Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 19
Ferdinand Beyer (1803–1863) · sheet music
- Time 3/4
- Levels 2
- Passages 5
Your turn · both hands
Preparing your passage…
Ferdinand Beyer, German romantic (1803–1863). The reading release has 5 passages from this piece at level 2; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–8 for the right hand alone.
The hardest stretch is bars 1–4 at level 2.
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. 19.
- Right hand alone · bars 1–4 level 2
How to play Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 19
- Tempo:Allegretto in the Peters edition: a light, lively three, but keep it slow enough that the repeated E's stay even.
- Right hand:Only fingers 1, 2, and 3 play, on C, D, and E; let fingers 4 and 5 rest relaxed beside them.
- Left hand:Beyer's left-hand part enters after a full bar of rest on E-F-G with fingers 3, 2, 1, and ends each half with E-G-C, dropping from the thumb to the fifth finger on C.
- Hands together:Where the hands move side by side, C-D-E above E-F-G, listen for both notes of each pair starting together, then let the right hand sing slightly more.
- Rhythm:Count the left hand's silent first bar aloud, one-two-three, so its entrance lands exactly on the next downbeat.
- Practice:Practice the three repeated E's alone with finger 3, lifting just enough between them to hear three separate notes, then join them to the notes before and after.
- Reading:With only three pitches in the right hand, read rhythm and direction first: up, down, or the same note again.
Common mistakes
- Coming in with the left hand on the first beat. Fix: Count the full silent bar before the left hand's E-F-G.
- Playing the three E's legato as one blurred sound. Fix: Give each E a small lift, as the dots under the slur ask.
- Releasing the final C before its three counts are up. Fix: Hold it while counting three aloud before the repeat.
Structure: rounded binary (second half repeated)
An eight-bar first half in which the right hand climbs C-D-E and ends on a dotted half note C is followed by a repeated second half that starts with neighbor-note turns and repeated E's before the opening phrase returns.
- A · Right hand alone, then together
- C-D-E twice, D-C-D, three repeated E's, then the phrase again over a moving left hand, closing on C.
- B · Turns and repeated notes
- D-C-D and E-E-C, then D-C-D and three E's again, with the left hand holding a dotted half note G under the repeated E's.
- A · Return
- The C-D-E phrases from the first half return and close on a dotted half note C before the repeat.
About Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 19
No. 19 narrows the right hand to three notes. The Peters edition's chart shows only C, D, and E with fingers 1, 2, and 3, while the left hand sits on C, E, F, and G with fingers 5, 3, 2, and 1.
The right hand starts alone: the left hand has a full bar of rest before it enters on E-F-G. From then on the hands often move side by side, the right hand's C-D-E six notes above the left hand's E-F-G, so the two lines rise and fall together.
Each half has a bar of three repeated E's, marked with dots under a slur and all fingered 3, which asks for gently separated notes rather than a smooth line. The second half, which is repeated, turns the opening around with D-C-D and E-E-C before the C-D-E phrases return to finish on a dotted half note C.
- The right hand uses only three different notes in the whole piece, C, D, and E.
- The left hand is silent for the first bar, so the piece begins with the right hand alone.
- The three repeated E's are all marked with the same finger, 3, so the finger has to rise and fall without the hand moving.
Why the first passage is level 2
That passage is level 2 rather than 1 because it leaps a major third, it is in 3/4, not 4/4, it has dotted rhythms.
Three pitches in the right hand, C, D, and E, in 3/4 with no sharps or flats; the level-two passages add the repeated E's.
Questions about Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 19
- How hard is Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 19 to play?
- Its passages grade from level 2 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, which keeps all of it within beginner reading. The hardest stretch is bars 1–4 at level 2.
- Is there an easy part of Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 19 for beginners?
- Yes. Start with bars 1–8 for the right hand alone, the level-2 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 2 because it leaps a major third and it is in 3/4, not 4/4.
- What key and time signature is Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 19 in?
- The engraving on this page is in 3/4 time.
- Who composed Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 19?
- Ferdinand Beyer, German romantic (1803–1863). No.
- Can I practice Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 19 online for free?
- Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 5 graded passages from Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 19 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
- How long does No. 19 take to play?
- The PTNA Piano Music Encyclopedia lists about 40 seconds.
- What do the dots under a slur over the repeated E's mean?
- That marking is called portato, or mezzo-staccato: the notes are gently separated, a pulsing touch between legato and staccato.
- Is Beyer's Op. 101 in the public domain?
- Yes. Beyer died in 1863, and IMSLP lists old editions such as Peters and Schirmer as public domain.
Every passage, easiest first
The reading release grades 5 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:
- Level 2
- bars 1–4 right hand · bars 1–8 right hand · bars 5–8 right hand · bars 9–16 right hand · bars 9–12 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.