9 ms·

Great choice of song! If you ever have access to a piano, I highly recommended trying to fumble your way through Beethoven's moonlight sonata, even if you don't

by johtso 3y ago

Great choice of song! If you ever have access to a piano, I highly recommended trying to fumble your way through Beethoven's moonlight sonata, even if you don't know how to play piano. Not quite sure how to put it into words, but it's absolutely exhilarating hearing your own fingers produce these huge sounds and intense chord progressions. Every time I managed to find the right chord I'd get such a rush. "Oh no he didn't.. he went _there_!?" This webpage gives a little taste of that feeling. If you enjoyed it, try to give the real thing a go!

globular-toast 3y ago
I can't not cringe slightly when someone calls something like Moonlight Sonata a "song".
- johtso 3y ago
  Reading back my comment now, I know what you mean! I guess "piece" would have been a better word, or even just "music".
  - globular-toast 3y ago
    Yeah, just music. I have heard people use song to mean any music before, though, so it's probably something I have to deal with. I do like some songs but 90% of the music I listen to is comprised of either tracks/records (electronic music) or pieces (classical).
omoikane 3y ago
Moonlight Sonata is a great choice, the arpeggios makes the song quite recognizable. (I don't play the piano but have learned the guitar version of Moonlight Sonata, and it looks very much like this version.)
yawnxyz 3y ago
I agree! This really gives a taste of the feeling of playing moonlight for real on the piano. I also realized there are some notes I might have been playing wrong for many years (oops)
black_puppydog 3y ago
Not sure that was the goal, but the text accompanying the first run makes it seem like I'm supposed to get the rhythm exactly in the spacing indicated on paper/screen. But one thing I love about the moonlight sonata is exactly how amazing one can play with the spacing of the notes. So yeah, I had a lot of fun with this but I'm not sure it's the best choice of piece. :P
- adrianmonk 3y ago
  What you're talking about is called playing rubato (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_rubato https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_rubato), and I think that is part of the point here. The control that you get over the timing allows you to express yourself musically / perform the music with your own interpretation. The instructions may be a bit unclear, but I think they are suggesting that it works better artistically if you play some parts evenly (the three-note sequences that repeat) and add your timing variations to the other parts. This creates a kind of a baseline of regularity that makes the variations stand out by contrast. (It also gives the feeling that you're capable of even, steady timing and the timing variations you do incorporate are there on purpose.)
- sandgiant 3y ago
  Indeed! I think this is what makes this so fun. I can also highly recommend listening to various recordings of the moonlight sonata and notice how different it is depending on the precise timing the pianist uses.
PM_me_your_math 3y ago
You're right. It is amazing.
mccoyc 3y ago
The first movement is one of the only pieces I can play on the piano. Yes indeed, anyone can learn it! I came from a musical family, but never really put the effort into learning the piano. I'm not sure where I heard this, but Beethoven wrote this for one of his students that he was in love with. The first movement was purposefully written for a newcomer to be able to play--such as for whom he admired, but the third movement was a representation of his anger over being rejected, and is one of the hardest piano pieces to play.
- electroly 3y ago
  That story is about Fur Elise, not Moonlight Sonata. The name, of course, meaning "for Elise," the name of the woman in question.
- jimbob45 3y ago
  The 3rd movement is not one of the hardest pieces to play. It’s like medium-hard. It’s not even the hardest sonata - that would be the Hammerklavier.
  - chopin 3y ago
    If one wants to play a well-known sonata I'd rather start with the Tempest. Considerably easier than Moonlights 3rd. And as beautiful imho, the 3rd movement especially.
anonu 3y ago
Totally agree with this. Moonlight Sonata one of my favorite pieces to play while I was growing up. I recall showing my piano teacher I wanted to play it - she was classically trained and taught very advanced pianists (I was not one of those) - and I remember her just rolling her eyes. I kept playing it anyway in my free time...
tuzemec 3y ago
When I started taking piano lesions a few years ago, one of the first rules that my teacher established was: "No Moonlight Sonata" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My guess is that it resembles in a way playing "Smoke on the water" in a guitar shop.
- ksenzee 3y ago
  I started piano lessons at age 5, I’ve taught piano, and I still arrange music and accompany professionally from time to time, so I’m a fairly snobbish classically trained pianist, and it is my considered opinion that that is a lovely piece of music and every pianist should play it any time they want. If you teach, and you don’t like the Moonlight Sonata, you should hold your nose and teach it anyway.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- volkk 3y ago
