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The Harebell

William Smallwood (1831–1897) · sheet music

  • Time 3/8
  • Levels 5–7
  • Passages 17

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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William Smallwood, British romantic (1831–1897). The reading release has 17 passages from this piece at levels 5–7; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 5–8 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

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 The Harebell.

  1. Hands together · bars 5–8 level 5
  2. The hardest bars · bars 1–8 level 7

How to play The Harebell

  1. Tempo:Feel one gentle pulse per bar of three eighth notes, like a slow waltz; counting every eighth note heavily flattens the lilt.
  2. Right hand:Lean slightly on the dotted note and let the short note after it lead into the next beat, so the tune sways rather than ticks.
  3. Left hand:Keep the three-note broken chord soft and even, with no bump on its first note, and hold the fingers close to the keys.
  4. Hands together:Practice the dotted figures hands together slowly, checking that the short note in the right hand falls between the left hand's second and third eighth notes.
  5. Dynamics:Make the contrast between the soft and loud statements of the main tune clear; that echo effect is much of the charm of the piece.
  6. Practice:Learn the main tune first, since it returns many times, then the answering phrase and the middle part.

Common mistakes

  • Playing the dotted rhythm as two equal notes. Fix: Clap the rhythm while saying long, short, long before playing it.
  • Letting the left-hand pattern overpower the melody. Fix: Play the left hand a notch softer than the right.
  • Missing the B natural in the middle part. Fix: Mark it in pencil and play that passage slowly a few times on its own.

Structure: ternary (A–B–A) with coda

The first part alternates a soft and a loud statement of the main tune with a contrasting phrase, all in F major. A middle part leans toward C major with a new tune over shifting broken chords. The whole first part then returns, and two short forte chords close the piece.

A · Main tune (F major)
A dotted-rhythm tune over a left hand that rocks through F-A-C and C-G-B flat in eighth notes; it is played softly, then repeated loudly.
A2 · Second phrase (F major)
A contrasting soft phrase, starting from B flat over a C seventh chord, answers the main tune, and the loud main tune follows.
B · Middle part (C major)
A new tune leans toward C major, with B natural and broken chords on C and G; a soft statement is answered by a louder one.
A · Return (F major)
The whole first part comes back, alternating soft and loud statements of the main tune and the answering phrase.
Coda · Closing chords (F major)
Two short forte F major chords end the piece.

About The Harebell

The Harebell is a short teaching piece by William Smallwood. IMSLP files it as the fourth of his twelve Flowers of May, a set of piano pieces named after flowers, from the cowslip and the May lily to the sweet violet.

Smallwood (1831–1897) spent his whole life in Kendal, in England's Lake District, where he became organist of St. George's Church at fifteen and held the post for fifty years. His Tutor for the Pianoforte, first published in London in 1881, is described by the Museum of Music History as the most popular piano method ever published in Britain, and he issued well over a thousand teaching pieces and collections.

The scan of the piece on the Internet Archive is a Century Music Publishing Company edition from around 1916, and the Mutopia Project's free engraving is based on that same Century print.

  • IMSLP gives a German flower name for each piece in Flowers of May; for The Harebell it is Gemeine Glockenblume.
  • The cover of the Century edition lists The Harebell in a series of pieces for the first and second grades, with the code F-2 for its key and grade.
  • According to the Museum of Music History, one of Smallwood's pupils was the popular actor William Terriss.
  • The same museum says Smallwood's Tutor for the Pianoforte has never been out of print since 1881.

Why the first passage is level 5

That passage is level 5 rather than 4 because it leaps a minor seventh, it is in 3/8, not 4/4.

A steady three-eighth-note left-hand figure under a dotted-rhythm tune in a key with one flat, with alternating soft and loud repeats.

Questions about The Harebell

How hard is The Harebell to play?
Its passages grade from level 5 to 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 The Harebell for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 5, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 5–8 for both hands together, the level-5 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 5 because it leaps a minor seventh and it is in 3/8, not 4/4.
What key and time signature is The Harebell in?
The engraving on this page is in 3/8 time.
Who composed The Harebell?
William Smallwood, British romantic (1831–1897). The Harebell is a short teaching piece by William Smallwood.
Can I practice The Harebell online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 17 graded passages from The Harebell in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What is Flowers of May?
A set of twelve short piano pieces by Smallwood, each named for a flower; IMSLP lists The Harebell as the fourth.
Who was William Smallwood?
An English organist and piano teacher from Kendal (1831–1897) who wrote a very popular piano method and well over a thousand teaching pieces.
How long does it take to learn The Harebell?
For an early-intermediate student, about a week or two of daily practice to learn the notes and the lilting rhythm.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 17 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 5
bars 5–8 both hands · bars 11–18 both hands · bars 13–16 both hands · bars 17–24 both hands · bars 17–20 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands · bars 26–33 both hands · bars 33–40 both hands · bars 33–36 both hands · bars 37–40 both hands · bars 41–48 both hands · bars 45–48 both hands
Level 7
bars 1–8 both hands · bars 1–12 both hands · bars 1–4 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands · bars 16–27 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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