Fur Elise (opening motif, easy arrangement)

Learn this piece

Composer

Ludwig van Beethoven

Arrangement

Musicanyya practice material

Level

Intermediate

Key

A minor

Metre

3/4

Tempo

60 BPM

Length

17 bars, about 1 minute

Hands

both

Trains

The famous opening motif at a gentle tempo with nothing faster than eighth notes, over a single left-hand bass note per bar. The right hand moves in almost every bar - the open-hand figures C-E-A up to B and E-G-B (fingers 1-2-4, then 5) and the octave E to E - which is why it is not a Beginner piece.

How to practise it

• From bar 3 the left hand holds one bass note a bar while the right hand moves. Practise the right hand alone in bars 2-5 at 40 BPM, then add the bass.
• Bar 5 jumps an octave from E up to E; look ahead so the hand is ready. Loop bars 5-6 until the leap lands on time.
• Bars 10-13 and 14-17 repeat bars 6-9. Once bars 6-9 feel secure, play them three times in a row and let each phrase end softly on the A.

Where this score came from

Arrangement for this app (CC0)

A different, much simpler arrangement from the Fur Elise theme item of the same level. The pickup and bars 1-8 follow Beethoven's melody with every value doubled (3/8 written as 3/4), with the changes listed in departures; bars 9-16 repeat bars 5-8. The left hand is a single sustained bass note per bar and rests under the opening figure, as in Beethoven's own texture there. 17 written measures (a one-beat pickup plus 16 bars) at quarter = 60. The printed fingering (5 on the first note, 1-2-4 then 5 on the open-hand figures, 1-5-4 on the octave in bar 4) is our own (2026-10-05).

Changes from the source: Metre and values: Beethoven's 3/8 is written as 3/4 with every note value doubled (sixteenths become eighths). Bar 1: E, D-sharp (eighths), E (quarter), B, D (eighths); Beethoven has six even notes E-D#-E-B-D-C, so the C before bar 2's A is left out and no more than four equal notes follow each other. Bars 3-4: no accidentals after bar 1 - G instead of G-sharp in bar 3, D instead of D-sharp at the end of bar 4. Bars 5-8 are our own shortened version of Beethoven's bars 5-8: bar 5 is E, D, C, B (Beethoven: E, D-sharp, E, B, D, C), bar 7 repeats bar 3 (Beethoven: B, E, C, B), and bar 8 ends on A. Bars 9-12 and 13-16 repeat bars 5-8. Left hand: our own single bass note per bar (A or E) instead of Beethoven's broken chords.

Other versions

• Für Elise (theme, arranged for this app) Intermediate
• Für Elise, WoO 59 Advanced

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