Lullaby (arranged for beginners)

Learn this piece

Composer

Johannes Brahms (Wiegenlied, Op. 49 No. 4)

Arrangement

Musicanyya practice material

Level

Beginner

Key

C major

Metre

3/4

Tempo

66 BPM

Length

17 bars, about 1 minute

Hands

both

Trains

Brahms's Lullaby in 3/4: the tune in the right hand, from two eighth notes at the end of the first bar, over a left hand that holds C, F and G chords and breaks some of them into a rising arpeggio, one note a beat. Play the tune legato and quietly; at the octave leaps (bars 9, 10, 13 and 14) the hand moves to the next C.

How to practise it

• The tune comes in on beat 3 of bar 1, after a half rest, with two short E's. Count one, two before you start, and loop bars 1-4 at 40 BPM until the entry feels natural.
• Bars 9-10 and 13-14 hold the octave leaps from the low C up to the high C. Loop bars 9-14 slowly and look ahead to the high C while you play the low ones.
• In bars 5, 6 and 8 the left hand breaks the G chord into three even quarters, G, B and D. Try the left hand alone there until those notes stay smooth under a soft, legato tune.

Where this score came from

Arrangement for this app (CC0)

Melody from Indiana University: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/bgn9130/index1.html (https://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=1037), public domain; left-hand chords our own (CC0)

Changes from the source: The left-hand arpeggios and block chords are our own (CC0). Transposed from E-flat major to C major. The voice part of the first verse (the song's bars 2 to 18), without the piano's introduction and accompaniment; the voice's rests stay. The grace notes before the beat in bars 13 and 16 (the song's bars 14 and 17) are left out. The tempo, quarter = 66, is ours: the source gives none.

More at this level

• Amazing Grace (arranged for beginners) Traditional (American hymn tune "New Britain")
• Waltz, Op. 39 No. 15 (theme, arranged for beginners) Johannes Brahms (Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 39 No. 15)
• Greensleeves (arranged for beginners) Traditional (English, 16th century)
• In the Hall of the Mountain King (theme, arranged for beginners) Edvard Grieg (Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46 No. 4)
• Jingle Bells (opening refrain, arranged for beginners) James Lord Pierpont