Free easy piano · Classical
Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2, easy piano
Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2, in three free versions: a shortened easy version in C major that keeps the tune and his harmony, a late-beginner version of the famous opening (his first 16 bars) in C, and the complete original. Play each one here, slow it down or loop a bar, then print the PDF or download the MIDI.
- Frédéric Chopin
- Easy to late beginner, plus the original
- 26 bars · 12/8
- Free: play, print, MIDI
Versions of Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2. Each version is a request typed into PlayableNotes. Pick one to hear and print it.
Typed into PlayableNotes“Make Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 easier for my student in the second or third year. Put it in C major so there's no key signature, keep the melody with only the simplest of Chopin's decorations, and give the left hand a bass note and small two-note chords, with smaller jumps than his. Leave out the cadenza, the repeat of the second theme and the last, most decorated return of the theme, and shorten the build-up to the forte octaves.”
What changed
The theme, its first two decorated returns, the second theme and the closing section in C major, over a left hand that keeps Chopin's bass-and-chord rhythm in two-note chords.
- Key: C major, a minor third below Chopin's E-flat, so there is no key signature; his chromatic notes are written as accidentals. The tune starts G–E–D–E instead of B♭–G–F–G.
- Form, 26 bars: Chopin's bars 1 to 16 and 25 to 28, a simplified bar 30, bar 31, the first half of bar 32 and his last two bars. Left out: his bars 17 to 24 (the second theme again and the last, most decorated return), bar 29 and the cadenza.
- Right hand: Chopin's melody without trills, turns or grace notes. Bar 3 keeps the drop to the low A, and bars 7 and 15 repeat bar 3. Bar 6 plays his decoration as D–E–C♯–D, then a held C; bar 14 repeats it. In bar 11 his dotted D and quick C become one D, and the second half of bar 13 keeps only the top line.
- Bars 5, 9 and 17: the quick figure starts on the G above the staff, not an octave lower. In bar 17 (Chopin's bar 16) it replaces his run.
- Left hand: Chopin's bass note on each beat, then a two-note chord on his harmony, played twice. The bass is an octave higher where his needs ledger lines below the staff, except the last low C. Bars 2 and 6 thin his diminished chord to F–B. In the second half of bar 13 the bass steps down G–F♯–F–E–D to a low G, an octave below his.
- Bars 20 to 22: the falling run is an octave lower than Chopin's and reaches middle C in even eighth notes, then the build-up climbs with a crescendo to C–B–A.
- Bars 23 and 24: his forte octaves are single notes, the lower note at the pitch it sounds, without 8va, over a broken G–D–F–B and a held G–F. The held G under the fermata gets a B below it.
- Bars 25 and 26: his last two bars, with the left hand rocking C–G in bar 25. In bar 26 its second chord is E–C, lower than his C–G, and the third of the last chord, E, moves from his left hand into the right hand, over a held low C–G.
For teachers: For a student in the second or third year who reads ledger lines above the staff and can keep a left-hand pattern of three eighth notes steady. It sits at the top of the Easy level: the left hand plays on every eighth note, with chromatic chords and moves of up to a tenth from the bass to the chord in more than half the bars, and the right hand has short sixteenth-note figures, as in bars 5, 9 and 17. In the last bar the right hand drops two octaves to middle C, and the left hand goes down to the low C on two ledger lines below the staff. Learn the left hand of bars 2 to 5 first, since its chords come back in most of the piece. Keep the chords softer than the melody, and change the pedal on each bass note.
Typed into PlayableNotes“Make a simpler version of the famous opening for a student near the end of the first year: C major, the melody alone in the right hand with no ornaments and nothing faster than eighth notes, and a left hand of only held bass notes or open fifths.”
What changed
Chopin's first 16 bars as a plain tune over his bass line in held notes, with a short closing bar.
- 18 bars: Chopin's bars 1 to 16 (the theme, its first return, the second theme and the theme again) and a closing bar made from his bar 33. Key: C major, a minor third below the original.
- Right hand: the melody alone, with nothing faster than an eighth note and no turns, trills or grace notes. Chopin's decorated returns of the theme (his bars 5 to 8 and 13 to 16) are played as the plain theme, so bars 6 to 9 and 14 to 17 repeat bars 2 to 5 with a different ending. The low A in bar 3, before the octave leap, is kept.