  that's sad. a yearning musician should be able to learn and play whatever they want and whatever makes them feel a certain thing. moonlight sonata evokes something in me i can't explain (which is probably why it's a legendary piece). having strong opinions on what to play when learning feels so gatekeepy. i would have dropped that teacher quickly
  - partdavid 3y ago
    Actually, teachers are human beings and they're allowed to have preferences, likes and dislikes. It's okay that not every teacher is for every student 100% of the time. Something can be a bad student/teacher fit without it being a negative value judgment ("sad", "gatekeeping", "drop").
    - volkk 3y ago
      teachers are held to a higher standard because their responsibility is a lot higher than the average citizen, so while theyre fully allowed to do whatever they want and have preferences -- i won't hold them to a standard that i do an average person. they need to above all have the highest patience and the least amount of gatekeeping, full stop.
hammock 3y ago
Moonlight sonata was hard for me, still is… because I only ever became fluent up to three sharps and three flats key signatures. And moonlight is in a key that is 4 sharps. Makes it very hard to fumble through
- dmoy 3y ago
  Ease of playing the piece vs ease of sight reading the music is different though 5 flats is easier to play mechanically, imo, because hitting black keys is often easier
  - hammock 3y ago
    True. I never found it difficult to play aside from sight reading the key signature A lot of classical music is this way to be honest, there is a lot of formulaic composition (I don’t mean that derogatory at all) and once you get the patterns it’s easy to extend, maybe even play it like a fake book. I recall a lot of what we know was originally something closer to figured bass in the first place and later fully arranged by someone who wasn’t the original composer. Or, take a look at Mozart Requiem for example, only a small percent of which was actually manuscribed by the man himself.
    - acjohnson55 3y ago
      One thing to think about, if you're in common practice music, most of the accidentals will be there for a specific reason (e.g. chromatic grace notes, applied dominants, harmonic or melodic minor, parallel key borrowing, augmented sixth chord). Music theory classes can help understand these if you're not familiar. But the thing to know is whether the particular reason involves raising or lowering the natural note in the scale. One thing that frustrates me about music notation is that when you have a key signature with lots of flats or sharps, it's hard for me to tell at a glance what the accidental is doing relative to the key signature. I've gotta look back and remember what was the unmodified note.
- acjohnson55 3y ago
  For me, my brain kind of locks in to the key signature eventually. It might be worth practicing scales and simple chord progressions in each key to try to imprint it in your brain. I found keys with lots of sharps and flats intimidating for a long time, too.
vixen99 3y ago
Not a bad idea for the first and maybe the second movement. The third is definitely for advanced students. Nevertheless if you have command of a few basic keyboard skills, learning to play a passage or two from a really advanced piece can be advantageous for later work though few teachers will recommend it. Let's go for the ultimate but assume you're not actually taking lessons! How about Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit? Certainly one of the most difficult pieces ever written. It's quite possible to work productively on the first page of 'Ondine' and as with the Moonlight sonata, it's exhilarating to hear yourself play that exquisite tune - distilled as it were, into its essence. Plenty of other possibilities such as passages from Mozart piano concertos. A bonus is that one's appreciation of great artists becomes much enhanced.
purpleblue 3y ago
Moonlight Sonata 3rd Movement is one of the most exhilarating songs I've ever heard, if not the most. I can't believe a piece of music written a few hundred years ago still sounds so modern and exciting and new, it's an incredible work. I urge everyone to listen to it, specifically the 3rd movement. It really shocks me that Beethoven or anyone could write a piece of music so brilliant like that!
- jasonjayr 3y ago
  One of my favorite 'reinterpretations' of the piece is by Meganeko, link here: https://soundcloud.com/meganeko/beethoven-moonlight-sonata-3rd https://soundcloud.com/meganeko/beethoven-moonlight-sonata-3...
- broscillator 3y ago
  There's many movements like that through his sonatas. You might enjoy the Sonata no 27 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLzQbyWfBnY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLzQbyWfBnY it starts with a catching rhythmic pattern, it gets calm and lyrical but it builds up to incredible heights.
khazhoux 3y ago
Moonlight Sonata is a good example of how you can be "brain-limited" in learning a piece, rather than limited by technique and finger dexterity. Moonlight is very easy on the fingers. But the constant variations are a challenge for people with poor memorization and slow recall like myself. You hit an F# instead of G# on the third repeat of a pattern and it's all over.

