What exactly is meant by this comment? What exactly is required before I attempt the etudes? How, by learning a piece that as yet has not taxed me beyond a reasonable level, am I not learning properly? I appreciate your criticism, as I am sure you mean well, but I am of the opinion that "grades" do not matter. Should you not try calligraphy just because you only learnt to write a week ago? Is there some kind of time limit imposed before one is able to try out for a sports team? No. If you can do it, you can do it - and that is all that matters. As previously stated, this particular piece is causing me no serious problems as yet - nothing that would legitimately give me reason to stop. I am not attempting to play 20 pieces at this level - just one.
Please keep the criticism coming, but I find it hard to believe that no-one sees where I'm coming from...
humblemonkey
Here is another non-argument. People undertake chopin only after years and year of playing, having about 150 performable pieces under their repetoir and any good, serious teacher will only undertake teaching you the piece, only when you have achieved a similar standard. Why do you think that is so?
Here is another non-argument, but is a comment worth considering. Chopin's etudes IMO really have a special place. If you mess up learning a bach invention at the end of the day, as fantastic pieces go, it won't really bother you. Just move on. Or if you get really good, it's easy to unlearn what you have learnt wrongly before and put it right. With Chopin, they are such awsome pieces, that really, if you do it wrongly and are stuck with that, you might kick yourself later, in never being able to play the piece properly.
I agree that there is no grade, or if there is it is only a guide. However there are easier and harder pieces relative to you. A piece that is easy for you is one that you can play almost immediately, and takes very little time to polish (say a week). A piece that is difficult, you might be able to pull off the notes in some parts. But that's what they will remain, just notes and not part of music that expresses emotion and intelligence.
I consider a piece learnt only when it is not very far from performance standards.
What this really means taking care of details. Legato line, pharasing, touch, having a "chopin sound" -- having a pretty steady left and a fluid right hand, using rubato approriately in a romatic style, making every note have a meaning in the context that it sits in a piece, having the ornaments in the correct place, studying the structure of the piece and using that in your playing, bringing out the melody line all the time and presenting it on a platter, etc. etc..
Often, it takes a trained ear to point out what you have to do and a good teacher to communicate to you exactly how to do it. Although most people, on listenting to a recording, can tell if a rendition of a piece is good or bad, most people can't tell you exactly why it's good or what you have to do to achive the same kind of effect.
These details are only very broadly expressed on the page in terms of dynamics, tempo, other instructions, and sometimes in the way the notes are written so that you don't go too wildly off what the composer intended. But an infinite number of them simply cannot be written down.
At the end of the day, you have to learn details, details, details, and the worst thing about them is that to play the piece succesfully, you have to sort of practice until you can forget about them consiously, and not have to worry everytime when to get to a more "difficult" passage.
Maybe one way to think about it is that if bach inventions had about 100 details you have to take care of -- and there are many, many of them in the inventions. Chopin's etudes have about 10000 details that warrent your attention, all of them equally important and urgent. If you don't already do some of them automatically, and are relatively new, your brain probably can't cope with that many new details at the same time.
If you don't see this or feel that a chopin etude it is daunting, perhaps it's because you don't fully understand what is required of the music. I certainly think at the moment that a chopin etude is rediculously difficult, not just challenging. There is a sense in me that really wants go ahead to play some of the etudes -- all if possible, but i'm willing to be patient and put that off till later. I'm sure i will get there.
Of course what i am describing is an over simplification of things. For one thing, in the real world, it's not possible really to count these details. But i hope you get the idea why playing an etude, which i'm sure you can learn -- you can learn any piece if you put your mind to it -- may not not be the best thing to do.
The fellow who suggested that you undertake a chopin etude should be shot in the head. Twice.
Anyway, i'm not going to badger you anymore. If you want me to clearify any of the points i'm making, I'm happy to do so. But if you insist on playing a chopin etude either to prove me and everyone else wrong or out of sheer stubborness, i say , go right ahead. I'm not willing to argue this position any more, and have spent enough of my time on it already.