Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6
Friedrich Burgmüller (1806–1874) · sheet music
- Key C major
- Time 4/4
- Levels 7
- Passages 2
Your turn · both hands
Preparing your passage…
Friedrich Burgmüller, German-French romantic (1806–1874). The reading release has 2 passages from this piece at level 7; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–8 for both hands together.
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 Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6.
- Hands together · bars 1–8 level 7
How to play Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6
- Tempo:The edition marks Allegro, but start slowly enough that the jumps never feel like surprises, and raise the speed only when they land without looking.
- Right hand:In the middle section the right hand plays falling broken chords as slurred pairs with the second note staccato; drop into the first note and lift off the second.
- Left hand:The left hand doubles the opening scales a tenth below and then takes its own turn at the broken-chord pairs in the middle section, so practice those passages on their own.
- Hands together:In the tenths, listen for the two hands landing on each sixteenth at exactly the same moment; in the middle section, keep the held chord sounding under the moving hand.
- Rhythm:Practice the sixteenth-note scales in dotted rhythms, long-short and then short-long, as the Practising the Piano guide suggests, to line up the hands before playing them straight.
- Fingering:Plan where each thumb passes under in the tenths so both hands cross at sensible places; mark those points in the score.
- Practice:Loop the few beats around each jump until they are automatic, and practice the scale patterns down as well as up.
- Reading:Read the middle section as chords first: each broken-chord figure outlines a simple harmony, so naming the chord tells you the next notes.
Common mistakes
- Slowing down before each leap and speeding up after it. Fix: Practice the leap with the metronome at a slow setting and keep every beat the same length.
- Letting the held whole-note chord drop out under the moving hand. Fix: Play the held hand alone at full value first, then add the moving hand.
- Playing slurred and staccato notes the same way. Fix: Exaggerate the difference in practice: connect slurred notes fully and make staccato notes short and light.
- Stopping after the middle section instead of returning to the opening. Fix: Follow the D.C. al Fine instruction and end at the word Fine in the first section.
Structure: ternary (A–B–A, da capo)
A repeated opening section of running scales ends at Fine. A contrasting middle section swaps broken chords between the hands and builds over a held dominant, and the instruction D.C. al Fine brings back the opening to finish.
- A · Scales in tenths (C major)
- Both hands run up the keyboard together in sixteenth notes, a tenth apart, then break into staccato eighths that leap between registers. It closes with a forte cadence marked Fine.
- B · Traded broken chords (C major, ending on the dominant of A minor)
- One hand holds a whole-note chord while the other plays falling broken chords in slurred and staccato pairs, then they swap. The music then rocks on a repeated E against rising chromatic notes and ends on repeated Es that lead back to the opening.
- A · Da capo (C major)
- The opening returns exactly as before and the piece ends at Fine.
About Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6
Progrès, meaning progress, is the sixth of the 25 Études faciles et progressives, Op. 100, which Friedrich Burgmüller published in Paris in 1851. Each study in the set has a descriptive title meant to spark the player's imagination.
The Practising the Piano guide describes it as lively and cheerful, and lists its challenges: scales in parallel tenths, a contrary-motion scale, switches between legato and staccato, quick hand-position changes with jumps in both hands, and slurs that cut across the beat.
Where earlier studies can be learned in one hand position, this one makes both hands travel. That makes it a good checkpoint for sight-readers: the notes stay simple, but the hands keep moving to new places.
- Progrès is laid out as a da capo piece: after the middle section the score says D.C. al Fine, sending the player back to the opening, which ends at the word Fine.
- The Op. 100 set was registered in the Bibliographie de la France on 27 December 1851, according to IMSLP.
- Burgmüller's Peasant Pas de Deux was added to Adolphe Adam's Giselle for its 1841 premiere, a decade before Op. 100.
Why the first passage is level 7
That passage is level 7 rather than 6 because a hand covers more than one position, it runs fast figuration.
Notes move mostly by scale and broken chord, so read the harmony and the contour; the real work is landing each hand in its new position on time.
Questions about Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6
- How hard is Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6 to play?
- Its passages grade from 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 Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6 for beginners?
- Its easiest passage is level 7, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–8 for both hands together, the level-7 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 7 because a hand covers more than one position and it runs fast figuration.
- What key and time signature is Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6 in?
- Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6 is in C major, no sharps or flats. The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
- Who composed Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6?
- Friedrich Burgmüller, German-French romantic (1806–1874). Progrès, meaning progress, is the sixth of the 25 Études faciles et progressives, Op.
- Can I practice Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6 online for free?
- Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 2 graded passages from Progress (Progrès), Op. 100 No. 6 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
- How do you practice the hand-position changes in Progrès?
- Isolate each change and loop it, playing scale patterns both up and down; practicing the sixteenth notes in dotted rhythms also helps line up the hands.
- What comes after Progrès in Op. 100?
- No. 7 is Le courant limpide, followed by La gracieuse as No. 8.
- Is Progrès in the public domain?
- Yes. Burgmüller died in 1874, and free public-domain editions of Op. 100 are available on IMSLP and from the Mutopia Project.
Every passage, easiest first
The reading release grades 2 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:
More pieces to sight-read
Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (mutopia-ly), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.