Real Sight Reader
Piano sound
Browser piano

Play your MIDI keyboard through this device’s audio output. Plug headphones into this device and turn down your piano’s own speakers.

← All pieces

Funeral March (Marche funèbre)

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) · sheet music

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 5–9
  • Passages 10

Your turn · both hands

 

 

Loading passage…

Preparing your passage…

Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French romantic (1810–1849). The reading release has 10 passages from this piece at levels 5–9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 41–44 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 13–16 at level 9.

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 Funeral March (Marche funèbre).

  1. Hands together · bars 41–44 level 5
  2. The hardest bars · bars 13–16 level 9

How to play Funeral March (Marche funèbre)

  1. Set a slow, even tread and hold it; the march must feel inevitable, so avoid slowing down further in the loud passages or speeding up in the quiet ones.
  2. The left hand rocks between two chords like footsteps; learn this pattern until it is automatic, and use arm weight from the shoulder for the full chords instead of pushing from the fingers.
  3. Play the melody's dotted rhythms exactly, keeping the short note short and late, so it does not soften into a triplet.
  4. In the trio, change to a warm legato and use more pedal, letting the melody float above a quiet left hand; practice the shift from the march's weight to this lighter touch as its own exercise.

Structure

The movement is in three parts. The march, marked Lento and in B-flat minor in the original, unfolds over a heavy left-hand pattern and grows from very soft to very loud. A trio in D-flat major follows, with a long, singing melody over a gentle accompaniment, before the march returns. The movement lasts about eight minutes and leads straight into the sonata's very short, whispering finale.

About Funeral March (Marche funèbre)

Chopin composed the funeral march in 1837, two years before he wrote the rest of his Piano Sonata No. 2 around it. An orchestrated version was played at his own funeral in Paris in 1849, and the march has since become one of the most recognized pieces of mourning music in the world.

Why the first passage is level 5

That passage is level 5 rather than 4 because a hand plays several notes at once, a hand plays full chords, a hand covers more than one position, it leaps a octave, its chords stretch wide, its chords go beyond simple triads.

The third movement of Chopin's second sonata is built on a slow, heavy chord pattern that repeats under a stark melody. Its reading points are the full chords in both hands and the wide spacing between bass and melody. The contrasting middle section is lyrical and much thinner on the page.

Questions about Funeral March (Marche funèbre)

How hard is Funeral March (Marche funèbre) to play?
Its passages grade from level 5 to level 9 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 13–16 at level 9.
Is there an easy part of Funeral March (Marche funèbre) for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 5, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 41–44 for both hands together, the level-5 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 5 because a hand plays several notes at once and a hand plays full chords.
What key and time signature is Funeral March (Marche funèbre) in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Funeral March (Marche funèbre)?
Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French romantic (1810–1849). Chopin composed the funeral march in 1837, two years before he wrote the rest of his Piano Sonata No.
Can I practice Funeral March (Marche funèbre) online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 10 graded passages from Funeral March (Marche funèbre) in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 10 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 5
bars 41–44 both hands
Level 7
bars 33–40 both hands · bars 36–43 both hands · bars 37–40 both hands · bars 41–48 both hands · bars 45–48 both hands
Level 8
bars 61–64 both hands
Level 9
bars 13–16 both hands · bars 31–38 both hands · bars 57–64 both hands

More pieces to sight-read

Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261001-mutopia-ly reading release.

Keep training on your phone Practice with your own pieces — free on the App Store