at level 7.
- Is there an easy part of Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39 for beginners?
- Yes. Start with bars 4–9 for the left hand alone, the level-3 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 3 because it carries accidentals outside the key and a hand covers more than one position.
- What key and time signature is Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39 in?
- The engraving on this page is in 2/4 time.
- Who composed Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39?
- Béla Bartók, Hungarian modern (1881–1945). Béla Bartók composed the Ten Easy Pieces in 1908, and they were published in Budapest in 1909 by Rozsnyai Károly.
- Can I practice Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39 online for free?
- Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 9 graded passages from Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
- How many pieces are in Bartók's Ten Easy Pieces?
- There are ten numbered pieces plus an unnumbered Dedication, eleven in all, and the whole set lasts about seventeen minutes.
- What are the titles of Bartók's Ten Easy Pieces?
- After the Dedication: Peasant Song, Frustration, Slovakian Boys' Dance, Sostenuto, Evening in Transylvania, Hungarian Folksong, Dawn, Slovakian Folksong, Five-Finger Exercise and Bear Dance.
- Is Bartók's Ten Easy Pieces the same as For Children?
- No. They are separate collections, though both draw on folk music and both are used as intermediate repertoire.
Every passage, easiest first
The reading release grades 9 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:
- Level 3
- bars 4–9 left hand · bars 5–8 left hand
- Level 5
- bars 13–16 both hands
- Level 7
- bars 1–8 both hands · bars 5–8 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands · bars 9–12 both hands · bars 10–17 both hands · bars 17–20 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.