Green notes: right hand, blue notes: left hand. Preview played right in your browser with the app's real piano (lightweight version). Inside Pianovera: full multi-layer sound, fingering display and Wait mode.
← Swipe the image to read the score →Beginning of the score, engraved by the Mutopia Project.View the whole score (PDF) →
Chopin was 21 when he wrote it, and it became the calling card of the entire nocturne genre, and one of the most searched-for piano MIDI files anywhere: an opera aria for the right hand, a rocking accompaniment for the left, and that feeling of time stretching a little more at every return of the theme.
The notes themselves aren't the hard part. What keeps this at upper-intermediate level is everything around them: ornaments that change at each repeat, rubato that has to breathe without wrecking the bar line, and a left hand that regularly spans more than an octave. Our advice is unglamorous: left hand alone, for longer than you'd like.
Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2: the first notes
Right hand, in letter names (C4 = middle C): A#4 G5 F5 G5 F5 D#5 A#4 G5 C5 C6 G5 A#5 G#5 G5 F5 G5 D5 D#5 C5 A#4 D6 C6 A#5 G#5… The rest scrolls in the preview above, with the fingering, and the sheet music PDF has the whole piece.
Play Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 on the virtual piano
Here are the Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 virtual piano notes, in computer keyboard letters: the first 4 bars of the melody. One key per note, read left to right; dark keys are the sharps, and a thin line marks each bar. The melody sounds an octave lower than written, so it fits on the keyboard.
Letters for a QWERTY keyboardYour keyboard: 30 notes
JTRTR;JTQIT76T
RTW;QJOI76T6QW;J
▶ Play on the virtual pianoThe piano opens with this piece loaded: the key to play lights up and waits for you.
What you'll be working on
The wide left-hand arpeggio pattern until it runs on autopilot
Ornaments that differ at every return of the melody
Rubato: stealing time, then giving it back
The final cadenza and its run in double notes
Playing Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 on piano with Pianovera
Turn on fingering display in Pianovera and isolate the left hand. Once it turns by itself, the melody gets its freedom back. An A·B loop on the closing cadenza saves you replaying three minutes to practice ten seconds.
Open Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 in Pianovera: the notes fall toward an 88-key virtual piano keyboard, each hand gets its color, and Wait mode is there if you're starting out. On a PC, it's falling notes piano software for Windows, with video export up to 4K.
Free, with no time limit and no ads: 30 pieces (10 in full, 20 in a simplified version), the first 10 lessons and 10 minutes of 3D hands (then 15 seconds per piece). Premium opens all 651 pieces.
Download the Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 MIDI and sheet music
The work itself is in the public domain. This MIDI engraving comes from the Mutopia Project, typeset by Renato Biolcati Rinaldi, under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license (free reuse with attribution, commercial included).
About this piece
Is Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 hard to play on piano?
We rate it advanced: 1242 notes over 3:22, spanning G#1 to D#7. The first thing to work on: the wide left-hand arpeggio pattern until it runs on autopilot.
Where can I get the sheet music for Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2?
Right on this page: the "View the sheet music" button opens the PDF (142 KB), engraved by the Mutopia Project from the same source as the MIDI file, CC-BY-SA 3.0 license. View it, print it, keep it.
Is the Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 MIDI file really free?
Yes. Frédéric Chopin died more than 70 years ago, so the work (1832) is public domain. This MIDI engraving is under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license: free to use, commercially included, with credit to Renato Biolcati Rinaldi.
