Quick Lesson: Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov


Sheet Music Edition: Unknown

Difficulty: High

Prerequisites:

  1. Very disciplined, steady fingers
  2. Good rhythm (or a metronome)
  3. Shift positions quickly
  4. Experience with Chromatic Scale variations
  5. Experience with Triad variations

Watch Me Play

Suggestions:

Practice your chromatic scales, especially those tricky finger positions . This will help you get a sense for chromatic variations in "Flight of the Bumblebee." For the right hand, ascending, the finger positions are 1-3-1-3-1-2-3-1-3-1-3-1-3-1-2-3...

While the right hand plays chromatic variations, the left hand plays several inverted triads. Practice your triads as well.

Tips:

The main reason why many piano players (including me) are intimidated by Flight of the Bumblebee is because of the sheer volume of notes and the rapid tempo. The obvious thing to do is to practice at lower speeds and gradually work your way up to vivace, but this is not always easy because your arms get tired midway and you don't reach the higher speeds. So, that's why

  • You shouldn't try to master this song in one sitting.

Sound easy? Try it without getting frustrated!