9.1 Add ninths and upper extensions
Study Liszt’s Consolation No. 1 in E major. On the second beat of bars 4, 20 and 24 the harmony is a dominant ninth on F sharp (F sharp–C sharp–A sharp–E–G sharp): a seventh chord with one more third on top. Hear how it differs from the plain seventh. Explore eleventh and thirteenth voicings, and the modal-jazz card, separately in the keyboard step. At the keyboard: voice ninth, eleventh and thirteenth chords.
- Technique
- E major scale, hands together, 4 octaves
- E major arpeggio, hands together, 4 octaves
9.2 Leave space in a chord voicing
Study Jazz Blues Shells, an original twelve-bar jazz blues in F. Its left hand uses sparse two-note voicings, mostly root and seventh, with the third–seventh pair A–E flat in bar 4 and the diminished-seventh span E–D flat in bar 6. Keep those voicings light and even under the tune. At the keyboard: play shell and rootless ii–V–I voicings; those are separate models, not the accompaniment printed throughout this piece.
- Technique
- F major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
9.3 Map the entries of a fugue
Study the four-voice Fugue in C major from Book 1 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 846. Its subject enters once in each voice in the opening bars, then returns in overlapping entries later on: mark every entry, and the voice that carries it, before you play. The three-voice Fugue in C minor, BWV 847, is the alternative. At the keyboard: play an entry and sing its answer.
- Technique
- C major scale, hands together, 4 octaves
- C major arpeggio, hands together, 4 octaves
9.4 Hear a dominant of another chord
Study the first movement (Allegro con brio) of Haydn’s Sonata in G, Hob. XVI:27. Wherever a sharp or natural foreign to G appears, such as the C sharp that turns A into a dominant of D, ask which chord it makes a temporary tonic, and hear the brief arrival. At the keyboard: tonicise a scale degree with its dominant.
- Technique
- G major scale, hands separately, 2 octaves
9.5 Follow a distant key change
Study Chopin’s Waltz in A flat, Op. 64 No. 3. At bar 73 it leaves A flat for C major, a key a major third away that shares only one note of its tonic chord (a chromatic mediant), and it comes back to A flat at bar 109. Play the bars on either side of each change and hear the sudden brightening and the return. At the keyboard: improvise a bridge to a distant key.
- Technique
- A-flat major scale, hands together, 4 octaves
9.6 Listen for Impressionist colour
Study Debussy’s Première Arabesque, early Debussy in E major: flowing triplet arpeggios over held bass notes, and a middle section that moves from A major to C major (bar 63). Listen to its harmony and pedal colour. The whole-tone collection of the keyboard task is a separate model; the Arabesque itself stays in major keys. At the keyboard: improvise with a whole-tone collection.
- Technique
- E major scale, hands together, 4 octaves
9.7 Move a scale in octaves
Study Mendelssohn’s Song without Words Op. 53 No. 5 (Volkslied), in A minor. In bars 24–27, move the right hand’s octave-filled chords freely and let the hand close after each reach; later passages also use octaves in both hands. Let the arm carry the movement without locking the hand. At the keyboard: play a scale in octaves.
- Technique
- A harmonic minor scale, hands together, 4 octaves
- C major scale in octaves, hands together, 2 octaves, staccato
9.8 Balance three against four
Study bars 9–16 of the first of Chopin’s Trois nouvelles études, in F minor: the right hand places three quarter-note tuplet positions against four left-hand eighth notes in each half-note pulse. Count the initial right-hand rest and keep both streams even. Warm up with the F harmonic minor scale; practise the separate three-against-four drill, then prepare the étude's right hand, left hand and both hands through the selected cells and transfer phrase. These concept excerpts do not count as the level's second performed study beside Scriabin’s Op. 2 No. 1; qualifying whole-study performance remains separate.
- Technique
- C major three against four, hands together
- F harmonic minor scale, hands together, 4 octaves
9.9 Shape a long melodic line
Study Scriabin’s Étude in C-sharp minor, Op. 2 No. 1: an Andante in 3/4 with grace notes and fermatas. At the keyboard: play a cadence and improvise an answering phrase in its unhurried character.
- Technique
- C-sharp harmonic minor scale, hands together, 4 octaves
9.10 Play with clear harmonic direction
Study the first movement of Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 10 No. 1 in C minor, Allegro molto e con brio, with its rinforzando and crescendo marks. At the keyboard: play a cadence in C minor and improvise an answering phrase that keeps the movement’s drive.
- Technique
- C harmonic minor scale, hands together, 2 octaves
- Leading-note diminished-seventh arpeggio of C minor, hands together, 2 octaves
