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Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 1

Ferdinand Beyer (1803–1863) · sheet music

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 1–3
  • Passages 22

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Ferdinand Beyer, German romantic (1803–1863). The reading release has 30 passages from this piece at levels 1–3; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for the right hand alone.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 1–8 at level 3.

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 Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 1.

  1. Right hand alone · bars 1–4 level 1

How to play Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 1

  1. Tempo:Beyer marks it Tempo moderato. Count one-two-three-four aloud and keep exactly the same pulse when a variation changes the rhythm.
  2. Right hand:Keep the thumb on C and the fifth finger on G for the entire number. The hand never needs to move, so only the fingers should lift and fall.
  3. Fingering:Read the finger numbers as well as the notes: in this position each note has its own finger, so finger 3 always means E. Say the finger number aloud on a first reading.
  4. Rhythm:In the dotted variations, hold the long note for three full counts before the short note. In the 3/4 variations, count one-two-three and make the half note last two beats.
  5. Hands together:There is no left-hand part for the pupil here; the teacher's part supplies the harmony. Practicing with a teacher or a recording of the accompaniment trains you to keep a steady beat with another player.
  6. Reading:Each variation reuses the five notes C to G. Before playing, look for what is new in the rhythm or the pattern rather than reading every note again.
  7. Practice:Play the theme and one variation per day at first. Once a variation is steady, play it with your eyes on the music and your hand out of sight.

Common mistakes

  • Lifting a finger before the next note sounds, so the line has gaps. Fix: Keep each key down until the next finger presses, as the note on legato printed in the score asks.
  • Shortening whole notes and half notes to get to the next one. Fix: Count the beats out loud, one per syllable, through every long note.
  • Playing on through a quarter rest at the start of a bar. Fix: Lift the hand slightly during each rest and count it, then play on the next beat.
  • Letting the hand drift so that the wrong finger lands on a note. Fix: Rest all five fingers on C to G before every variation and check the finger number of the first note.

Structure: theme and variations

A slow theme in whole notes walks up and down the five-finger position. Each variation keeps that outline but changes the rhythm or adds a small new figure, so the pupil learns one new reading idea at a time while the notes stay familiar.

Theme · Tema (C major)
Whole notes moving by step between C and F, one note per bar, ending on C. The goal is a full, connected sound and counting four beats on every note.
Var. 1–2 · Halves and dotted halves
The same line in repeated half notes, then in a dotted half plus a quarter, which is the first uneven rhythm in the book.
Var. 3 · In three
A half note followed by a quarter, now in 3/4, so the bar has three beats instead of four.
Var. 4–7 · Quarter-note groups and rests
Short groups of quarters that repeat a note or skip a third, and later bars that begin with a quarter rest, so the hand must wait before playing.
Var. 8–12 · Moving lines
Busier variations with quarter notes in almost every beat, skips up to G and phrases of steps that wind around the position.

About Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 1

Ferdinand Beyer (1806–1863) was a German pianist and composer, known in his day for light music and piano arrangements of popular orchestral works. He is remembered for one book: the Vorschule im Klavierspiel, Op. 101, a preparatory school of 106 studies first published by Schott in Mainz in 1850 and dedicated to the mothers of families.

No. 1 is the true starting line. The pupil sets the right hand on C, D, E, F and G, one finger per key, and plays a slow theme in whole notes. Twelve variations follow, each using the same five notes in a new rhythm: half notes, dotted halves, a waltz-like 3/4, quarter-note groups, rests and short repeated figures.

The pupil never plays alone. Beyer wrote a separate part for the teacher, chords and a bass line on the facing page, so even the first exercise sounds like music. A Japanese study of the book notes that the first eleven numbers all come with a teacher's part in this way.

  • In the original, No. 1 is a theme with twelve variations, so this single number holds thirteen short exercises.
  • The score asks the pupil to count aloud from the very first note of No. 1.
  • Variations 3 and 8 are in 3/4, while the theme and the other ten variations count four beats.
  • A 2012 Japanese study counts that the first 69 numbers of the book use only white keys.

Why the first passage is level 1

That passage is level 1, the first rung: it moves by whole steps or less, in quarter-note values, in one hand.

Everything on this page is right hand alone, using only the five notes from C to G. Start with the half-note variations and move on to the busier quarter-note ones once the finger numbers come without thinking.

Questions about Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 1

How hard is Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 1 to play?
Its passages grade from level 1 to level 3 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, which keeps all of it within beginner reading. The hardest stretch is bars 1–8 at level 3.
Is there an easy part of Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 1 for beginners?
Yes. Start with bars 1–4 for the right hand alone, the level-1 passage in the reader at the top of this page.
What key and time signature is Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 1 in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 1?
Ferdinand Beyer, German romantic (1803–1863). Ferdinand Beyer (1806–1863) was a German pianist and composer, known in his day for light music and piano arrangements of popular orchestral works.
Can I practice Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 1 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 22 graded passages from Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 1 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
How many exercises are in Beyer No. 1?
Thirteen: a theme followed by twelve variations, all for the right hand alone on the five notes C to G.
Do I need a teacher to play Beyer No. 1?
Beyer wrote a teacher's part for it, so it is meant as a three-hand duet. The pupil's part works alone too, but it sounds fuller with the accompaniment.
Is Beyer's Op. 101 in the public domain?
Yes. Beyer died in 1863, and scans of several historical editions are free on IMSLP.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 22 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 1
bars 1–4 right hand · bars 9–12 right hand · bars 13–16 right hand · bars 17–20 right hand · bars 17–24 right hand · bars 21–24 right hand · bars 25–28 right hand · bars 29–32 right hand
Level 2
bars 1–4 right hand · bars 1–8 right hand · bars 5–8 right hand · bars 9–16 right hand · bars 17–20 right hand · bars 17–24 right hand · bars 21–24 right hand · bars 25–32 right hand
Level 3
bars 1–8 right hand · bars 1–4 right hand · bars 5–8 right hand · bars 9–12 right hand · bars 9–16 right hand · bars 13–16 right hand

More pieces to sight-read

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

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