Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) · Romantic · Advanced
Versions
| Version | Level | Key | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced · Level 4 | 4 of 5 | E minor | 1:18 |
The player above plays the first 20 seconds. Learn all 1:18 of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the PianoKite app: every version, both hands or one at a time, Wait mode on every bar, play-along at 50, 75 or 100% and per-bar feedback. Get early access.
- Era
- Romantic (1830–1910)
- Mood
- Dramatic · fast, in a minor key
- Collections
- Christmas, Ballet & opera
- Versions
- 1
About this piece
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is a dramatic Romantic piece by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893). The version here is level 4 of 5 (advanced), in E minor and about 1:18 long. It belongs to the Christmas and Ballet & opera collections in the library. It is one of the 10 most popular pieces in our library.
About Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893): Russian composer of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. For piano he wrote The Seasons and an Album for the Young, Op. 39, full of short pieces for students.
How to play Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy on piano
- Expect weeks, not days. Learn it section by section and keep a list of the hardest passages to practise first in every session.
- Slow practice is the fastest way forward: loop the difficult bars at 50% until they are clean, then 75%, then full speed.
- Decide on fingering early for fast passages and write it down; changing fingering later costs more time than it saves.
- It's a fast piece. Resist playing it at full tempo until it's accurate at a slower one; speed built on wrong notes doesn't last.
- Carols are short, so you can learn one in a few sessions. Start a few weeks before you want to play it for others.
- Short daily sessions beat one long weekly one. Ten focused minutes a day is enough to make steady progress.
In the PianoKite app you can learn it with your own digital piano over Bluetooth or USB, or with any piano through the microphone: the score scrolls, the keys light up, and every bar gets a score so you can see what's learned. New to the piano? Start with the beginner lessons. Get early access.
License and credits
Arranged by a MuseScore user, from the PDMX dataset. License: Public Domain. Source: MuseScore.
Both the composition and the source file are in the public domain.
PDMX files come from the PDMX dataset (Long et al., 2024, CC BY 4.0).
Text events such as lyrics were removed; the notes are as published. The player on this page plays the first 20 seconds.
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