4.1 Place a trill
Study the Minuet in F from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach (BWV Anh. 113), which marks a single trill, in bar 11. At the keyboard: play a short trill evenly.
- Technique
- D major trill, hands together
- C major mordent, hands separately: main note, the note above, main note, evenly before quicker
- C major turn, hands separately: the note above, the main note, the note below, the main note
4.2 Trill into a cadence
Study the Minuet in A minor from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach (BWV Anh. 120). Its tied notes in bars 2–9 hold one line while the other moves, as you have played since Foundation; the new step is the trill signs of bars 22–25 and 28, which lead into the cadences: keep each trill even and land on the next note in time. At the keyboard: play connected notes smoothly, holding each tied note for its full value.
- Technique
- A harmonic minor scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
4.3 Invert the dominant seventh
Study Czerny’s Eight-Measure Exercise in G, Op. 821 No. 17. Its left hand spells the dominant seventh in inversion: in bars 1 and 3, F sharp is in the bass under A and D, with the right hand’s C on top (V6/5), and rises to G; in bar 4 the seventh, C, is in the bass under F sharp and A (V4/2) and falls to B in bar 5 (I6). At the keyboard: resolve each inversion of V7.
- Technique
- G major scale, hands together, 2 octaves: crescendo up, diminuendo down
- G major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
4.4 Ask and answer in a period
Study Beethoven’s Bagatelle “Lustig–Traurig”, WoO 54: a cheerful C-major section answered by a sad C-minor one. Find each four-bar question and its answer and hear which ending sounds open and which closed: in the major section both phrases come home to C, the first with the third on top, the second with the tonic; in the minor section the phrase of bars 22–25 stops on the dominant. At the keyboard: improvise an answering four-bar phrase.
- Technique
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
4.5 Hear the returning opening
Study the Vivace finale of Clementi’s Sonatina in C, Op. 36 No. 1. Its opening theme (bars 1–16) gives way to an episode that moves to G (bars 17–34) and returns in bar 35; a coda built on the episode’s figure closes the movement. Trace this refrain–episode–refrain plan and its coda; compare it with the rondo card’s two episodes and three returns. Mark each return and learn it from memory away from the keys. At the keyboard: improvise a phrase that returns to its opening.
- Technique
- Chromatic scale from C in contrary motion, hands together, 2 octaves
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
4.6 Open the tonic arpeggio
Study Burgmüller’s Ballade, Op. 100 No. 15, in C minor. In bars 3–4 the left hand plays slurred sixteenths; bars 5–6 outline the tonic chord, C–E flat–G–C, in eighths with rests, under the right hand’s repeated chords. Shape that bass line and keep the chords light. The cards on rolled chords, Romantic pedalling and octaves prepare the pieces that follow; this study prints none of them. At the keyboard: play a tonic arpeggio.
- Technique
- C harmonic minor scale, hands together, 2 octaves
- C minor broken triad, hands together, 2 octaves
4.7 Let the melody sing
Study Schumann’s Humming Song (Trällerliedchen), Op. 68 No. 3. Let the right-hand tune sing above a lighter left hand, and listen for the balance at each phrase end. At the keyboard: voice the top note of a chord.
- Technique
- B major voicing: a singing top note over the chord, hands together
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
4.8 Shape Classical articulation
Study a Swedish folk dance in B flat from Olof Åhlström’s keyboard collection of 1814 (Traditioner af Swenska Folk-Dansar, part 2 No. 31). Play its two-note slurs as a lean and a lighter release, and its staccato notes, mostly eighths, short and light, as on a Classical keyboard; make the same choice each time a figure returns. At the keyboard: play I–IV–V7–I with clear articulation.
- Technique
- B-flat major scale, hands together, 2 octaves
4.9 Keep the dancing bass light
Study the Polonaise in D minor from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach (BWV Anh. 128): two light lines, one note at a time in each hand, with mordents (bar 1 and after), trills (bars 7, 11, 12 and 16) and grace notes, but no chords or octaves. At the keyboard: play its ornaments without tension.
- Technique
- D harmonic minor scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
- D minor broken triad, hands separately, 2 octaves
4.10 Hear chords away from the score
Study Boxcar Boogie, an original twelve-bar boogie in C. Count its twelve-bar plan: four bars of C, two of F, two of C, then G, F and two of C. Hear the right hand’s quick D sharp–E, a blue third rubbing against the major chord, and learn the left hand’s eight-to-the-bar pattern well enough to play it from memory, away from the score. Twelve Bar Home, an easier blues from Level 3, follows the same plan. At the keyboard: play a twelve-bar blues bass.
- Technique
- C major blues crushed notes, right hand
- C major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
