Gavotte Lully Jean-Baptiste, by Lully
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 Gavotte Lully Jean-Baptiste
Here it is. Check your inbox for day 1.
- Hear it through at Slow (45 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 G minor. Say the note names out loud the first time through, then play it three times without stopping.
- Find the chords under it: Gm, D, Cm7 and Dsus4. 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, 45 bpm. Bars 1 to 8 only. Stop after every wrong note and play that bar again before moving on.
- Move up to Steady (68 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 gavotte is a French duple-time dance that begins halfway through the bar rather than on the downbeat.
How to play it
Count the upbeat properly and it dances; ignore it and the whole piece sits a beat out of place.
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 Lully sheet music
Who Lully was
Florentine-born composer who became the absolute ruler of French music under Louis XIV, holding a royal monopoly so tight that no opera could be staged in France without his permission. He effectively invented French opera, and the French overture with it, and he conducted by pounding a long staff on the floor to keep time. In 1687 he struck his own foot with it during a performance, the wound turned gangrenous, and he refused amputation because it would have ended his dancing. It killed him.
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 G minor.