by johtso 3y ago

globular-toast 3y ago

I can't not cringe slightly when someone calls something like Moonlight Sonata a "song".

johtso 3y ago
Reading back my comment now, I know what you mean! I guess "piece" would have been a better word, or even just "music".
- globular-toast 3y ago
  Yeah, just music. I have heard people use song to mean any music before, though, so it's probably something I have to deal with. I do like some songs but 90% of the music I listen to is comprised of either tracks/records (electronic music) or pieces (classical).

omoikane 3y ago

Moonlight Sonata is a great choice, the arpeggios makes the song quite recognizable. (I don't play the piano but have learned the guitar version of Moonlight Sonata, and it looks very much like this version.)

yawnxyz 3y ago

I agree! This really gives a taste of the feeling of playing moonlight for real on the piano. I also realized there are some notes I might have been playing wrong for many years (oops)

black_puppydog 3y ago

Not sure that was the goal, but the text accompanying the first run makes it seem like I'm supposed to get the rhythm exactly in the spacing indicated on paper/screen. But one thing I love about the moonlight sonata is exactly how amazing one can play with the spacing of the notes. So yeah, I had a lot of fun with this but I'm not sure it's the best choice of piece. :P

adrianmonk 3y ago
What you're talking about is called playing rubato (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_rubato https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_rubato), and I think that is part of the point here. The control that you get over the timing allows you to express yourself musically / perform the music with your own interpretation. The instructions may be a bit unclear, but I think they are suggesting that it works better artistically if you play some parts evenly (the three-note sequences that repeat) and add your timing variations to the other parts. This creates a kind of a baseline of regularity that makes the variations stand out by contrast. (It also gives the feeling that you're capable of even, steady timing and the timing variations you do incorporate are there on purpose.)
sandgiant 3y ago
Indeed! I think this is what makes this so fun. I can also highly recommend listening to various recordings of the moonlight sonata and notice how different it is depending on the precise timing the pianist uses.

PM_me_your_math 3y ago

You're right. It is amazing.

mccoyc 3y ago

The first movement is one of the only pieces I can play on the piano. Yes indeed, anyone can learn it! I came from a musical family, but never really put the effort into learning the piano. I'm not sure where I heard this, but Beethoven wrote this for one of his students that he was in love with. The first movement was purposefully written for a newcomer to be able to play--such as for whom he admired, but the third movement was a representation of his anger over being rejected, and is one of the hardest piano pieces to play.

electroly 3y ago
That story is about Fur Elise, not Moonlight Sonata. The name, of course, meaning "for Elise," the name of the woman in question.
jimbob45 3y ago
The 3rd movement is not one of the hardest pieces to play. It’s like medium-hard. It’s not even the hardest sonata - that would be the Hammerklavier.
- chopin 3y ago
  If one wants to play a well-known sonata I'd rather start with the Tempest. Considerably easier than Moonlights 3rd. And as beautiful imho, the 3rd movement especially.

anonu 3y ago

Totally agree with this. Moonlight Sonata one of my favorite pieces to play while I was growing up. I recall showing my piano teacher I wanted to play it - she was classically trained and taught very advanced pianists (I was not one of those) - and I remember her just rolling her eyes. I kept playing it anyway in my free time...

tuzemec 3y ago

When I started taking piano lesions a few years ago, one of the first rules that my teacher established was: "No Moonlight Sonata" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My guess is that it resembles in a way playing "Smoke on the water" in a guitar shop.

