A modal twist on Für Elise

If there’s one piece we’ve all been asked to teach a million times, it’s probably Beethoven’s Für Elise!

Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, and that’s when a creative twist on the original can recapture your interest.

Here’s a twist on Für Elise you probably haven’t thought of: it is really easy to transpose the first eight bars into the Mixolydian mode. Here’s what you do:

1. shift your hands up two steps so your starting notes are G (right hand) and C (left hand)

2. wherever you play a black key in the original, play a black key (i.e. whenever you would have played a D♯, play an F♯, and whenever you play a G♯, play a B♭)

It sounds pretty good!

Sadly this simple method only works well in the first eight bars. It is possible to transpose the whole of the first section into C mixolydian, but in order to make it sound nice several other changes need to be made, and that’s too complex for this relatively accessible activity.

Here are some ways you could use this fragment in a lesson:

• use it as an introduction to transposition in general. The same eight bars can easily be transposed into D minor by shifting the starting notes to A (right hand) and D (left hand). You can also transpose the piece into A major by playing it in the original position but changing all the Cs into C♯s.

• use it as a way of introducing modes. Forrest Kinney’s excellent Pattern Play Book 2 is a wonderful gentle introduction to improvising in various modes. You might also like my collection Four Songs for Ralph Vaughan Williams, all of which are modal. They’re available free from Melanie Spanswick’s blog.