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Swan Lake

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) · sheet music

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 4–8
  • Passages 22

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian romantic (1840–1893). The reading release has 25 passages from this piece at levels 4–8; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–8 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 1–24 at level 8.

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 Swan Lake.

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

How to play Swan Lake

  1. Take a slow, steady four beats per bar and let each phrase arch toward its peak; the melody should sound sung and slightly sorrowful, never rushed.
  2. Keep the left-hand tremolo or repeated chords very soft and even; if the tremolo is hard to control, practice it first as steady eighth-note chords and speed up later.
  3. Watch for the A-sharps written as accidentals, the raised seventh that gives B minor its pull; they are not in the key signature, so circle them before reading through.
  4. Where the melody holds a long note and then moves in a quicker group, plan the fingering so the hand is already in place, and practice the right hand alone until the phrase breathes naturally.

Structure

The full ballet has four acts telling the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan, and Prince Siegfried. The swan theme works as a recurring motif: it closes the first act, opens the lakeside second act, and returns transformed in the finale. In the scene itself, the oboe states the theme in B minor in the original, then the full orchestra takes it up with growing intensity, all within about three minutes.

About Swan Lake

Tchaikovsky composed Swan Lake, his first ballet, in 1875 and 1876 for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The first production in 1877 had little success, and the ballet only became famous after the 1895 St. Petersburg staging by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, which followed the composer's death.

Why the first passage is level 4

That passage is level 4 rather than 3 because a hand plays several notes at once, its key signature has 2 sharps or flats, it needs both hands at once.

The famous oboe theme from Swan Lake sits in B minor over a shimmering accompaniment, and piano versions put the melody in the right hand and the tremolo chords in the left. Read the melody as long phrases rather than individual notes. The left hand stays in close position, so look for chord shapes.

Questions about Swan Lake

How hard is Swan Lake to play?
Its passages grade from level 4 to level 8 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 1–24 at level 8.
Is there an easy part of Swan Lake for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 4, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–8 for both hands together, the level-4 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 4 because a hand plays several notes at once and its key signature has 2 sharps or flats.
What key and time signature is Swan Lake in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Swan Lake?
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian romantic (1840–1893). Tchaikovsky composed Swan Lake, his first ballet, in 1875 and 1876 for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
Can I practice Swan Lake online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 22 graded passages from Swan Lake 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 22 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 4
bars 1–4 both hands · bars 1–8 both hands · bars 1–8 right hand · bars 5–8 both hands · bars 19–22 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands
Level 5
bars 3–10 both hands · bars 9–12 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands · bars 11–14 both hands · bars 13–16 both hands · bars 17–24 both hands · bars 17–20 both hands
Level 7
bars 1–12 both hands · bars 1–8 both hands · bars 1–4 both hands · bars 5–8 both hands · bars 13–24 both hands · bars 17–20 both hands · bars 17–24 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands
Level 8
bars 1–24 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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