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.
Beethoven was 27, already losing his hearing, and he opened this sonata with a C minor chord that slams like a door. Across this 4285-note MIDI, the opening Grave keeps returning to haunt the movement, cut off each time by an Allegro launched at full tilt over a rumbling left-hand tremolo.
It's a summit of the repertoire, and we won't sugarcoat it: the continuous left-hand tremolo is an endurance test, and the octave runs forgive nothing. But the movement's logic is so clear that every section you conquer locks neatly into the next. The kind of challenge that makes you proud.
The first movement of the Pathétique Sonata: the first notes
Right hand, in letter names (C4 = middle C): C4 C4 D4 D#4 D#4 D4 F4 F4 G4 G#4 G#4 G4 C5 C5 D5 D#5 D#5 D5 C5 D5 D#5 D#5 D5 E5… The rest scrolls in the preview above, with the fingering, and the sheet music PDF has the whole piece.
Play the first movement of the Pathétique Sonata on the virtual piano
Here are the virtual piano notes for the first movement of the Pathétique Sonata, 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: 45 notes
ZZXDDX
VVBHHB
QQW;;WQW;
;WER6T676TR;WQJHBVDXVHVX
▶ 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 left-hand tremolo, relaxed or you won't finish the page
The whiplash contrast between slow Grave and blazing Allegro
The chained thirds of the exposition
Holding the pulse through the off-beat passages
Playing the first movement of the Pathétique Sonata on piano with Pianovera
Work the Allegro in sixteen-bar chunks with Pianovera's A·B loop at 50%, left hand alone first: if the tremolo tires your wrist halfway through, slow down further. The accuracy curve will tell you when each chunk can go the distance.
Open Sonata "Pathétique" · 1st movement 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 first movement of the Pathétique Sonata MIDI and sheet music
The work itself is in the public domain, and this MIDI engraving was placed in the public domain by its typesetter on the Mutopia Project. Use it freely, videos included.
About this piece
Is the first movement of the Pathétique Sonata hard to play on piano?
We rate it advanced: 4285 notes over 6:15, spanning F1 to F6. The first thing to work on: the left-hand tremolo, relaxed or you won't finish the page.
Where can I get the sheet music for the first movement of the Pathétique Sonata?
Right on this page: the "View the sheet music" button opens the PDF (209 KB), engraved by the Mutopia Project from the same source as the MIDI file, Public domain license. View it, print it, keep it.
Is the first movement of the Pathétique Sonata MIDI file really free?
Yes. Ludwig van Beethoven died more than 70 years ago, so the work (1798) is public domain. This MIDI engraving is public domain too: download it and use it freely, videos included.
