Tetris Theme: bars 5–8

Lesson 10 · about 15 minutes · add the next four-bar phrase

Today's win: play bars 5–8 with both hands, three clean runs in a row.

1 · Warm-up: bars 1–4, cold

Play Lesson 8's four-bar opening once from memory, with no score or note-name hints. Check it afterwards. If a note is fuzzy, restart that bar rather than stopping the whole passage.

2 · Read bars 5–8

Keep Octave 0 and Transpose 0. Your left hand plays one bass note on every eighth-note step: D3, C3, B3, then A3. The source bass is in a lower octave; these notes are raised one octave so they fit your keyboard. The right hand moves among familiar white keys from the opening and reaches up to A5 in bar 5. Start at 75 bpm; the source page lists 120, but today the goal is a steady pulse and relaxed hand changes.Bars 5–8 are rows five through eight of Virtual Piano's Tetris Theme (Alternative). The keyboard-label sequence and rhythm follow those rows. Low bass notes are raised one octave to fit the PSS-A50.

Right-hand move after bar 4: shift your hand up so your thumb is on D5 and your pinky is on A5. Keep one finger over each white key in between. Start bar 5 from this new position; bars 6–8 stay within or below it.

Bars 5–8 use D3, C3, B3 and A3 in the left hand; the right hand stays near C5–A5.

3 · Right hand alone

Count each bar “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &”. The fifth bar begins with a rest before the right hand enters on “&”. In bars 6–8, keep the spaces between notes steady even when the melody leaves a count empty.

Count1&2&3&4&
Bar 5–D5–F5A5–G5F5
Bar 6E5––C5E5–D5C5
Bar 7B4––C5D5–E5–
Bar 8C5–A4–A4–––

4 · Left hand alone

Play each bar's bass note eight times, one per step. Move from D3 to C3, then B3, then A3 at the bar lines. Keep all four groups even and light.

5 · Bars 5–8, both hands

Put the hands together. Keep the left-hand pulse steady while the right hand plays its tune. Use Slower if the hand changes tangle; once clean, use Faster a step at a time.

6 · Connect to bars 1–4

Finish by playing the whole eight-bar opening once without stopping. The new phrase begins on D3 immediately after the fourth bar's A3 pulse.

7 · Check yourself

8 · The next three days

  1. Tomorrow: play bars 1–4 cold, then bars 5–8 with the score but note names hidden.
  2. Day after: practise bars 5–8 hands separately, then together at a comfortable tempo.
  3. Day 3: play bars 1–8 without stopping. Keep the bass eighth notes even through each change.
Primary source: Virtual Piano's “Tetris Theme (Alternative)” sheet Virtual Piano · note labels, 120 bpm. This lesson converts rows five through eight to staff notation; the complete sheet remains at the source.
Which of bars 5–8 felt least secure? Tell me how many clean four-bar runs you got and whether connecting all eight bars felt smooth.

Previous: Lesson 8 (Tetris, bars 1–4) · Next: Lesson 11, bars 9–12 · Keyboard map · Glossary