Lesson 23: 3/4 Time and Waltzes

• Hear different ways to shape three beats in a bar.
• Keep a steady three-beat pulse in a dance tune.

Keep three equal beats as the style changes.

Three beats can sweep, step or lean. Keep the pulse while changing articulation and weight.

Waltz — ONE-two-three

Strong first beat, light second and third. The melody sweeps forward through the bar.

Minuet — ONE-two-three

Keep a light first-beat stress and clear, short note starts; let each phrase guide the shape.

Sarabande — one, TWO-three

Try a slower pulse with weight on the long second beat; keep counting through the held note.

Play: Petzold, Minuet in G — bars 1–2

Petzold’s opening stays within G4–D5; keep its eighths even.

Petzold’s opening stays within C5–G5; keep its eighths even.

Garvin’s Mutopia edition, public domain; accompaniment omitted.

Now play these

Amazing Grace · hymn in 3/4

Lean on beat one but do not pound.

Scarborough Fair — Kidson’s Whitby air

Keep three beats per bar, including the opening pickup.

Return to Petzold’s full first strain after Lessons 28–31.

When you keep three equal beats while changing the weight and note starts in the studies, continue to Lesson 24.