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Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 31

Ferdinand Beyer (1803–1863) · sheet music

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 2
  • Passages 5

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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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.

Practice the hard bars →

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. 31.

  1. Right hand alone · bars 1–4 level 2

How to play Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 31

  1. Tempo:No tempo is printed; set a speed you can hold with perfectly even left-hand quarter notes, since they carry the time.
  2. Right hand:The Peters edition prints 3-1-2 for E-C-D, so the hand rests in the C position and the thumb only dips to C.
  3. Fingering:Take the turn D-E-F-D with 2-3-4-2 and the late E-G-E-D with 3-5-3-2, both as printed.
  4. Left hand:Learn the C-G-E-G pattern alone with 5-1-3-1 until it runs smoothly; the thumb plays every other note.
  5. Hands together:Each right-hand half note spans two left-hand quarter notes; practice slowly, saying long, short-short for the right hand.
  6. Rhythm:Count one-two, three, four: the half note takes the first two counts and the quarters land on three and four.
  7. Practice:Join the opening rhythm to the D-E-F-D turn as one unit and repeat it until the switch from one to the other feels automatic.

Common mistakes

  • Shortening the half note so the quarters arrive early. Fix: Let two left-hand quarter notes pass before the right hand moves.
  • Playing the turn D-E-F-D unevenly. Fix: Play it slowly with 2-3-4-2, all four notes the same length.
  • Accenting the left-hand thumb on every G. Fix: Keep the thumb light so the broken chord sounds smooth.

Structure: rounded binary (second half repeated)

The first half repeats the half-note rhythm, turns through D-E-F-D, and closes on C. A repeated second half alternates that turn with half notes, rises to G, and ends with the music that closed the first half.

A · Long, short, short
E-C-D in half and quarter notes, then the turn D-E-F-D; the second phrase climbs E-G-E-D and ends on a whole note C.
B · Turns and half notes
The D-E-F-D turn alternates with pairs of half notes, the second pair stepping up from E to G.
A · Return
The half-note rhythm returns with E-C-D and closes on C.

About Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 31

No. 31 repeats one rhythm until it becomes second nature: a half note followed by two quarter notes. The right hand plays it as E, C, D twice and as E, C, E once before a short stepwise turn, D-E-F-D, breaks the pattern; the next phrase ends with a skip up to G and a whole-note C.

The left hand, marked legato, keeps up quarter notes, mostly in a C-G-E-G pattern with printed fingers 5-1-3-1, the low-high-middle-high shape known as an Alberti bass. With the left hand sounding every beat, the right hand's half notes are easy to time.

Between the repeat signs of the second half, the right hand alternates the D-E-F-D turn with pairs of half notes, reaching from E up to G, before the opening rhythm returns. Nothing ever leaves the five keys from C to G.

  • According to Alfred's modern edition, Beyer often marked common time with the C sign, as in No. 31; Alfred prints 4/4 instead.
  • Critics cited by PTNA note that the first half of Beyer's book uses no key signatures or accidentals, so keys are named outright only later; No. 31 stays entirely on white keys.

Why the first passage is level 2

That passage is level 2 rather than 1 because it leaps a major third.

Read the long-short-short rhythm as one unit; the pitches stay between C and G with no sharps or flats.

Questions about Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 31

How hard is Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 31 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. 31 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.
What key and time signature is Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 31 in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 31?
Ferdinand Beyer, German romantic (1803–1863). No.
Can I practice Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 31 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 5 graded passages from Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 31 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What is an Alberti bass?
A left-hand accompaniment that breaks a chord into a low-high-middle-high pattern, like the C-G-E-G that runs under this study.
How long does No. 31 take to play?
PTNA lists about one minute.
When was Beyer's Preparatory School first published?
IMSLP gives 1850, by Schott in Mainz, and a Hofmeister trade listing announced it in January 1851.

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.

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