ksenzee 3y ago
I started piano lessons at age 5, I’ve taught piano, and I still arrange music and accompany professionally from time to time, so I’m a fairly snobbish classically trained pianist, and it is my considered opinion that that is a lovely piece of music and every pianist should play it any time they want. If you teach, and you don’t like the Moonlight Sonata, you should hold your nose and teach it anyway.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
volkk 3y ago
that's sad. a yearning musician should be able to learn and play whatever they want and whatever makes them feel a certain thing. moonlight sonata evokes something in me i can't explain (which is probably why it's a legendary piece). having strong opinions on what to play when learning feels so gatekeepy. i would have dropped that teacher quickly
- partdavid 3y ago
  Actually, teachers are human beings and they're allowed to have preferences, likes and dislikes. It's okay that not every teacher is for every student 100% of the time. Something can be a bad student/teacher fit without it being a negative value judgment ("sad", "gatekeeping", "drop").
  - volkk 3y ago
    teachers are held to a higher standard because their responsibility is a lot higher than the average citizen, so while theyre fully allowed to do whatever they want and have preferences -- i won't hold them to a standard that i do an average person. they need to above all have the highest patience and the least amount of gatekeeping, full stop.

hammock 3y ago

Moonlight sonata was hard for me, still is… because I only ever became fluent up to three sharps and three flats key signatures. And moonlight is in a key that is 4 sharps. Makes it very hard to fumble through

dmoy 3y ago
Ease of playing the piece vs ease of sight reading the music is different though 5 flats is easier to play mechanically, imo, because hitting black keys is often easier
- hammock 3y ago
  True. I never found it difficult to play aside from sight reading the key signature A lot of classical music is this way to be honest, there is a lot of formulaic composition (I don’t mean that derogatory at all) and once you get the patterns it’s easy to extend, maybe even play it like a fake book. I recall a lot of what we know was originally something closer to figured bass in the first place and later fully arranged by someone who wasn’t the original composer. Or, take a look at Mozart Requiem for example, only a small percent of which was actually manuscribed by the man himself.
  - acjohnson55 3y ago
    One thing to think about, if you're in common practice music, most of the accidentals will be there for a specific reason (e.g. chromatic grace notes, applied dominants, harmonic or melodic minor, parallel key borrowing, augmented sixth chord). Music theory classes can help understand these if you're not familiar. But the thing to know is whether the particular reason involves raising or lowering the natural note in the scale. One thing that frustrates me about music notation is that when you have a key signature with lots of flats or sharps, it's hard for me to tell at a glance what the accidental is doing relative to the key signature. I've gotta look back and remember what was the unmodified note.
acjohnson55 3y ago
For me, my brain kind of locks in to the key signature eventually. It might be worth practicing scales and simple chord progressions in each key to try to imprint it in your brain. I found keys with lots of sharps and flats intimidating for a long time, too.

vixen99 3y ago

Not a bad idea for the first and maybe the second movement. The third is definitely for advanced students. Nevertheless if you have command of a few basic keyboard skills, learning to play a passage or two from a really advanced piece can be advantageous for later work though few teachers will recommend it. Let's go for the ultimate but assume you're not actually taking lessons! How about Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit? Certainly one of the most difficult pieces ever written. It's quite possible to work productively on the first page of 'Ondine' and as with the Moonlight sonata, it's exhilarating to hear yourself play that exquisite tune - distilled as it were, into its essence. Plenty of other possibilities such as passages from Mozart piano concertos. A bonus is that one's appreciation of great artists becomes much enhanced.

purpleblue 3y ago

Moonlight Sonata 3rd Movement is one of the most exhilarating songs I've ever heard, if not the most. I can't believe a piece of music written a few hundred years ago still sounds so modern and exciting and new, it's an incredible work. I urge everyone to listen to it, specifically the 3rd movement. It really shocks me that Beethoven or anyone could write a piece of music so brilliant like that!

jasonjayr 3y ago
One of my favorite 'reinterpretations' of the piece is by Meganeko, link here: https://soundcloud.com/meganeko/beethoven-moonlight-sonata-3rd https://soundcloud.com/meganeko/beethoven-moonlight-sonata-3...
broscillator 3y ago
There's many movements like that through his sonatas. You might enjoy the Sonata no 27 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLzQbyWfBnY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLzQbyWfBnY it starts with a catching rhythmic pattern, it gets calm and lyrical but it builds up to incredible heights.

khazhoux 3y ago

Moonlight Sonata is a good example of how you can be "brain-limited" in learning a piece, rather than limited by technique and finger dexterity. Moonlight is very easy on the fingers. But the constant variations are a challenge for people with poor memorization and slow recall like myself. You hit an F# instead of G# on the third repeat of a pattern and it's all over.