Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 39
Ferdinand Beyer (1803–1863) · sheet music
- Time 4/4
- Levels 1–3
- 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 levels 1–3; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for the right hand alone.
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. 39.
- Right hand alone · bars 1–4 level 1
- The hardest bars · bars 1–8 level 3
How to play Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 39
- Tempo:No tempo word is printed, so choose an unhurried pace in which the right hand's half notes can sing and the left hand's quarters stay even.
- Right hand:Place the thumb on G and finger 5 on D; the edition prints 3 on the opening B and 4 on a later C, and the hand never shifts.
- Left hand:Beyer's left-hand part puts finger 5 on low G and the thumb on D, alternating a moving lower note with the repeated D, as in G-D-A-D.
- Hands together:Each right-hand half note lasts through two left-hand quarters; keep the half note held while the thumb taps D underneath.
- Dynamics:Keep the repeated D's softer than the right-hand melody so the tune stays on top.
- Practice:Play the left hand alone with only its lower notes, G-A-B-A and so on, then add the D's back in between.
- Reading:The left hand reads in the treble clef below the staff: middle C takes one ledger line, A sits on the second, and G hangs just under it. Find those low notes first.
Common mistakes
- Accenting the repeated D's in the left hand. Fix: Play them lightly with a relaxed thumb, as background to the melody.
- Releasing the right-hand half notes early. Fix: Count two quarters under each one before moving on.
- Making the first phrase sound finished. Fix: Let the first ending on D hang a little, saving the real close for G at the end.
- Misreading the low A and G under the treble staff. Fix: Count ledger lines down from middle C: A is on the second line, G just below it.
Structure: parallel period (two eight-bar phrases)
Two phrases start with the same melody. The first ends on D, an open, questioning close; the second changes course partway and finishes on G.
- a · Question
- Half notes step B-C-D-C-B-A to a whole-note G, then rock between A and G and step C-B before quarter notes A-D-C-A end the phrase over a held D.
- a' · Answer
- The same opening returns, then A-G and C-B lead to quarter notes A-C-B-A and a final G-B-G, closing on G.
About Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 39
No. 39 follows the Child's Song, No. 38, on the same page of the Peters edition and keeps the hands in a five-note position on G, A, B, C, and D. No F of any kind appears, so the piece needs no key signature even though it centers on G.
The right hand moves almost entirely in half notes, stepping B-C-D-C-B-A down to a whole-note G, and only at the end of each phrase breaks into quarter notes. The left hand, written in the treble clef and reaching down to G below middle C, plays steady quarter notes in which, in most bars, every second note is the same D under the thumb.
The piece is two eight-bar phrases that begin alike. The first stops on D in the left hand, sounding unfinished; the second takes a different turn after its first few bars and closes with both hands on G.
- The left-hand thumb plays D on every other quarter note through most of the piece, a built-in drill for a steady thumb.
- There are no repeats in No. 39; the opening phrase simply comes back with a new ending.
- The piece just before it on the page, the Child's Song No. 38, prints the German nursery words 'A, a, a, der Winter, der ist da' under its tune.
Why the first passage is level 1
That passage is level 1, the first rung: it moves by whole steps or less, in half-note values, in one hand.
A five-finger position on G with no sharps or flats; slow half notes open each phrase and quarter notes close it. Level three adds the ends of the phrases.
Questions about Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 39
- How hard is Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 39 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. 39 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. 39 in?
- The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
- Who composed Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 39?
- Ferdinand Beyer, German romantic (1803–1863). No.
- Can I practice Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 39 online for free?
- Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 5 graded passages from Preparatory School, Op. 101 No. 39 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. 39 take to play?
- The PTNA Piano Music Encyclopedia lists about 40 seconds.
- Is No. 39 in G major if there is no key signature?
- It centers on G and ends there, but because no F is used at all, Beyer did not need a key signature.
- 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 1
- bars 1–4 right hand
- Level 3
- bars 1–8 right hand · bars 5–8 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.