1.1 Divide the beat
Study Le Couppey’s Melody in C. Count two even eighth notes to each quarter-note beat and read the tempo word before you set the pulse. Revisit the familiar C five-finger warm-up before the full scale two lessons later.
- Technique
- C major five-finger pattern, hands separately
- C major root-position triad, hands separately
1.2 Lead into a strong beat
Study Gurlitt’s The Chase in C, left hand only from the pickup through bar 4. Count the pickup silently before entering on the first strong beat, keep the short chords light, and hold the tied bass notes across the bar line. Climb the tempo ladder: slow and correct first, then faster. Also play Lantern Walk’s right-hand melody from its upbeat to the end; its one-sharp key signature never touches an F, so it is played on white keys (the key of G comes at the end of the level).
- Technique
- C major root-position triad, hands separately
- C major five-finger pattern, hands separately
1.3 Join two tetrachords
Study Köhler’s little study Op. 190 No. 22 in C. Its left hand moves by step and by broken chord inside the lower half of the scale, between C and G, under the right hand’s held notes. Then use the major-scale card to join C–D–E–F and G–A–B–C into the whole scale, and play the C-major scale with the thumb passing under, hands separately, and the mirror scale in contrary motion.
- Technique
- C major scale, hands separately, 1 octave
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
- C major scale in contrary motion, hands together, 2 octaves
1.4 Read by interval
Study Czerny Op. 599 No. 13 in C. Read the right-hand eighth-note figures and the left hand’s two-note intervals by size from the note before, instead of naming every note.
- Technique
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
1.5 Find the key of F
Study Köhler’s Melody in F, Op. 190 No. 27. Find B flat in the key signature, keep it in every bar and tell it apart from written accidentals; G major’s F sharp works the same way. Hear where the bass rests on F, the tonic, and where it moves to C, the dominant.
- Technique
- F major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
1.6 Play every semitone
Study Gurlitt’s Allegretto grazioso, Op. 117 No. 6, in C. Read the F sharp in bar 7 and the A flats of bars 10–15 inside each bar: an accidental lasts until the bar line. Then play the chromatic scale, every semitone in turn, with the third finger on each black key.
- Technique
- Chromatic scale from C, hands separately, 2 octaves
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
1.7 Follow two voices
Study Purcell’s Song Tune in C, ZT 694. The score has three voices: in bars 1–8, play the right-hand line slowly while following or singing the middle line above the bass through its rests and ties. Practise in short chunks; the separate keyboard task practises two-line coordination. The small ornament signs are optional for now; ornaments are taught at Level 4.
- Technique
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
1.8 Hear two sections
Study Reinagle’s Allegretto in C, Op. 1 No. 5. Follow its two repeated sections and compare how each one ends: the first on the dominant, G (bar 8), the second home on C (bar 16). In the separate keyboard model, compare a half cadence ending on V with an authentic cadence V–I, then listen for each kind of arrival in the score.
- Technique
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
1.9 Shape a motive
Study Czerny Op. 599 No. 14 in C. Find the short figure it is built from, mark each return, and shape every repetition so the listener hears the motive come back.
- Technique
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
- C major rotation, hands together
1.10 Harmonise with I and V7
Study Czerny Op. 599 No. 12 in C. Its left hand moves between C–E–G and the dominant shapes B–D–G and B–F–G: learn the close-position I–V7–I first, then keep the right-hand eighth notes even above it. Afterwards read the separate F-major keyboard melody and accompany it with I and V7: the app listens to your chords; sing the tune if you like.
- Technique
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
- C major root-position triad, hands separately
1.11 Colour a melody with E flat
Study Blue Steps, an original piece in C (not a twelve-bar blues). Compare E flat and E natural by sound and by notation. The left hand holds open fifths on I and V (C–G, G–D) and the fourth-and-fifth F–C of IV in bars 3 and 6: learn each change alone. Play the opening right-hand C–D–E flat–D over the held C, keep the written straight quarters rather than swinging them, then join the phrase and invent a short answering phrase.
- Technique
- C major five-finger pattern, hands separately
1.12 Find the key of G
Play Garden Gate in G, written for this lesson: the right hand stays in the G five-finger position and then climbs the upper tetrachord D–E–F sharp–G. Find F sharp in the key signature and play it on every F. Hear where the bass rests on G, the tonic, and where it moves to D, the dominant. In bar 12 a fermata holds the D that ends the high phrase: wait on it, breathe, then bring the tune home. Türk’s Hans ohne Sorgen, also in G, shows the same key signature beside written accidentals.
- Technique
- G major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves