how to learn chopin etude 10 #5

[kimba1055]

hello everyone i been learning piano for the las 5 years ,i want to learn etude 5 ,but my teacher said that im not ready for it ,but i want to learn it because i love the piece any advice in how to go about it ,how to practice .

[helbig]

there is no such thing as 'not ready for it' .
if you feel you have what it takes then go for it. it will take a lot of perseverance but i am sure you know that.
bar by bar gets you far.
i had been playing from 7 to 11yrs, stopped and just started again. i decided to restart with challenging pieces to make it worth the while and i am happy i did.
so good luck and go for it.

[tunneller]

So did you start 10 #5 ? 

I've been working on this etude on-and-off for over a year. I find it hugely rewarding when something clicks (either musically or technically) but it is definitely not something I can claim success yet. Biggest "musical" challenge I'm working on at the moment is keeping the right hand as a fast smooth legato but which doesn't overpower the melody in the left. More commonly, I mess up and find the RH dominating with the LH doing little more than marking the beat.

Biggest technical challenge I'm working on is the octave run at the end. I picked up somewhere the idea to do them as 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, etc, fingering. Definitely makes them smoother but I came close to tendonitis in the left arm because the LH wasn't stretching wide enough, and I was (over)compensating by using a nasty wrist position. I stopped this problem in time (I hope) by paying closer attention to good form, especially when practicing ff. In the mean time the LH seems to have stretched out (from the wide arpeggios?). The octaves are still only half the speed I can play the rest of the piece....

... on the flip side, since picking up 10-5, then I find now when I take on easier pieces then I think I have a much better "touch" than I used too, so this has definitely been a worthwhile excercise.

Regards, John