Waltz in A flat, Op. 69 No. 1

A week of practice for Waltz in A flat, Op. 69 No. 1, step by step: each hand alone, then both, then with the metronome at 60 %, 80 % and 100 % of full tempo, with each step's speed worked out from the score.

It prints on one page (Ctrl+P, or ⌘P on a Mac). The blank chart

Piece: Waltz in A flat, Op. 69 No. 1
Composer: Frédéric Chopin
Bars: 161
Full tempo: =138
Week of

A practice chart: 7 steps, from right hand to steady 100 %, with a box for each of 7 days and one for the day each step passes
Step number	Step	Speed
1	Right handAlone, no metronome: find each note before you play it	no metronome
2	Left handAlone, no metronome: find each note before you play it	no metronome
3	Hands togetherBoth at once, no metronome: find each note before you play it	no metronome
4	With a metronome that waitsBoth hands, metronome at 60 %: lost, stop it and start again from the next note	=83
5	Steady 60 %Both hands, metronome at 60 % of full tempo	=83
6	Steady 80 %Both hands, metronome at 80 % of full tempo	=110
7	Steady 100 %Both hands at full tempo, with the metronome	=138
	Minutes played

The score prints no metronome mark at the start: these speeds count from =138, the speed Clefsight's metronome takes from the playback setting saved in the score's file (the page doesn't print it). If full tempo feels wrong for the music, cross it out and write your own.

Version: Right-hand melody (698 notes)Melody and left-hand roots (858 notes)Melody and a simpler left hand (1386 notes)As written (1552 notes)

How to use it

Each day, start at the top step you haven't passed yet. Play it a few times and tick that day's box.
The first three steps have no metronome: find each note before you play it, however long that takes. One passes when nine notes in ten come out right and you didn't have to look up a note's name.
Then put the metronome on at 60 % of full tempo and play along. When you lose your place, stop it, find the next note, and start the metronome again with that note on its beat. It passes once you get through with at most one stop.
On the three Steady steps, set a metronome to the step's speed and keep going through slips, to the end. One passes when nine notes in ten are right without stopping.
When a step passes, write the date in its last box. Tomorrow, start on the next step.
If the same bar goes wrong two times running, play that bar alone: 20 % of full tempo under the step, 5 % faster each time it comes out clean. For a piece whose full tempo is 100, the 80 % step is at 80: play the bar at 60.
Stuck on one step all week? Step down to an easier version (right-hand melody, melody and left-hand roots, or melody and a simpler left hand) and climb the steps with that first.

Practice chart for Waltz in A flat, Op. 69 No. 1, from clefsight.com/learn/piano-practice-chart?piece=chopin-waltz-in-a-flat-op-69-no-1-f2dcb9. Play it there at a MIDI keyboard and Clefsight marks each step for you.

Why in this order

Reading the notes, finding the keys and keeping time are three jobs. Each hand alone, with no clock, lets you do the first two for half the notes at a time. Hands together, still without a clock, adds the hard part: two lines of music read at once. Only then does the metronome come in, below full tempo, so that keeping going is the one new thing. Each step changes one thing, which is why a step that won't come is a sign to go back one, not to push on.

The 7 rows follow the steps Clefsight uses when you practise a library piece at a MIDI keyboard: it plays the other hand while you learn one and waits for you in the first three; then it counts you in a little below the pace you showed, goes 5 % faster after each clean take through the same speeds, and marks every note.

Another piece

Choose a piece from the library and the chart comes back with its title, composer and length written in, and the speed of each step worked out from the metronome mark the score prints, or, with none, from the speed Clefsight's metronome takes for it.

Piece

Or play the steps at your keyboard. Clefsight waits for you in the first three, plays the other hand while you learn one, and marks each step passed as you go.

Practise it

Its page: Waltz in A flat, Op. 69 No. 1, with every version to print. What the tempo word means: tempo markings.