Comptine d'un Autre Été - Amélie Piano Tutorial Sheet

About the piece

"Comptine d'un Autre Été: L'après-midi" is Yann Tiersen's piano theme from the 2001 film *Amélie*. The original recording is just over 2 minutes long and built on a perpetual-motion left-hand pattern with a slowly unfolding right-hand melody.

It's one of the most-requested pieces on YouTube piano tutorials. Tiersen's score has been published commercially, but free playable arrangements from YouTube covers are widely useful for learners.

Why it's worth learning

Iconic — recognized worldwide from the film

Hypnotic to play — the left-hand ostinato is meditative

Compact — 2 minutes; perfect for our 5-minute converter cap

Two-hand independence drill — the right hand floats above a steady pulse

Sounds impressive at any tempo — even half-speed sounds intentional

Recommended YouTube covers

Cover quality matters more for this piece than most because the left-hand ostinato can be misheard by transcription AI when it's played fast. Look for:

Studio-quality audio (not phone recordings)

Solo piano (no strings or accompaniment)

Tempo around the original (not sped up or slowed down arrangements)

The Yann Tiersen original is a good baseline. Plenty of YouTube covers are excellent too — Patrik Pietschmann's version is widely cited as faithful.

Conversion walkthrough

Open [/youtube](/youtube)

Paste the URL of your chosen cover

Wait 60–90 seconds

The converted song opens in the player with sheet music + downloadable formats

Practice approach

Step 1: master the left-hand ostinato. This is the foundation. The pattern is mostly the same E-minor figure repeated. Loop the first 8 bars in Top-Down view at 60% speed. Play with just the left hand for 5 minutes a day until it feels automatic.

Step 2: add right-hand melody at half speed. The right hand enters with a slow lyrical line. Start at 50% speed in Top-Down. The melody mostly moves in stepwise patterns.

Step 3: build coordination. The trick is keeping the left hand machine-like while the right hand floats expressively. They must feel independent. Practice with closed eyes if needed — focus on hearing the difference.

Step 4: tempo. Build to 100%. The original is at around 132 BPM. The piece should never feel rushed — even at full tempo it has space and breath.

Common stumbling points

Left hand getting choppy when the right hand has long notes — the ostinato should never falter

Right hand getting metronomic — it should breathe, not sound mechanical

Pedal too long — clears the harmony less often than you'd think; change pedal at each measure boundary

Holding tension — players often clench their forearms; relax between phrases

Difficulty rating

Late beginner / early intermediate. Roughly equivalent to "River Flows in You". 4–8 weeks of regular practice to a clean performance tempo.

The piece looks more daunting than it is because of the constant left-hand motion. Once you have that pattern in your fingers, the right hand is comparatively easy.

Print and practice

Convert at /youtube → switch to Full Notation view → click Download → PDF. Letter-size, vector, no watermark, music-stand-ready.

Convert it

Paste a YouTube cover URL here. You'll have playable sheet music in 90 seconds.