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Chopin Prelude in E minor, easy piano
Chopin's Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 No. 4, in four free versions: an easy version with the melody over two-note left-hand chords, a late-beginner version with the melody over Chopin's bass line, the original right hand with an easier left hand, 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 intermediate, plus the original
- 26 bars · 2/2
- Free: play, print, MIDI
Versions of Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 No. 4. Each version is a request typed into PlayableNotes. Pick one to hear and print it.
Typed into PlayableNotes“Make this easier for my second-year student. Keep Chopin's melody but leave out the turn. In the left hand, play two-note chords in quarter notes instead of three-note chords in eighth notes, and keep the notes sliding down by half steps.”
What changed
Chopin's melody over two-note left-hand chords in quarter notes, with both falling lines kept.
- Right hand: Chopin's melody as written, with the grace notes in bars 12 and 20 and the triplets in bars 13 and 19. The turn in bar 17 is left out: the A-sharp is held for a quarter note instead.
- Left hand: one quarter-note chord in place of each of Chopin's pairs of eighth-note chords, so there are half as many to play.
- Each chord keeps two of Chopin's three notes, usually the bass and the top. Both lines that slide down by half steps are still there: G, F-sharp, F, E, D-sharp, D in the bass and E, D-sharp, D, C-sharp, C, B on top. The middle voice is left out.
- Bars 11 and 12: one quarter note in each bar is Chopin's low B with D-sharp, so the B seventh chord keeps its D-sharp. Bar 21: the third and fourth quarters are B with D-sharp, then B with A, so the bass stays on B and steps up to C in bar 22 while the A falls to G. Bars 19 to 21: the other B chords are B and E.
- Bar 18: the low B octave becomes a single B. Chopin's A–C–F-sharp–A chord becomes A with F-sharp on the second quarter (Chopin has it from the second eighth), then G with F-sharp and G with E, so the climax has no big jump.
- Bar 19: the low A and the chord after it become one chord, A with F-sharp, on the second quarter, under the triplet.
- Bars 25 and 26: Chopin's low octaves and the chords above them become B with F-sharp, then E with G. Bar 24 keeps Chopin's three-note chord. The widest left-hand stretch is a major seventh.
For teachers: For a student who reads both clefs and can keep an accompaniment steady under a melody. Learn the left hand alone first and name the note that moves at each change; then add the right hand, always a little louder than the chords.
Typed into PlayableNotes“Make a late-beginner version: the melody in the right hand with no turn, grace notes or triplets and nothing faster than eighth notes, and Chopin's falling bass line in the left hand, one note at a time, with chords only in bar 24 and the last bar.”
What changed
The melody in simple rhythms over Chopin's bass line, one note on each half bar.
- Right hand: the melody's notes in quarter, half and eighth notes. The pickup is a single B; there are no sixteenth notes, grace notes, triplets or turn.
- Bar 8: the B is a quarter note; the A after it is left out. Bar 10: the dip to the low E is left out. Bar 13: the triplet D, C, B is left out; D-sharp and F-sharp become quarter notes.
- Bar 17: B, A-sharp and the leap up to G in quarter notes, then F-sharp and E in even eighths, in place of the dotted rhythms and the turn. Bar 18: E, D-sharp, high C, D-sharp, E, G; the second of the two D-sharps and the closing B are left out. Bar 19: the triplet becomes a single A before the fall to F-sharp.
- Bar 21: the F-sharp is held for the whole bar.
- Left hand: Chopin's bass line, falling G, F-sharp, F, E, D-sharp, D, C, B, in half notes: the bass note is played again at each half bar, where Chopin's chords change, so the slow pulse is kept. Quarter notes in bars 13 and 17 to 19. Bars 2 and 14 add an E before the G that is not in Chopin's bass, so the opening sounds clearly in E minor.
- Bar 18: the bass steps down B, A, G an octave below Chopin's chords instead of leaping between octaves.
- Bar 24 keeps Chopin's chord, B-flat, C and G, before the fermata; bar 25 holds a low B, and bar 26 ends on E and G.
For teachers: For a late beginner who reads both clefs and has started to move the right hand out of a five-finger position. The melody is mostly long notes, so the work is counting: hold each dotted half note for three quarter notes while the left hand plays a half note on each half bar. The right hand moves in the middle of a phrase in bar 13, down to the B below middle C, and in bars 17 to 19: the leap up to G, the high C, and the fall back to F-sharp. Find those before the first run-through.
Typed into PlayableNotes“Keep the right hand exactly as Chopin wrote it. Make the left hand easier but keep every chord and all its moving notes: quarter-note chords instead of pairs of eighth-note chords, and no four-note chords.”
What changed
Chopin's right hand note for note, over his three-note chords in quarter notes.
- Right hand: unchanged, with the written-out turn in bar 17, the grace notes and both triplets. In bars 25 and 26 it also plays the closing chords, as in the edition.
- Left hand: each pair of repeated eighth-note chords becomes one quarter-note chord, so there are half as many to play. Every chord change falls on the same quarter note as in the original, so all the half-step slides are kept.
- Bar 18: the four-note chords become three notes (A–C–F-sharp, G–D-sharp–F-sharp, G–B–E), keeping the D-sharp that rises to E. The low B octave on the downbeat stays, now a quarter note, so the A–C–F-sharp chord comes on the second quarter and there is more time for the jump up.
