Piano songs · Early intermediate
Gymnopédie No. 1 on piano
Gymnopédie No. 1 is slow, calm and strange in the best way: two chords rocking back and forth, and a melody that floats over them. Here are the opening and the first two phrases.
this song
Gymnopédie No. 1 sheet music
The same notes as the player above, as a piano score: D major, 3/4 time. Press Play and the notes light up as they sound. Free to print or save as a PDF.
How to read the rhythms · how to read the notes
About the piece
Erik Satie published his three Gymnopédies in Paris in 1888, when he was 21. The title comes from an ancient Greek festival with dancing. Satie marked the first one "Lent et douloureux": slow and sorrowful.
The notes
The letters above are the tune, played by your right hand: F♯ A G F♯ C♯; B C♯ D A F♯; A G F♯ C♯ B; C♯ D A. 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 left hand leaps: a low note on beat 1, then a chord on beat 2, held. Practise the jump with your eyes on the keys until it's sure.
- The melody enters on F♯ in bar 5 and falls: F♯, A, G, F♯, C♯, B, C♯, D, A.
- Slow means slow: count three steady beats. The space is the music.
- Pedal: change it with each low bass note, so each chord rings without blurring into the next.
Learning Gymnopédie 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 Gymnopédie No. 1 hard to play?
It's early intermediate: the notes are few and slow. The challenges are the left hand's leaps and keeping a calm, even pulse.
What does Gymnopédie mean?
Satie took the name from the Gymnopaedia, an ancient Spartan festival where young men danced.
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.