Moonlight Sonata

Is there a piano piece that is more well-known than the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven? Well, maybe. But, Moonlight Sonata is right up there at the top of the list. Even people who don’t know or like classical music like this piece. And almost everyone who plays the piano at some point wants to play Moonlight Sonata. In fact, it’s one of the most requested tutorials on my YouTube channel. So I decided to go ahead and fulfill that request! Is this an easy piece to learn and to play? No way! But, if you have the desire and dedicate the time to practice, you can follow my tutorials and achieve the goal of playing the first movement of Moonlight Sonata.

Here is the performance video, which shows you my interpretation of the dynamics and tempo. Every time I play, I make different choices about expression, so this particular performance is in no way how you “should” do it. It’s just one example. But it does also show you how the hands fit together in real time and how to transition from one section to another.

And the tutorials:

Remember that you can slow down the videos to .75 speed to make my demonstrations even slower. Have a great time learning this masterpiece of classical music.