How to play The Blue Danube (Main Waltz Theme) on piano

The complete 32-bar first waltz of 'An der schönen blauen Donau' in its original key of D: the rising horn-call arpeggio, the answering 'pom-pom' chords and an oom-pah-pah left hand. Learn it step by step in your browser: the music waits for you on every note, then you speed it up.

The first notes

Right hand, first bars. The small numbers are finger numbers (1 = thumb, 5 = little finger).

In the app you see these notes falling onto the keyboard and on sheet music at the same time, with the right key lit up.

How to learn it fast

1. Listen first: Listen mode plays the whole piece.
2. Learn mode: the music stops and waits until you press the right key, one hand at a time.
3. Play mode at 60–70% speed: real-time feedback on every note, early or late.
4. Loop the hard bars: the coach finds them for you and speeds them up as you improve.
5. Hands together at full speed.

New to piano? This song fits best after Unit 8: Rhythm Power of the free course path.

More songs at level 3

• Brahms' Lullaby Johannes Brahms (Wiegenlied, Op. 49 No. 4)
• Canon in D (Simplified) Johann Pachelbel
• Eine kleine Nachtmusik (1st Theme) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Greensleeves Traditional (English)
• Hark! The Herald Angels Sing Felix Mendelssohn (1840); words Charles Wesley
• Largo “Goin' Home” (New World Symphony) Antonín Dvořák
• Melody Robert Schumann (Album for the Young, Op. 68 No. 1)
• Minuet in G Christian Petzold (from the Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook)

Works on phone, tablet and computer. Free to start, no download.