Most pianists know the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata for its serene, rippling triplets and haunting melody. (Download the exclusive tonebase Piano edition of the score here!)
But in this tonebase lesson segment, Irish pianist John O’Conor starts somewhere far more fundamental: with a single note.
O’Conor challenges us to stop “playing” and start listening — not just hearing the sound, but following its decay, its weight, its life after the hammer leaves the string. He demonstrates how striking the same key again and again, with varying amounts of arm, shoulder, and finger weight, can yield entirely new colors and characters.
This practice, he explains, teaches control, awareness, and musicality that can transform an entire movement. The goal isn’t volume, it’s sensitivity.
By training the ear first, every note you play becomes intentional, every phrase more alive.
From this single-note focus, O’Conor connects the idea to Beethoven’s score: keeping the melody audible above the triplets, placing the short note after the rhythm as the composer intended, and shaping phrases through active listening.
It’s a micro-exercise with macro results. An approach that reshapes the way pianists touch the instrument and hear themselves.
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