Clefsight Connect keyboard

The library · By form

Preludes for piano

33 preludes to read and learn at your keyboard, levels 2 to 6, easiest first, each with easier versions made from the score itself.

What a prelude is

A piece played before another one: before a fugue or a suite, or to try the instrument and the key before a service. Bach's little preludes taught his pupils; Chopin's 24 Preludes, Op. 28 (1839), one in every key, made the prelude a short piece on its own.

How it goes

No set metre or pace: a prelude is whatever its one idea needs, so read the time signature and the tempo word before you start.

What to read for

Most keep one figure all the way through, a broken chord or a running pattern, and change only the notes. Find the pattern in the first bar, then read each bar for the chord it spells.

What the library's 33 preludes print

Time signatures: 15 in 4/4, 8 in 3/4, 3 in 3/8, 2 in 2/4, and 5 in other metres. Tempo words at the start: Allegro (3), Largo (2), Andantino (1), and Moderato (1); 23 print none. Keys: 15 major and 18 minor, most often C major (5), C minor (5), and E minor (4).

By Johann Sebastian Bach (22), Frédéric Chopin (9), Erik Satie, and Anatoly Lyadov.

Pieces
33
Levels
2 to 6
Key signatures
5 flats to 6 sharps
Length
10 to 164 bars

Level 2

A tune over a simple left hand, mostly in one hand position.

Level 3

Both hands busy, the hand moves around, a sharp or flat or two.

Level 4

Real independence between the hands and more accidentals.

Level 5

The edge of early intermediate: dense textures, fast passages and far keys.

Level 6

Intermediate: the notes of level 5 at concert speed, held even from the first bar to the last.

A piece is listed here when its title calls it a prelude, in English, German, French or Italian.

Other forms

Every form five or more library pieces are named for.

Learning with someone? Send them this page by email