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Dance of the Reed Flutes, from The Nutcracker: piano notes with letters

The sheet music as written, with each note's letter under it

Every note below has its letter under it, sharps and flats as the score spells them, so you can find each key. Use the letters to get started, then leave them behind: a letter names the key, but the note on the staff also tells you how long to hold it, which hand plays it and where the tune goes next, at a glance. Play it with the letters once or twice, then drill its 41 notes on the staff and print the page without them.

Level: 4 of 7
Key: D major
Time: 2/4
Length: 77 bars
Notes to know: 41

Drill its 41 notes Practise it

Plays on a MIDI keyboard in Chrome, Edge or Firefox on a computer, or Chrome on an Android phone or tablet, or on the keys on screen without one.

Right hand plays: B♯ C♯ D D♯ E E♯ F F♯ G G♯ A B♭ B
Left hand plays: B♯ C♯ D D♯ E E♯ F♯ G G♯ A B♭ B

The first 16 bars of Dance of the Reed Flutes, from The Nutcracker on the grand staff, with each note's letter name under it — The first 16 bars as written, each note's letter under it. The whole piece prints below.

Print the whole piece

With the letters77 bars
Without the letters77 bars

When you can name its notes without looking down, read it from Dance of the Reed Flutes, from The Nutcracker's page: the same music with no letters, its easier versions, and what stands between you and it. How letter names work, and the other ways of naming notes: piano note names.

Score typed for Clefsight from G. Schirmer, New York, 1922, ed. Carl Deis, plate 30537 (scan on the Internet Archive), checked note for note, shared under CC0 1.0; the composition is public domain: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died in 1893, and so is Stepan Esipoff’s arrangement. Credits

Checked against the edition. Typed twice from the scan, each time without seeing the other, then compared bar by bar; the two agreed in every bar. How we check