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Waltzes, Op. 70

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) · sheet music

  • Time 3/4
  • Levels 9
  • Passages 1

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French romantic (1810–1849). The reading release has 1 passage from this piece at level 9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 33–36 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 33–36 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 Waltzes, Op. 70.

  1. Hands together · bars 33–36 level 9

How to play Waltzes, Op. 70

  1. Tempo:Choose a tempo you can feel as one beat per bar when the music flows, but slow enough to place the chords after each bass note cleanly. These are listening pieces rather than dance-floor waltzes, so the pulse can breathe.
  2. Left hand:The left hand jumps from a low bass note to a chord higher up in every bar. Practice the jump alone, looking at the chord instead of the bass note, until your hand lands without searching.
  3. Right hand:Shape the melody as a singer would, letting the top notes lead and the runs and ornaments lean toward the strong beat. Keep the fast notes light so the tune stays clear.
  4. Hands together:Play the bass note slightly softer than the chord so the waltz lilts. The chord belongs to the melody, not to a separate pulse.
  5. Pedal:Change the pedal with every bass note so the low string sounds and the harmony clears before the next bar. A pedal that lasts two bars will blur these waltzes.
  6. Rhythm:Allow small rubato in the melody, a little stretch and then a catch-up, while the left hand keeps a steady three. Practice with the left hand alone before adding the stretch.
  7. Reading:The key signatures here have several flats, so check the key before you start and name any accidentals as you read. A natural sign in a flat key is often a leading tone.
  8. Practice:Learn one strain at a time, hands separately, then hands together at half speed. Add the rubato only after the notes and the left-hand jumps are secure.

Common mistakes

  • Missing the chord after the low bass note because the left hand looks at the bass. Fix: Practice the jump with your eyes on the chord and the bass played by feel.
  • Playing every note of the waltz at equal weight so it sounds like a march. Fix: Give the bass note slight weight and keep the chords light and soft.
  • Rushing the fast right-hand figures and losing the left-hand pulse. Fix: Count the three beats aloud and let the fast notes fit inside them.
  • Misreading accidentals in the flat keys and playing a note a half step too low or high. Fix: Say the key signature aloud before you play and circle each accidental in your copy.

Structure: set of three independent waltzes

The three waltzes are separate pieces in three-four time, not a cycle, and each takes less than three minutes. They share the waltz pattern of a bass note followed by chords, but differ widely in mood, from brilliant to nostalgic to tender.

No. 1 · Waltz in G-flat major (G-flat major)
A bright piece in the brilliant salon style, with quick, glittering figures in the right hand. Six flats in the key signature make it the hardest of the three to read.
No. 2 · Waltz in F minor (F minor)
A wistful, flowing waltz that moves between F minor and A-flat major, asking for rubato and a singing line. Four flats in the key signature.
No. 3 · Waltz in D-flat major (D-flat major)
The earliest of the three, from Chopin's Warsaw years. Its trio begins with a melody in the low register, which Chopin wanted the bass line to lead.

About Waltzes, Op. 70

Chopin wrote these three waltzes over about thirteen years but did not publish them. They appeared in 1855, six years after his death, edited by his friend Julian Fontana, who issued a group of unpublished manuscripts as Opp. 66 to 73.

The waltz in D-flat major is the oldest. Chopin sent it to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski in a letter of October 1829 from Warsaw, and the scholar Jeffrey Kallberg links its low-register trio melody to Chopin's crush on the young singer Konstancja Gladkowska.

The F minor waltz is the most private. When Chopin gave a manuscript copy to Anna Caroline Oury in 1842 he asked her not to make it public, and the critic Wilhelm von Lenz suggested the piece could be called Melanconia. The G-flat major waltz is the brightest, and Kallberg uses it as a prime example of the glitter of the salon dance.

  • Chopin's F minor waltz survives in five autograph manuscripts, made as gifts for four different women.
  • Chopin's G-flat major waltz was later chosen for the ballet Les Sylphides.
  • Chopin wanted his unpublished manuscripts burned, but his sister Ludwika and his friend Julian Fontana went ahead and published waltzes including these.
  • The D-flat major waltz includes a passage that Chopin marked with a cross in his 1829 letter, asking his friend to take special note of it.

Why the first passage is level 9

That passage is level 9 rather than 8 because it leaps a fourth plus an octave.

The passage on this page has four flats, as in the F minor waltz, and a left hand that leaps from a low bass note up to chords. Read the bass note and the chord as two separate targets, then check each accidental against the key.

Questions about Waltzes, Op. 70

How hard is Waltzes, Op. 70 to play?
Its passages grade from 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 33–36 at level 9.
Is there an easy part of Waltzes, Op. 70 for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 9, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 33–36 for both hands together, the level-9 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 9 because it leaps a fourth plus an octave.
What key and time signature is Waltzes, Op. 70 in?
The engraving on this page is in 3/4 time.
Who composed Waltzes, Op. 70?
Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French romantic (1810–1849). Chopin wrote these three waltzes over about thirteen years but did not publish them.
Can I practice Waltzes, Op. 70 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the one graded passage from Waltzes, Op. 70 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
Why were Chopin's Op. 70 waltzes published after his death?
Chopin did not publish them in his lifetime. His friend Julian Fontana issued them in 1855 with other unpublished manuscripts, even though Chopin had reportedly wished the manuscripts not to appear.
Which of the three Op. 70 waltzes is the oldest?
The waltz in D-flat major, which Chopin sent from Warsaw with a letter in October 1829, is the earliest. The G-flat major waltz dates from the early 1830s and the F minor waltz from the early 1840s.
Are the Op. 70 waltzes meant for dancing?
Chopin's waltzes were not written for dancing, though they keep the three-beat pulse and bass-and-chord pattern of the dance. The G-flat major waltz was later used in the ballet Les Sylphides.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades one passage of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 9
bars 33–36 both hands

More pieces to sight-read

Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.

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