Ruth Pheasant Piano Lessons
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Minuet by Gurlitt

Op. 224, No. 4
Menuetto, or Minuet op. 224 no. 2 was written by Cornelius Gurlitt. Gurlitt was a German composer of the Romantic era of western art music.

This piece would suit piano players of around grade 3 standard, and is good for developing technique in various ways. One of these ways includes chord playing - this piece is good practice for learning to play chords neatly and together. It is a very common problem for piano players to find that their chords don't quite sound clean, because the notes don't all sound together. To get cleaner, well synchronised chords in this piece, make sure your fingers are all in the right position to play all the notes of the chord, before you actually play the chord. With practice you will get quicker at finding all the notes of the chord at once. 

Another technique that can be developed in this piece is coordination between the hands. The piece starts off with the melody in the left hand, and chordal accompaniment in the right hand. This means that in order to bring out the melody and prevent it from being drowned out by the chords, the left hand must be played louder than the right hand. It is a very real coordination challenge to play one hand louder than the other, because the natural tendency for most piano learners at this stage is to play both hands the same volume. With practice and perseverence you can learn to play with different touches in both hands at the same time, and achieve a more refined sound in your piano playing. 

The fact that at the beginning, the right hand chords need to be quieter than the left hand melody poses an additional challenge. It is even more difficult to play chords neatly so that all the keys go down together, when playing quietly. This is because the hand position must be held quite firmly, and a tendency when keeping a firm (as opposed to loose) hand position, is to play more heavily. It can be useful to isolate these techniques, and work on one aspect of the sound at a time, gradually bringing them all together. E.g. in one practice session you can just focus on getting one hand louder than the other. In another practice session you can just focus on getting the chords sounding together. Gradually you can start to try and do these two things together.

Later on in the piece, the melody switches to the right hand with the accompaniment in the left hand, and the parts keep swapping like this. Again, this is very good for developing coordination.

You can listen to another piece by Gurlitt - Slumber Song Op. 224.
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Qualified graduate piano teacher.
Fellow of The Incorporated Society of Musicians.
More than 25 years of experience teaching piano and music theory in person and online.
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Videos
  • Articles & Tutorials
  • About
  • Fees & Payments
    • Fees
    • Make a Payment
  • Learn Online
    • Beginner's Piano Lesson Package
    • Classical Compilation
    • Free Downloads
    • How to Play Fast eBook and Studies
    • Instruction Video and PDFs - Berens Study in A Minor
    • Music Theory Tutorials
    • Online Music Theory Lessons
    • Online Piano Lessons by Video Exchange
    • Piano Tutorials
    • Skype/FaceTime Lessons
    • Shop
    • Zoom Lessons for Adults
    • Zoom Lessons for Children
  • Contact