- Bars 5, 9 and 17: Chopin's quick figure becomes G–B–A–G–F–B in eighth notes into the C, starting on the G just above the staff instead of the G on the second line. No leap in the right hand is wider than an octave.
- Bars 11 to 13: the quick figure in bar 11 becomes C–B–D, the two-note chords in bar 12 are single notes, and the chromatic bar 13 (Chopin's bar 12) becomes C, B–A–B, G, G♯–A–B over the bass A, D, G–F♯, D–G, so it ends on D and G in the bass.
- Left hand: Chopin's bass line in held notes and open fifths (C–G, G–D, D–A), between the F below the bass staff and the A at its top. In bars 2, 6 and 14 the C–G fifth is played on beats 1, 3 and 4, and Chopin's passing B comes on the last eighth note. In bars 4, 8 and 16 the bass moves one note a beat, G–G♯–A–F♯, as his does. In bar 11 the second note is A♭ instead of his low F, so the F minor chord is heard.
- The chromatic chords Chopin puts over the bass, as in bars 2, 3 and 13, are left out; the melody and the bass line carry the harmony.
- Bar 18: the right hand plays Chopin's closing figure C–G–E twice and ends on E–C over a held C–G, a full C major chord.
For teachers: Late beginner: for a student near the end of the first year or in the second, who can count dotted quarter notes. The left hand is easy; the right hand changes position in most bars and reaches the A and B above the staff in bars 3, 5, 7, 9, 15 and 17. In bar 3 the tune drops to A and then leaps an octave to the high A. Mark those moves in pencil and practice each one slowly before playing hands together.
The piece as published: PDMX dataset: MuseScore score 2208476, "Nocturne No. 2 Opus 9 (Chopin)", uploaded by 007sam21.
Original
What changed
What changed
The complete nocturne from a public-domain PDMX engraving, checked against three CC0 engravings of it.
- Nothing beyond the corrections listed under the source.
- Chopin's bar 32 is four bars here: bar 33 holds the forte octaves under the fermata, and the cadenza is written across bars 34 to 36. So bars 37 and 38 are his bars 33 and 34. Playback plays the cadenza strictly in time; Chopin marks it to be played freely.
For teachers: Chopin marked it Andante, with an eighth note at 132. The hardest places are the runs in bars 17 and 25, the forte octaves in bars 31 to 33 and the cadenza. A student coming from the easy version already knows the harmony; the new work is the left hand, which leaps from a low bass note to a three-note chord on almost every beat, so learn it alone first.
Want it different? Just ask.
Open this version in PlayableNotes and ask for a change in words: simpler, another key, shorter, bigger notes. The result is a new version you can play, print and share with your student.
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Watch how to ask for your own version · 1 min video
Make your own version
A real request in PlayableNotes, on Für Elise from the free library: say who it’s for and what to keep, and the AI writes a new version beside the original. It shows how to ask for a version of your own; its result is not one of the versions on this page.
About Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2
Chopin published his three Nocturnes, Op. 9, in 1832, when he was 22, and dedicated them to Marie Pleyel. The second, in E-flat major, is the best known of all his nocturnes. Its tune is heard four times, and each return is more decorated than the last, with turns, trills and runs. Between the returns comes a second theme that starts in B-flat, and near the end the music grows into forte octaves and a cadenza high in the treble before closing quietly.
The tune itself is simple. What makes the nocturne hard is everything around it: three flats, a 12/8 left hand that leaps from a low bass note to a chord on almost every beat, and decorations that get faster with each return, up to the 32nd-note runs in Chopin's bars 16 and 24 and the cadenza. Both arrangements move the music a minor third down to C major, so there is no key signature, and leave out or simplify the decorations. The easy version keeps Chopin's bass-and-chord pattern and his harmony, with the chords thinned to two notes; the late-beginner version plays the plain tune of the opening over his bass line in held notes and open fifths.
