The left hand joins

Lesson 2 · about 12 minutes · Moonlight bars 1–2, both hands

In lesson 1 your right hand learned the Moonlight shape. Under it, Beethoven gives the left hand one low note per bar, held down for the whole bar. In the original that's C♯ in bar 1 and B in bar 2.Checked against the note-by-note source of the 1908 Winterberger edition at the Mutopia Project. Scans of the original are on IMSLP. In our E-minor version those become E, then D. The right hand keeps playing B E G the whole time.

Today's win: play the first two bars of the Moonlight Sonata with both hands, three clean runs in a row.

0 · Set up

Octave 0 · Sustain off · Arpeggio off, same as last time.
Look at the grey status line on the first drill. If it doesn't say Keyboard connected, see getting the keyboard heard at the bottom of the page. Meanwhile you can click the on-screen keys.

1 · Warm-up: from memory

Don't scroll back to lesson 1. Put your right hand on B E G and play the shape four times through, with Show next key off. Remembering it without help is the practice. If it takes a moment to come back, that's normal.

2 · Where the hands go

Your PSS-A50 runs from C to C, so it has four C's. Count them from the left:

Left hand: E and D in the lowest octave, between the first and second C. Finger 3 on E, finger 4 on D.
Right hand: the B just left of the third C, then E and G above it. Fingers 1 · 3 · 5 or 1 · 2 · 5, whichever you used last time.

The 1908 edition marks the right hand 1–3–5. If 1–2–5 is working for you, keep it. What matters is that you always use the same fingering.Why 3 and 4 in the left hand? In bar 3 the bass steps down again, to C. With 3 on E and 4 on D, finger 5 is already waiting over C.

Tinted: left hand E and D, right hand B, E, G. This is your whole keyboard, all 37 keys.

3 · Press together, then hold

Three rules for this lesson:

Land together. The bass note and the first B of the bar go down at exactly the same moment.
Hold. The left hand stays down while the right hand plays all twelve notes of the bar. The bass keeps ringing under the shape. Beethoven asks for that ringing with the pedal: the score is headed sempre pianissimo e senza sordini, "always very soft, without dampers".The instruction appears at bar 1 of the Mutopia source and the IMSLP scans. "Without dampers" means the sustain pedal is held down. Your keyboard has no pedal, so holding the bass key is how you get that ringing.
Switch at the bar line. Lift the E and land on D with the next B, not before it and not after.

Rule 3 is the hard part, so practise it on its own first. This drill switches the bass every three notes: E, then D, then E again. The steps marked E+B mean both keys together. Play slowly. The grader doesn't time you.

4 · Bars 1–2

Now the real thing: twelve notes over E, then twelve over D. Press ▶ Hear it once, then play it. Count "one-and-a, two-and-a, three-and-a, four-and-a" for each bar.

After three clean runs, play it once more without the screen and listen. The low note should keep ringing under the shape, with no gap when you switch from E to D.

5 · Check yourself

From memory:

6 · The next three days

Tomorrow: warm-up drill, then bars 1–2 (three clean runs). Start without reading the page.
Day after: bars 1–2 without the screen, eyes on the music stand, 5 times. Count out loud.
Day 3: play bars 1–2 very softly, the way Beethoven asked. Your keys are touch-sensitive, so a lighter touch gives a quieter sound. Then come back for lesson 3: bar 3, where the right-hand shape changes for the first time.

Primary source: listen before tomorrow Play a recording of the first movement from IMSLP and listen only to the lowest notes. Over the first four bars they step down slowly, one held note at a time. You now play the first two of those steps.

Getting the keyboard heard

Use a USB cable that carries data. Some cables only charge. If the keyboard came with a cable, use that one.
Check that the Mac sees it: Apple menu → About This Mac → More Info → System Report → USB. The PSS-A50 should be listed. If it isn't, it's the cable or the port.
If it's listed but the drill still says blocked, Chrome is refusing MIDI on a local file. Ask me to start the local server, or run python3 -m http.server 8000 in the course folder, then open localhost:8000/lessons/0002-….

Is the hand switch at the bar line not working, are the hands bumping into each other, or is the drill not hearing you? Ask me. I'm your teacher, and that's what I'm here for.

Previous: Lesson 1 · Reference: Keyboard map · Glossary · Next: Lesson 3 (bar 3), after the three days.