Chopin etudes

[pianisten1989]

How to you ppl do with chopin etudes?
Sooner or later one learns how to play a new one, and knows the technique well.
Do you keep practising on them, or you you leave them for a while and take them up after some month?
I'm on my 8th etude atm, and I don't know what to do with the other 7 I've played...

[nanabush]

Umm. couldn't you say that about any set of pieces?  Like Liszt etudes?  "I've played 5 of them, and am learning a 6th... what do I do with the other 5?" or "I've learned 8 Debussy preludes, etc..."

Keep playing them I guess?

I've played two of the 'easier' ones a few years back (Op 10#5, Op10#9) with my previous teacher - not for exams, just on the side for a few fun challenging pieces.  I was just suggested op 10 #1 by my current teacher (which I find much easier than most of the other ones because it fits my hand like a glove)... but it's been so long since I've played the other two that I'd need to relearn some parts of them.

It seems more practical for me right now looking at etudes where I have some foundation in the technique (like the big arpeggios of the C major) rather than suddenly trying Op25#6, where it would be beneficial to maybe look at thirds scales beforehand 

[pianisten1989]

Well.. No, I don't think it's the same with every set. Chopin etudes concentrate on only a very few technical difficulties, but throughout a whole piece without any interruption.

And since they are demanding in that way I don't think you could say that they're just like "any set of pieces"

[shaulhadar]

Hello pianisten1989, a good question you asked.  I think you should play as much music as you can. If you can play 8 etudes by Chopin, it is most respectful, and now you need to continue.  I play the piano for over 21 years now, and i play almost all of Chopin's pieces, and i think that when you master the piece technically, you need time to master it emotionaly, it needs to grow with you, but only after you mastered it technically of course.  So my advice is continue playing and learning, and every now and than, refresh the playing of the etudes you already know, and keep that work and i promise you that in time you will gather a lot of pieces under your fingers, so to say
have a great day.

[ch101]

learn new ones while spending 1/4 of your time revisiting the old ones.

[danhuyle]

A lot of Chopin Etudes are easy to memorize once you get the technique right.