Chopin Harp Study in Ab.

[llamaman]

Can anyone play this piece well? I have never seen anyone play it well. For me it moves too fast, and requires too much stretching. It is one of my favourite Chopin works, as well as some of his Ballades, and I'd like some tips for this piece.

[steinwayguy]

Can anyone play this piece well?

Yes.

[goansongo]

It's one of the easier Etudes to play.  It just looks and sounds hard, but once you get into it, you'll see that the technique is the same throughout the whole piece.  The only hard part is playing the notes evenly.  That just requires playing with a metronome at a low speed and gradually building up.

[pseudopianist]

This is one of my favourit etudes as well but for me it is one of the hardest, I've sightread through all of the etudes and tried to play quite a lot of them. The harp etude was the first one I gave a go, the first page works quite well but after that, the rhythms, the jumps and bringing out the melody, impossible for me. I'm having less trouble with 10/1 and 25/5

[quantum]

It needs elegance, focus on the melody.  It should not be played metronomically.  Play the melody alone, and develop it as you would in one of Chopin's nocturnes.  Yes there are many notes in between but don't labour too much on them.  They should sweep, flow. 

[Doodle]

I played this in a recital once.   A friend of mine called it "Chopins Aeolian Harp Etude" (accompanied by bench squeak).  I had an adjustible concert bench cranked all the way up because the piano was up on rollers.  It was rocking back and forth right along with my body as I moved by right arm.  It was great.

This piece is very exiting to play at speed.   The melody is vital, but neither should you neglect learning all the filler notes, they are also quite beautiful.   The melody does soar just like a Nocturn and it's a workout for the right hand pinkie finger which handles it.   

I dislike the idea of playing Chopin's Etudes simply for the technical aspect.   They are all wonderful expressive pieces.  To really work one up to performance level is joy.
D