Fur Elise is one of the classic piano pieces by Ludwig van Beethoven that everyone loves! In this Fur Elise piano tutorial you will learn this piece in a non-traditional way that uses chords rather than fully notated sheet music. Give it a try!
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Fur Elise is one of the most recognizable piano pieces of all time. Composed as Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor, the song was nicknamed in honor of a mystery woman (either Therese Malfatti, Elisabeth Röckel, or Elise Barensfeld.)
In this Fur Elise Piano Tutorial I am going to show you a radically different approach to learning this piece. The method is called Faking and it will empower you to play songs that might be too difficult for you to play from fully notated sheet music.
A Different Way to Learn Classical Music
For this Fur Elise piano tutorial, I will be showing you a modern approach to learning classical music. Rather than reading complicated fully notated piano music, I will show you how to play this from a lead sheet.
A lead sheet shows the notated melody and the chords. You can see that there are letter names that are marked above the written notation. These are the chord symbols. Once you are able to play your major and minor chords through the keys, then you can pretty much play any lead sheet!
Which version of notation looks easier to play?
To the left, you can see traditional classical piano music, which consists of full notation of both the left and right hands. How long would it take you to play this?
To the right, you can see a lead sheet of the same song. All you need to be able to do is play the notate right hand part and play chords in your left hand. How long would it take you to play this?
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Why Faking at the piano is the best way to learn