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Canon in D

Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) · sheet music

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 4–9
  • Passages 11

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Johann Pachelbel, German baroque (1653–1706). The reading release has 11 passages from this piece at levels 4–9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for the left hand alone.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 13–24 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 Canon in D.

  1. Right hand alone · bars 5–8 level 4
  2. Left hand alone · bars 1–4 level 4
  3. Hands together · bars 1–4 level 5
  4. The hardest bars · bars 13–24 level 9

How to play Canon in D

  1. Choose a calm, walking quarter-note pulse that you can keep once the sixteenths arrive; the piece should never feel like it is speeding up.
  2. Memorize the left-hand bass (D, A, B, F-sharp, G, D, G, A) early, so your eyes can stay on the right hand while the left hand plays it from memory.
  3. The busiest variations pack runs of sixteenth notes into each beat; read them as scale fragments and broken chords rather than note by note.
  4. Practice one variation at a time over the bass, looping each until it is even, and use regular D major scale fingering in the runs so the thumb tucks under on the same notes each time.

Structure

In the original, in D major, the three violins play a strict canon: each one enters with exactly the same music, one bass cycle after the last, over the unchanging two-bar ground bass. The bass pattern repeats about twenty-eight times, and each pass brings a new variation on top, moving from slow quarter notes through eighths and sixteenths to fast thirty-second-note runs before settling back. A full performance lasts roughly four to five minutes.

About Canon in D

Johann Pachelbel was a German organist of the late 1600s, and his Canon was originally written for three violins and a continuo bass, paired with a lively gigue. It sat almost forgotten for nearly three centuries until recordings in the late 1960s turned it into one of the most played pieces at weddings and graduations.

Why the first passage is level 4

That passage is level 4 rather than 3 because its key signature has 2 sharps or flats.

Pachelbel's Canon repeats one eight-chord bass line under every bar, so once you have read the bass you have read the harmony of the whole piece. The melodic lines above it get steadily busier, from long notes to running sixteenths. The two sharps, F-sharp and C-sharp, are the reading points to hold throughout.

Questions about Canon in D

How hard is Canon in D to play?
Its passages grade from level 4 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 13–24 at level 9.
Is there an easy part of Canon in D for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 4, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–4 for the left hand alone, the level-4 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 4 because its key signature has 2 sharps or flats.
What key and time signature is Canon in D in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Canon in D?
Johann Pachelbel, German baroque (1653–1706). Johann Pachelbel was a German organist of the late 1600s, and his Canon was originally written for three violins and a continuo bass, paired with a lively gigue.
Can I practice Canon in D online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 11 graded passages from Canon in D 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 11 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 4
bars 1–4 left hand · bars 5–8 right hand
Level 5
bars 1–4 both hands
Level 6
bars 17–20 left hand
Level 7
bars 17–20 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands
Level 8
bars 13–20 both hands · bars 13–16 both hands · bars 25–28 both hands
Level 9
bars 13–24 both hands · bars 17–24 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.

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