Humoresque - Antonin Dvorak, by Dvořák
Every score here is public domain, free to read, print and keep. Open it in the browser and it plays, at whatever tempo you can read it.
Get the practice plan for Humoresque - Antonin Dvorak
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- Hear it through at Slow (46 bpm). Open it in the reader, choose Slow, and follow the page with your eyes without playing. As it plays, count 4 to the bar.
- Learn the right hand of bars 1 to 8 on its own, in D♭ major. Say the note names out loud the first time through, then play it three times without stopping.
- Find the chords under it: D♭, E♭m7, D♭6 and A♭7. Play each one as a block in your left hand and say its name, so you know what the harmony is before the left hand has to move.
- Learn the left hand of the same bars on its own. Keep it quiet and even: it is the floor the tune stands on.
- Put hands together at Slow, 46 bpm. Bars 1 to 8 only. Stop after every wrong note and play that bar again before moving on.
- Move up to Steady (69 bpm) once Slow feels easy three times in a row. Then learn the next 8 bars the same way: right hand, left hand, together.
- Play the whole piece (about 1 minute) from the start, at whatever speed keeps it going. A steady run with a few slips beats a fast one that stops.
What kind of piece this is
A humoresque is a good-humoured character piece, playful rather than funny.
How to play it
Keep it light on its feet and slightly under-pedalled; the charm is in the lift, not the warmth.
Reading it, and printing it
The score opens in Artform's reader, which shows the music as engraved notation and plays it back so you can hear the line before you try it. You can slow the tempo down, loop a passage that is not working yet, and print the page when you would rather have paper on the stand.
The file itself is MusicXML, which MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale and Dorico all open, so the notes are yours to keep whatever you read them in.
More free Dvořák sheet music
Who Dvořák was
Czech composer, the son of a butcher and village innkeeper who was expected to take over the family trade, who instead became one of the most celebrated composers of his generation, championed early on by Brahms himself. He spent several years in the United States directing a New York conservatory, where he urged American composers to build a national style from the country's own folk and spiritual music rather than imitating Europe. His own Symphony No. 9, "From the New World," written during that stay and steeped in melodies he said were inspired by what he heard in America, became one of the most beloved symphonies ever composed, famously carried to the Moon by astronaut Neil Armstrong on…
Learn the music behind it
Reading a piece and understanding it are different skills. If you want the harmony under this one, the chord trainer teaches chords the way songs use them, and the scale pages cover the fingering for every key, including D♭ major.