Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) 1837 A minor 4/4 Easy 0:43 Both hands
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Chopin's Funeral March is the music many people hear in their heads at the word funeral: a heavy, rocking left hand like a tolling bell, and a slow tune that keeps coming back to the same note. This easy version gives you the first ten bars of the theme, read from a 1903 Boston edition, moved from Chopin's B-flat minor down to A minor, so every note is a white key. The right hand plays the melody alone, an octave higher than written; the left hand keeps Chopin's rocking chords, two notes on every beat. It is slow, so the challenge is control: keep the dotted rhythm sharp and the beat even. Listen once, then learn it in Practice mode.
The melody starts on the A above middle C and barely moves: in bars 1 and 2, A on beat 1, a dotted A-A on beat 2 and a long A. Bar 3 ends with C-B, bar 4 sighs back down: B-A, A-A and a long A. Bars 5 and 6 repeat the idea on C, rising to E-D. Bars 7 and 8 are the high phrase, A G F E, E, C, played twice, and bars 9-10 bring back bars 3-4.
On every beat a two-note chord, rocking between A-E and C-F, low in the bass clef - Chopin's B-flat and D-flat chords moved down a half step. In the last bar the rocking stops on A-E, held for two beats.
The dotted rhythm. Wherever a beat has two notes, the first is long and the second very short, right before the next beat: count '1 - 2-e-and-a' and play the short note on 'a'. The left hand must not wait for it. In bars 7-8 the hand moves up to the A just above the treble staff.
Right hand: A with 2 for the repeated notes, C with 4 and B with 3 in bars 3-4; C with 2, E with 4 and D with 3 in bars 5-6; A G F E with 5-4-3-2 and C with 1 in bars 7-8. Left hand: A-E with 5-1, C-F with 3-1, so that the hand only rocks.
The right-hand melody of this version, bar by bar, in letter names and in Do Ré Mi. Sharps are written #, flats b; a note held across a bar line is written once.
Melody: A A A A A A A A A A A A C B B A A A A C C C C E …
| Bar | Notes | Do Ré Mi |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A A A A | La La La La |
| 2 | A A A A | La La La La |
| 3 | A A A A C B | La La La La Do Si |
| 4 | B A A A A | Si La La La La |
| 5 | C C C C E D | Do Do Do Do Mi Ré |
| 6 | D C C C C | Ré Do Do Do Do |
| 7 | A G F E E C | La Sol Fa Mi Mi Do |
| 8 | A G F E E C | La Sol Fa Mi Mi Do |
| 9 | A A A A C B | La La La La Do Si |
| 10 | B A A A A | Si La La La La |
The chords this arrangement holds for at least two bars, read from the score with the root in the bass. Each one opens its page: the notes, every inversion and the fingering, playable on a piano.
The piece is in A minor: all the chords of the key
The march is the third movement of Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35. Chopin wrote the march first, in 1837, and built the sonata around it two years later; it was published in 1840. The march frames a gentle, singing middle section in D-flat major, then returns.
Robert Schumann, reviewing the sonata, wrote that Chopin had bound together four of his maddest children. The march soon took on a life of its own: an early Brussels edition printed it on its own, with a title saying it had been performed at the composer's funeral, and it has been played at funerals and memorial ceremonies ever since, often arranged for brass band or orchestra.
This transcription: Chopin, Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35 (1840), third movement 'Marche funèbre', bars 1-10: the melody transposed to A minor and up an octave, the left-hand chords reduced to two notes: Forty Piano Compositions, ed. James Huneker (Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1903), p. 181 - archive.org fortypianocompos00chop, page n204; checked against the Meynne edition (Brussels), archive.org marchefunbreex00chop, page n3. Transcribed by GOONS Studio from the original work, which is in the public domain.
Easy Version, Bars 1-12 · E minor
First Section · B minor
Theme A · A minor
Easy Version · C majorThe full piano studio opens this score with your MIDI keyboard and sustain pedal, records what you play and exports it as a MIDI file. It comes with the GOONS Studio subscription - start with the 7-day free trial, no card required.
In A minor, as on this page: A A A A, A A A A, A A A A C B, B A A A A - in Do Ré Mi, La La La La, La La La La, La La La La Do Si, Si La La La La. In Chopin's key, B-flat minor, the same theme starts on B-flat. Every bar is in the Notes section.
Chopin wrote it in B-flat minor, with five flats. Moved down a half step to A minor, it keeps the same shape and sound, but every note is a white key.
Frédéric Chopin. It is the third movement of his Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35, composed in 1837 and published with the sonata in 1840. Other composers wrote funeral marches, but this is the one most people know.