6.1 Compare seventh chords
Study Chopin’s Prelude in C minor, Op. 28 No. 20: a chord on every beat, like a chorale. Bar 1 runs i–iv–V7–i; hear the dominant seventh, G–B–D–F, on its third beat, and listen for other seventh chords as the harmony darkens. At the keyboard: compare major, minor and dominant sevenths.
- Technique
- C harmonic minor scale, hands together, 2 octaves
- Leading-note diminished-seventh arpeggio of C minor, hands together, 2 octaves
6.2 Prepare the cadence
Study the first movement (Allegro) of Kuhlau’s Sonatina in C, Op. 20 No. 1. In bar 10, and again in bar 59, its theme rests on a six-four chord, C over G, above the dominant pedal before G7 resolves; its main cadences (bars 27–31 and 74–80) go straight from V7 to I. Compare that pedal six-four with the cadential six-four of the card. At the keyboard: play a cadential six-four.
- Technique
- C major scale, hands together, 2 octaves
- C major arpeggio, hands separately, 2 octaves
6.3 Hear notes between the chords
Study Banchieri’s Suonata quarta (Fuga cromatica). Follow each entry of the subject, a long note and then a rising scale, through the voices, and hear the suspensions where a held note clashes and then resolves down by step (bars 5–7). Banchieri’s “cromatica” refers to the accidentals along the way, not to the subject. At the keyboard: resolve a suspension.
- Technique
- D harmonic minor scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
- D minor broken triad, hands separately, 2 octaves
6.4 Explore a modal melody
Study Chopin’s Mazurka in C, Op. 24 No. 2. Its first 56 bars use only white keys, and the section centred on F (bars 25–40) keeps B natural, the raised fourth that gives F the Lydian colour of folk music. At the keyboard: improvise a modal phrase.
- Technique
- C major scale, hands together, 2 octaves
- C major arpeggio, hands separately, 2 octaves
6.5 Try other scale colours
Study Octave Walk Shuffle, an original 12/8 shuffle study in G whose left hand walks in octaves. Its right hand uses the G blues scale: B flat, the blue third, crushed onto B (bar 1); C sharp, the flattened fifth (bar 2); and F, the flattened seventh, over that walking bass. Then compare that colour with pentatonic and whole-tone scales. At the keyboard: compare pentatonic, whole-tone and blues scales.
- Technique
- G major scale, hands together, 2 octaves, staccato
6.6 Follow a theme through its variations
Study Handel’s Air with variations in F (Aylesford Piece 16): the air (bars 1–13), then two variations (bars 14–27 and 28–41), each with the same two repeated halves and the same harmony as the theme while the notes move faster. Follow the air’s melody and bass through each variation before you play it. Then tap two even notes in one hand against three in the other until both meet on the beat without effort: the drill and the card teach two against three, and the hemiola card shows two bars of three regrouped as three of two. At the keyboard: clap two groups of three, then three groups of two.
- Technique
- C major two against three, hands together
- F major scale, hands together, 2 octaves
6.7 Phrase a minuet and its trio
Study Beethoven’s Minuet in E flat, WoO 82: a minuet and a trio in A flat, every bar three even beats. Shape each four-bar phrase to its cadence and give the trio its own, quieter colour before the minuet returns. Haydn’s Menuet and Trio in E flat, Hob. XVI:28, is the alternative. The card on five and seven beats (5/8 and 7/8, counted in twos and threes) has no example in these minuets: meet those unequal groups in the keyboard improvisation. At the keyboard: improvise a five-beat phrase in unequal groups.
- Technique
- E-flat major scale, hands together, 2 octaves
- E-flat major arpeggio, hands separately, 2 octaves
6.8 Keep ragtime moving
Study Joplin’s Peacherine Rag in E flat. The left hand leaps between a bass note on the beat and a chord off the beat while the right hand syncopates against it: keep the bass steady and the right hand’s tied off-beats crisp over it. Ragtime is played with even, straight eighths and sixteenths, not swung (the rag is marked “Not too fast”); the swing card shows the jazz feel that grew out of ragtime, for the swing pieces ahead. At the keyboard: play a ragtime bass pattern.
- Technique
- E-flat major scale, hands together, 2 octaves
6.9 Clear the sound with half pedal
Study Brahms’s Waltz in A flat, Op. 39 No. 15. The right hand sings in sixths and thirds (C over E flat, A flat over C in bar 1) over the left hand’s waltz bass and chords. Hold the pedal through each bar’s harmony and lift it only part of the way where the melody’s passing notes would blur: a half pedal clears the top and keeps the bass. The double-notes card shows how to keep the sixths even and joined. At the keyboard: change pedal depth while holding a chord.
- Technique
- F major half-pedal: let the sound thin without stopping, hands together
- A-flat major scale, hands together, 2 octaves
6.10 Listen to the other part
Accompany Brahms’s Wiegenlied (Cradle Song), Op. 49 No. 4, while the app sings the melody. Keep the rocking accompaniment quiet and legato under the singer’s phrase, breathe with the voice at the ends of its lines and let the bass carry the harmony. A pedal point holds one bass note; the ground-bass card shows a whole bass line repeated under changing music, the frame of a passacaglia. At the keyboard: accompany a melody over a pedal point.
- Technique
- E-flat major scale, hands together, 2 octaves
- E-flat major arpeggio, hands separately, 2 octaves
