Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) 1839 E minor 4/4 Easy 1:03 Both hands
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Chopin's Prelude in E minor is only a page long, and its opening is made of almost nothing: a melody that hovers on one note, B, then on A, over chords that slowly sink beneath it. This easy version gives you the first half, the upbeat and bars 1 to 12, read from a Universal Edition copy edited by Raoul Pugno. The melody is exactly as printed. In the left hand, Chopin repeats each chord in soft eighth notes; here each chord is held instead, and it changes exactly where his does, so the harmony is his, note for note. Play it very slowly - Chopin marks it Largo - and softer than you think. Listen once, then learn it in Practice mode.
After the upbeat B, bars 1-3 are the same: B held for three beats, then C. Bar 4 ends on B flat instead. Bars 5-7 move down to A, held for three beats, then B (bar 7 ends B-A). Bar 8 ends on G sharp, tied into bar 9, which finally moves in eighth notes: A B D C, E A. Bars 10 and 11 hold F sharp, then A. Bar 12 is the only busy bar: G F sharp C B, D sharp F sharp, and a quick triplet D C B that leads back to the B of the last bar.
Three-note chords, held. Bar 1: G B E. Then the chords sink one note at a time: F sharp A E and F sharp A E flat (bar 2); F A E flat, F A D and F G sharp D (bar 3); E G sharp D, E G D and E G C sharp (bar 4); E G C and E F sharp C (bar 5); D sharp F sharp C (bar 6); D F sharp C (bar 7); D F C and D F B (bar 8); C E B and C E A (bar 9); then B E A, B D sharp A and C E A in bars 10-12. The last bar is G B E again.
The accidentals in the left hand. Bar 3 has F natural and G sharp, bar 4 G sharp, then G natural and C sharp, bar 8 F natural again, and E flat in bars 2-3 is the same key as D sharp. Practise the left hand alone, one bar at a time, saying the chord names aloud. In the right hand, count every beat under the long notes.
Right hand: B with 2 and C with 3 in bars 1-3; in bar 4 B with 3 and B flat with 2; A with 2 and B with 3 in bars 5-8, G sharp with 1. Bar 9: A B D C with 1-2-4-3, E with 1, A with 3. Bar 12: G F sharp C B with 4-3-2-1, D sharp F sharp with 2-3, the triplet D C B with 5-4-3. Left hand: most chords with 5-3-1.
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: B B C B C B C B Bb A B A B A B A A G# A B D C E A …
| Bar | Notes | Do Ré Mi |
|---|---|---|
| Pickup | B | Si |
| 1 | B C | Si Do |
| 2 | B C | Si Do |
| 3 | B C | Si Do |
| 4 | B Bb | Si Sib |
| 5 | A B | La Si |
| 6 | A B | La Si |
| 7 | A B A | La Si La |
| 8 | A G# | La Sol# |
| 9 | A B D C E A | La Si Ré Do Mi La |
| 10 | F# A | Fa# La |
| 11 | F# A | Fa# La |
| 12 | G F# C B D# F# D C B | Sol Fa# Do Si Ré# Fa# Ré Do Si |
| 13 | B | Si |
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 E minor: all the chords of the key
Chopin wrote his 24 Preludes, Op. 28, one in each major and minor key, and completed the set in 1838-1839, partly during a winter in Majorca with the writer George Sand. They were published in 1839. Like Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, which Chopin revered, the collection works its way through all the keys.
The E minor prelude is one of the shortest and saddest of the set: a slow melody over left-hand chords that change one note at a time, sliding down by half steps. Bar 12, where the melody suddenly moves, closes the first half; the second half starts the same way, then grows to a short outburst before fading out. The prelude was played on the organ at Chopin's own funeral, at the Madeleine church in Paris in October 1849.
This transcription: Chopin, 24 Préludes, Op. 28 (1839), No. 4 in E minor, upbeat and bars 1-12: the melody as printed (grace note in bar 11 left out), the repeated left-hand chords held as block chords: Préludes, ed. Raoul Pugno (Vienna: Universal Edition, UE 348a), p. 7 - archive.org 31761086240850, page n12. Transcribed by GOONS Studio from the original work, which is in the public domain.
Easy Version, Theme · A 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.
Right hand: B, then B C, B C, B C, B B flat, A B, A B - in Do Ré Mi, Si, Si Do, Si Do, Si Do, Si Si bémol, La Si, La Si. The left hand starts on G B E (Sol Si Mi). Every bar is in the Notes section.
Yes. At Chopin's funeral at the Madeleine in Paris on 30 October 1849, this prelude and the Prelude in B minor, No. 6, were played on the organ, and the choir sang Mozart's Requiem.
The notes are easy, which is why it is often among the first Chopin pieces people learn. The complete prelude asks for very even, soft repeated chords in the left hand and builds to a short outburst near the end. This version, with held chords, is level 2 of 5.