Chopin's Etude Op. 10 No. 3

[vincentl]

I was wondering how everybody else plays this etude, I read somewhere that you should use as little pedal as possible, but it's a little difficult to rely purely on legato (For me that is). I hold down the sustain pedal almost through the whole piece releasing it only to avoid a muddy sound. How about you?

[shaulhadar]

Hello there , i learned this piece a long time ago and i play it frequently nowadays, it is sublime. Well, i would advise for you first of all you need to play each hand perfectly. That means practicing it staccato, and than legato, alot of times.  Second, i would get more familiar with the E major scale, in which the piece is written in, just to get more confidence in the area.  After you master both hand, you will need to start playing the hand together, really slowly and legato.  The difficulty in this etude is not so technical as musical (maybe the part before the reprise is somewhat hard), and it is written in 3-voices in which you, the player have to get a refined touch, so you can be able to play the upper melody with the fingers 4-5 so it will be stronger from the middle melody, in fingers 1-2-3, which is of course a musical challenge per excellence. I hope i could help you, and good luck, it is one of the finest pieces of music out there.

[jbmorel78]

As to the pedaling, which I presume to be your primary concern:

Use your ear.  At the most basic level, if the melody is obscured by a wash of bass and inner voices, change the pedal!  

That having been said, experiment - make it an étude in pedaling.  The outer sections are string quartet writing, and so the movement of the voices must be heard - but the melody must remain legato and cantabile.  This means frequent and discreet pedal changes!  The pedal does not have to come all the way up to clear sound, nor must it go all the way down to sustain sound.  However, make sure you have as legato a fingering as possible - the purpose of the pedal here is to enrich the sound with overtones, not to connect the notes.

Be very careful with pedaling in the middle section to keep the chromatic voice leading as clear as possible.

The point: use the pedal abundantly, but do not let anyone hear that you are pedaling.  In other words, pedal frequently, discreetly, and most of the time, shallowly.  Remember: your ear knows what your foot needs to do, so listen to it!

Hope this helps -
JBM

[avanzant]

.