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

The Nutcracker (Piano Arrangements)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) · sheet music

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 2–10
  • Passages 18

Your turn · both hands

 

 

Loading passage…

Preparing your passage…

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian romantic (1840–1893). The reading release has 18 passages from this piece at levels 2–10; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 5–8 for the left hand alone.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 5–8 at level 10.

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 Nutcracker (Piano Arrangements).

  1. Right hand alone · bars 15–18 level 3
  2. Left hand alone · bars 5–8 level 2
  3. Hands together · bars 15–18 level 4
  4. The hardest bars · bars 5–8 level 10

How to play The Nutcracker (Piano Arrangements)

  1. Tempo:Each dance has its own pace, so choose a tempo that fits the character first; the march needs a steady walk, the waltz a lilt, and the Sugar Plum Fairy a delicate float.
  2. Right hand:Melody lines range from slow single notes to quick running figures, so listen to how the phrase sings and shape it with a gradual rise and fall.
  3. Left hand:In the waltz numbers, play a clear low note on the first beat and lighter chords on the second and third, and keep them quieter than the tune.
  4. Hands together:Practice each hand's rhythm separately, tapping the melody and playing the bass, before combining them at a slow tempo.
  5. Rhythm:Count each dance in its natural pulse: four steady beats for the march, three for the waltz, and a quick two for the Trepak.
  6. Dynamics:Tchaikovsky writes wide dynamic swells in the waltz and sharp accents in the Trepak, so mark them in and practice them as deliberately as the notes.
  7. Pedal:Use the sustain pedal sparingly in the Sugar Plum Fairy dance so the delicate notes stay clean, and change the pedal on every new harmony.
  8. Practice:Learn one dance at a time, and for each one break the music into phrases of four bars and master the hardest phrase first.

Common mistakes

  • Playing every dance at the same speed and touch. Fix: Listen to a recording of each number first and match its character before adding speed.
  • Pounding the first beat of the waltz so the tune is lost. Fix: Play the bass note softly and the chords even more softly, then check the balance with the melody.
  • Letting the light staccato figures in the Sugar Plum dance become heavy. Fix: Practice them with a quick wrist bounce and a short, quiet touch.
  • Rushing the Trepak because it feels fast. Fix: Set a metronome and increase the speed one notch at a time only after three clean repeats.

Structure: ballet in two acts; concert suite of eight dances

The ballet follows a young girl (called Clara or Marie, depending on the production) through a Christmas Eve party, a battle with the Mouse King, and a journey to a kingdom of sweets where dancers from different lands perform for her. Tchaikovsky's concert suite pulls out eight of the best-known numbers. Each is a short, self-contained dance, so you can learn them one at a time.

1 · Miniature Overture (B-flat major)
A light, quick curtain-raiser that opens both the ballet and the suite. A good first read for an even, bright touch.
2 · March (G major)
The children's party march, bright and steady. Expect clear four-beat rhythm and block-like chords.
3 · Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (E minor)
A delicate solo built on the celesta's bell-like sound, with a gently bouncing bass underneath. Light staccato and clear pacing are the challenges.
4 · Russian Dance (Trepak) (G major)
A fast, energetic dance with strong accents and driving rhythm. Precision and speed are the focus.
5 · Dance of the Reed Flutes (D major)
A gentle dance led by a trio of flutes, imitated at the piano with light, flowing figures.
6 · Waltz of the Flowers (D major)
A grand waltz with a lilting triple meter and sweeping melodies. Keep the left-hand waltz bass steady and the right-hand tune singing.

About The Nutcracker (Piano Arrangements)

The Nutcracker was commissioned by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the director of the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg, as a follow-up to The Sleeping Beauty. The story comes from E. T. A. Hoffmann's tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, in a version retold by Alexandre Dumas. The choreographer Marius Petipa gave Tchaikovsky detailed instructions for each number, and Tchaikovsky took a break from the score to travel to the United States for the opening of Carnegie Hall.

Tchaikovsky chose eight numbers from the ballet for a concert suite, Op. 71a, which was first played in St. Petersburg on 19 March 1892, months before the ballet reached the stage. It caught on at once, with almost every number encored. The full ballet premiered on 18 December 1892 at the Mariinsky Theatre in a double bill with his opera Iolanta; the production was not judged a success, though the score fared better.

The ballet became an American Christmas tradition after New York City Ballet began staging George Balanchine's version every year from 1954. Today major American ballet companies earn around 40 percent of their yearly ticket revenue from it.

  • Tchaikovsky did not particularly want to write the ballet and told a friend he was less satisfied with it than with The Sleeping Beauty.
  • The celesta, the bell-like keyboard instrument heard in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, had been invented in Paris only a few years earlier, in 1886, by Auguste Mustel.
  • The first complete performance outside Russia took place in England in 1934, and the first complete American performance was in San Francisco in 1944.
  • Petipa began the choreography but fell ill, so his assistant Lev Ivanov finished it and is usually credited.

Why the first passage is level 2

That passage is level 2 rather than 1 because it leaps a minor third.

This page collects piano arrangements of several numbers from the ballet rather than one piece, so keys, meters, and textures change from dance to dance. Lower levels give you a single line of a well-known tune; higher levels add chords and more complex rhythms.

Questions about The Nutcracker (Piano Arrangements)

How hard is The Nutcracker (Piano Arrangements) to play?
Its passages grade from level 2 to level 10 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 5–8 at level 10.
Is there an easy part of The Nutcracker (Piano Arrangements) for beginners?
Yes. Start with bars 5–8 for the left hand alone, the level-2 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 2 because it leaps a minor third.
What key and time signature is The Nutcracker (Piano Arrangements) in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed The Nutcracker (Piano Arrangements)?
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian romantic (1840–1893). The Nutcracker was commissioned by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the director of the Imperial Theatres in St.
Can I practice The Nutcracker (Piano Arrangements) online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 18 graded passages from The Nutcracker (Piano Arrangements) in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What is the Nutcracker Suite?
It is a concert selection of eight numbers that Tchaikovsky pulled from the ballet score, called Op. 71a. The suite was performed before the full ballet premiered.
Who wrote the story of The Nutcracker?
The ballet is based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, in a retelling by Alexandre Dumas.
How long is the full ballet?
The music lasts about 90 minutes if you play it straight through without an intermission, applause, or added numbers. Staged performances run longer.
Why is The Nutcracker played at Christmas?
The story is set on Christmas Eve, and New York City Ballet's yearly staging of George Balanchine's version, begun in 1954, turned it into a holiday tradition across the United States.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 18 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 2
bars 5–8 left hand · bars 13–16 left hand
Level 3
bars 15–18 right hand
Level 4
bars 15–18 both hands
Level 5
bars 5–8 both hands · bars 13–16 both hands
Level 7
bars 13–20 both hands · bars 17–20 both hands
Level 8
bars 1–4 both hands
Level 9
bars 1–12 both hands · bars 1–4 both hands · bars 1–8 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands
Level 10
bars 5–8 both hands · bars 5–16 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands · bars 9–12 both hands · bars 13–16 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.

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