Lead Sheet for Chopin Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. 69 No. 1

Why did I create this lead sheet?

I created this lead sheet of Chopins Waltz in Ab major to give musicians a chance to explore Chopin’s harmony and try improvising over it! I have always been drawn to Chopin's harmonic choices and with my background in Jazz, its only natural that I took it apart and changed a few things! I hope you have fun analyzing the music and creating some cool improvisations over this beautiful piece!

How to Use the Chopin Waltz Lead Sheet Effectively

Here are some practical tips for working with the lead sheet:

• Learn the Original Piece first: Download the original music, IMSLP . Pick whatever version works for you. Even just the First A section is good enough.

  
  

• Alter the original melody: Small changes like extra ornaments, varying the rhythm and adding a few extra notes will get you started.

  
  

• Change the voicings a bit: Learning the original piece will give you the period specific harmonic language, but adding your own voicings to the overall harmony of the piece can really help to apply your understanding of what he doing harmonically.

  
  

• Analyze whats going on with Roman Numerals: If you can understand Chopin's harmony just by the numbers, you're going to start seeing some patterns pop up the next time you do this with another piece! Even if you don't learn melody in another key, try putting the changes in another key!

  
  

• Just be ok with being bad at it, your learning! : If you're just starting in improvisation, this can be extremely difficult because you'd probably rather do some part of piano playing your good instead of being bad at something all over again (me when I try to play classical haha). It all takes time, but its completely worth it when you can just sit down at the keys and just play you!

  
  

Download the Lead Sheet

You can download the lead sheet as a PDF

👉 Waltz in Ab major Op69 no1

There are a lot of exercises and concepts to learn when it comes to improvisation and music in general which can be a bit overwhelming! Even as a motivated self learner, it can be difficult to find material thats at your current level or addresses the specific challenges you’re facing.

Some of the biggest breakthroughs in my own playing have come from learning alongside others having someone help frame ideas, point out patterns, and offer differnet perspectives at the right time( my favourite was...just play the chord tones.....it seems obvious now, but back in the day....woah!).

Ive been super fortunate to have learned from some great teachers and would love to share what Ive learned to anyone with a desire to get better improv and music!

If you’re new to improvisation and feel like a bit of guided support would be helpful, I offer private piano lessons both online and in person for folks in and around Toronto, Canada. You’re welcome to reach out through my website Soundtreestudio.com if you’d like to learn more:)