Bar numbers on this page are the ones printed on these scores. They count the opening upbeat as bar 1, so they run one ahead of most printed editions up to the cadenza: Chopin's bar 16 is bar 17 here. The easy version leaves some of Chopin's later bars out, as its change list says, and the late-beginner version stops after his bar 16.
Practice tips
- Count 12/8 as four slow beats, each split into three eighth notes; the player's bpm counts quarter notes, not dotted quarters. In the easy version the left hand plays on every eighth note, so let it set the pulse and fit the melody's long notes on top.
- Play the left-hand chords more softly than the bass note before them, and the melody louder than both. The tune should sing, and the chords should sound like a gentle pulse under it.
- Change the pedal with each new bass note. Holding it longer blurs the chromatic chords in bars 3 and 4 of the easy version.
- Hold the long notes for their full value: the E that opens bar 2 (G in the original) lasts four eighths, and the dotted quarters in bars 3 and 4 need their whole three. Counting through them keeps the tune from hurrying.
- In the easy version, loop bar 13 (Chopin's bar 12) on its own: in the second half of the bar the hands move in opposite directions, mostly by half steps. In the late-beginner version, loop bar 3 for the drop to the low A and the octave leap.
Questions about Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2
What grade is Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2, and is it hard to play?
The original is late-intermediate to early-advanced music: Henle's edition of the Nocturnes (HN 233) rates it 6 on its 1-to-9 difficulty scale, a level Henle calls medium. The melody is not difficult, but the left hand leaps from bass to chord on almost every beat, and the right hand's ornaments include 32nd-note runs and a long cadenza. On this page, the easy version keeps the tune and Chopin's chord changes at a level for a student in the second or third year, and the late-beginner version plays the opening tune over his bass line for a student near the end of the first year.
Why are the easy versions in C major instead of E-flat?
C major has no key signature, so a student can read the tune without three flats to remember; Chopin's chromatic notes are written in as accidentals. It is a minor third lower than Chopin's key, so the tune's highest notes need fewer ledger lines. With a free PlayableNotes account you can ask the AI chat to put the easy version in E-flat or in any other key, and editing costs nothing.
How fast should the nocturne be played?
Chopin marked it Andante, with an eighth note at 132, which is 44 dotted-quarter beats a minute. Many pianists take it a little slower. The tempo on this page counts quarter notes, so the easy version's 50 is 100 eighth notes a minute; learn it slower and raise the tempo with the slider.
When did Chopin write it, and who was it for?
Chopin wrote the three Op. 9 nocturnes between 1830 and 1832, the years in which he left Warsaw, stayed in Vienna and settled in Paris. They were published in 1832, when he was 22, with a dedication to Marie Pleyel, the pianist wife of the piano maker Camille Pleyel.
Why do the ornaments in my copy look different?
Editions of this nocturne differ in the small notes. Chopin taught the piece often and wrote alternative ornaments into his pupils' scores, and some editions print them. The original on this page follows one public-domain engraving, checked against three others; the easy and late-beginner versions leave the ornaments out.
Can I download the nocturne as a PDF or MIDI file?
Yes, free and without an account. Every version has a Letter-size PDF to print and a MIDI file with the right and left hands on separate tracks.
Source and credits
- Composer
- Frédéric Chopin
- Source edition
- PDMX dataset: MuseScore score 2208476, "Nocturne No. 2 Opus 9 (Chopin)", uploaded by 007sam21
- License
- Public Domain Mark 1.0
- Arranger
- PlayableNotes
The file was checked against three CC0 engravings of the nocturne from the PDMX dataset and corrected wherever they agree with each other against it: the C minor chords in bars 4, 8, 16 and 24 (top note G, not B-flat), the B-flat chords in bars 10 and 18, the missing D in the left-hand chords of bars 17, 25 and 29, the chromatic run in bar 17 (B-flat restored, the last three notes as a triplet), two ties in bars 14 and 22, the turn in bar 27, and the B-flat octave after the C-flat octave in bar 33. Chopin's bar 32, printed as one long bar, becomes four bars here: bar 33 holds the forte octaves under the fermata, and the cadenza is written across bars 34 to 36.
The full edition is also in the library: Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2, ready to play and edit.
Arrangements and facts checked