- Bar 19: the low A and the chord after it stay eighth notes against the triplet. Bars 24 to 26 are as Chopin wrote them: in the last two bars the left hand plays only the low B octave, then B–F-sharp–B, then the E octave, held with the pedal.
For teachers: For a student working toward the original. Keep the chords soft and level, change the pedal with each chord change, and once this feels secure, move to the original and play each chord twice.
The piece as published: Mutopia Project no. 468, engraved by Magnus Lewis-Smith from the Peters edition (1879).
Original
What changed
What changed
The prelude as Chopin wrote it, with the left hand's repeated eighth-note chords.
- The notes are the source edition's, checked bar by bar. The turn in bar 17 is written out in thirty-second notes, as it is played. In bars 25 and 26 the right hand also plays the chords under the melody, as in the edition; the left hand plays the low B octave, then B–F-sharp–B, then the E octave.
For teachers: The hardest bars are 17 to 19: the turn, the leap to high C over the jump from the low B octave, and the stretto. Loop them slowly on their own before playing the piece through.
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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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 Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 No. 4
The Prelude in E minor is the fourth of Chopin's 24 Preludes, Op. 28, one in every major and minor key, published in 1839. It is 25 bars long after the opening pickup and marked Largo. The right hand sings a melody that barely moves, B and C again and again, then A and B, while the left hand repeats soft eighth-note chords and lets one note at a time slip down a half step. That slow slide is the sound of the piece. In the second half the melody climbs to a forte climax, falls back, and stops: a soft chord, then a silence under a fermata before the last two bars.
The notes are not hard to find. The difficulty is control: about 170 left-hand chords that have to stay quiet and even while their notes move at different moments, and a climax with a turn, a leap to high C and a left-hand jump of nearly two octaves. Bar numbers on this page count the opening pickup as bar 1, so they are one higher than in most printed editions.
The easy version keeps Chopin's melody and gives the left hand two notes of each chord, in quarter notes instead of pairs of eighths, so both sliding lines are still heard. The late-beginner version puts the melody in simple rhythms over Chopin's falling bass line, one note on each half bar. The easier-left-hand version keeps the right hand exactly as written and every three-note chord, played once per quarter note instead of twice: a step toward the original.
Practice tips
- Learn the left hand alone first, a bar at a time, and name the note that moves at each chord change. In bars 3 to 5 it is a different finger almost every time; once you know the order of the slides, the chords read themselves.
- Keep the left hand quieter than the melody all the way through. Play the chords from the surface of the keys with a loose wrist, so they stay soft and even.
- Use the pedal lightly and change it whenever the chord changes, usually every half bar. If you hold it longer, the half-step slides blur into each other.
- Bars 17 to 19 are the climax, where Chopin asks the music to press forward. Loop bars 17 and 18 slowly until the leap to the high C is sure, then let the tempo move a little there and settle back in bar 20.
- Hold the rest under the fermata in bar 24 longer than its value: the silence is part of the piece. Then play the last two bars very softly; in the original, the right hand also takes the chords under the melody.
Questions about Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 No. 4
How hard is Chopin's Prelude in E minor?
The original is short and the right hand is slow, so many intermediate students learn it. The hard part is control: about 170 soft, even left-hand chords with notes moving inside them, and a climax with a turn, a leap to high C and a left-hand jump of nearly two octaves. The easy and late-beginner versions here take out the turn and the two-octave left-hand jump and keep the melody.
Can a beginner play the Chopin Prelude in E minor?
Not the original, but the melody, yes: it moves mostly between neighboring notes in long values. The late-beginner version on this page puts it in simple rhythms over Chopin's bass line in single notes. It is not a first-year piece: the melody reaches from the B below middle C up to the C two octaves above middle C, and the right hand leaves its position several times, most of all in bars 13 and 17 to 19. A student who reads both clefs and has started moving around the keyboard can play it through.
How fast should the Prelude in E minor be played?
Chopin marks it Largo, which means very slow. This page plays the original at 48 quarter notes a minute; use the tempo control to learn it slower. In bars 17 to 19 the music presses forward a little (Chopin writes stretto) and then settles back.
Was this prelude played at Chopin's funeral?
Yes. At his funeral at the Madeleine church in Paris in October 1849, this prelude and the Prelude in B minor, Op. 28 No. 6, were played on the organ.
What songs are based on Chopin's Prelude in E minor?
Serge Gainsbourg's "Jane B." (1969) sets new words to its melody and chords, and Antônio Carlos Jobim's "Insensatez" ("How Insensitive") is often described as based on its harmony. The music on this page is Chopin's prelude itself.
Can I download the Prelude in E minor 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
- Mutopia Project no. 468, engraved by Magnus Lewis-Smith from the Peters edition (1879)
- License
- Public domain
- Arranger
- PlayableNotes
Checked note by note against the Mutopia MIDI and engraved PDF. Three other public-domain engravings in the PDMX collection agree with it where editions differ: the G–B–D-sharp–F-sharp chord in bar 18, the B-flat in bar 24 and the turn on the A-sharp in bar 17, which is written out here as the four thirty-second notes it is played as. In bars 25 and 26 the edition prints the right hand's chords in the bass staff; here they are on the right hand's staff, in the bass clef. Largo, the expression words (espressivo, stretto, smorzando) and the pedal marks are in the printed edition but not in these scores.
Arrangements and facts checked
