Hello everybody and best wishes for 2009.

One month ago I bought a Clavinova Clp 330. I have absolutely no prior musical experience.

At the moment I'm self teaching. I've been doing all the beginners type exercises learning to read, scales, bits of Hanon etc. Many of the basic pieces are so "plinky plonky" and uninspiring that I've started to work on Moonlight Sonata 1st movement.

You won't be surprised to find that I've hit a snag fairly early on and I feel if I can get over this hurdle I can progress a bit further.

I've done a search but my results didn't help much. I'm sorry if this has been adequately covered before.

This is the problem. 5th bar. The music shows two g# played simultaneously then middle c# is played and then e# + g# which appear on the stave as being slightly offset from each other. When I listen to a recording of the piece it sounds like the g# is being played separately.

Am I right? Can anybody please explain in very simple terms the sequence of my finger movements for this part (similar patterns occur afterwards)

Thanks for your help and advice.

Chris

The second G# is played slightly after the E (not E#). This is a simple polyrhythm: a triplet played against a dotted eighth and sixteenth. The notation indicates this by offsetting the second G# just a bit from the third note of the triplet.

I'm not sure what you mean by the sequence of finger movements. Is it the rhythm or notation that is confusing, or are you asking about the actual fingers to use? (I use 1-2-3 to play the triplet and 5 to play the G#, both in the RH of course).

Thank you for your help and advice. I'll persevere a little longer.

Regards

Chris

I applaud your ambition. Noah Adams, a US radio personality, wrote a book (Piano Lessons) about his year learning Scuhmann's Traumerei as an adult novice pianist.

If you are looking for satisfying, easy pieces, there are countless beginner to intermediate level compilations of masterworks from baroque to early 20th century composers.

Good luck with your studies.