Piano songs · Intermediate
Arabesque No. 1 on piano
Debussy's first Arabesque flows like water: rippling triplets passed between the hands, and a melody that floats over them. Here's the opening.
this song
About the piece
Claude Debussy published his Deux Arabesques in 1891, when he was in his twenties. An arabesque is a flowing, decorative line, and the triplets that run through this one are exactly that. It's one of Debussy's earliest and most loved piano pieces.
The notes
The letters above are the tune, played by your right hand: C♯ C♯ E F♯ G♯ D♯ B; B A A C♯ D♯ E B G♯; G♯ C♯ F♯ C♯ C♯; F♯ A A G♯ F♯; E F♯ C♯ E B C♯ G♯ B F♯ G♯ E G♯. Longer boxes are longer notes. Press Play and follow along, slow it down with the speed slider, or turn on Wait for me and play each note yourself.
How to learn it
- The triplets are shared between the hands: make the handover invisible, so it sounds like one hand.
- Four sharps: E major. Mark the F♯, C♯, G♯ and D♯ before you start.
- The melody in the third bar sits on top: let it sing over the ripple.
- Rubato: it breathes. Learn it in strict time first, then let it flow.
Learning Arabesque No. 1 on a real piano? Ivory listens to you play and tells you what's off: a note that's missing, a hand that lands late, a rhythm that runs away. Then it shows you how it should go.
Questions people ask
Is Debussy's Arabesque No. 1 hard?
It's intermediate: the notes fall under the hand, but the cross-hand triplets need practice to sound smooth.
When did Debussy write the Arabesques?
The Deux Arabesques were published in 1891.
More songs to play
Notes checked against the public-domain Mutopia Project edition (mutopiaproject.org). Piano sound: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm, CC BY 3.0.