Easiest Chopin Etudes?

[lontano]

It is likely this question has been posited before so sorry for any redundancy.
I've been having a friendly argument with a fellow on youtube over my lamentable technical inadequacy, specifically in regards to Chopin's Op.25/12, my favorite of the etudes. So this fellow has urged me, without taking in the fact that even at the peak of my performance ability 20+ years ago I was never able to perform any Chopin Etude in a way that wasn't an insult to Chopin, the piece, and myself. Yet still he persists telling me all it takes is dedication and some hard work and "anyone can do it". Gotta love his determination (sounds like a possible plot of "The Purpose Driven Life" which I have not read).
I am, very slowly, playing piano again after a 15 year break, but it's slow going. So just to satisfy my curiosity I'd like to ask those here who have played all/most of these works what they feel are the 3-5 least difficult to learn, and likewise which 3-5 they feel are the most difficult. And we can focus specifically on Op. 10 & 25. I'm very familiar with the scores, but I don't comprehend the technique some of them require.

Many thanks,
Lontano

[pianist1976]

Well, I love that question because it involves some of my favourite pieces of all times (and a also a heavy struggle in my life). I will answer with just my personal experience and personal opinions about them.

I play the entire Op 10 (I finished it just a few weeks ago) and a half Op 25. I rehearsed some of the etudes while been an student so I already played 5 or 6 etudes from the OP 10 but it's now, some years later, when I learned the whole opus. I intended to play it live as a cycle but it's very risky and demanding so I'm rethinking my idea twice  

To me, the three most demanding, risky and exhausting from OP 10 are numbers 1,2 and 4. Number 11 may be also exhausting if your wrist rotation technique is not good. Now let's talk about the "easy" ones (please, note the quotes). Number 5 is difficult, is virtuosistic but once you practice it it's relatively comfortable to play. Number 6 is poliphonically difficult but playable and 12 is difficult but playable. I used to remember when I was a student that number 8 wasn't specially difficult for me (comparing with no. 2 which I thought was unplayable).

From Op 25 I think that the most difficult are nos 6, 11 and maybe no. 10. The "easiest" may be nos. 1 and 2. The most difficult of all (including OP 10 and 25) is undoubtedly (for me) Op 10 number 2.

I think that what is required to play them is patience, hours of practice (including slow practice) and above all, flexibility. Chopin talked about a "supporting point" which suggested an use of the natural weight of the arm and the rest of the body, and flexibility of the wrist. Chopin etudes cannot be payed with stiff arms, wrist or fingers. Also a lose thumb helps. Every necessary tension must be canalized and released once we don't need it. Every non needed tension must be avoided. The etudes also cannot be played thinking exclusively on the technical and/or mechanical side. In my opinion they must be thought and felt musically in order to be rendered. It also helps technically because knowing which voices are singing, which ones are accompanying and having a clear picture of the polyphony helps to economize energy.

[lontano]

Thank you for your suggestions. It gives me something to contemplate.

L.

[richterfan1]

You forgot Op.10 No.9 in F minor which isnt hard at all 

[nanabush]

Ignoring the slower Etudes, which still aren't easy by any means, I'd say the most accessible would be Op 10 #5, Op 25 #1 and Op 25 #2.

These all seem good for fingerwork, but don't have the 'beast' passages that you'd see in stuff like 10/1 and 25/11.  That being said, I'd still rather play 10/1 over most of the other Etudes.

[lontano]

Ignoring the slower Etudes, which still aren't easy by any means, I'd say the most accessible would be Op 10 #5, Op 25 #1 and Op 25 #2.

These all seem good for fingerwork, but don't have the 'beast' passages that you'd see in stuff like 10/1 and 25/11.  That being said, I'd still rather play 10/1 over most of the other Etudes.

These are all good suggestions. Years ago I spent some time on most of these. The major stumbling blocks with these (and damn near anything) is the fact that I never developed "velocity technique". The faster I attempted to play a fast piece the worse it got. I didn't realize it at the time, but modern psychiatry would likely label me ADD. When I quit lessons after my initial 4 years at the age of 12, it was out of pure frustration with the dread and hate I had with practicing and seeming to be going nowhere. It broke my mother's heart and remains one of my greatest regrets, and now, nearly 50 years later trying to re-build the various techniques I did have some success with is frustrating enough, as the ADD is still a big issue.

Op. 25/1 & 25/2 I probably could manage to get far enough into them to determine if they are worth my while to continue studying them without learning to hate them first. Op. 10/5 falls into a similar category while 10/9 I have pretty well mastered the R.H. part. It's the L.H. I would have to work very hard at it to get the stretching to a fluid and comfortable level - not an easy task as I'm sure my hands have shrunk since I was 12. 

But first and foremost I have to buy a metronome. 

Thanks all for your welcome ideas.

Lontano

[nanabush]

I had pretty much the same issue until last year; I'd learn all of the notes to pieces too quickly, but would literally JUST play the notes; this led to sloppy playing at recitals and pretty bad technique.  The only thing I gained is that can sight read like a demon.  Although it took a year for me to really work on solidifying my technique, I can still get a 'what' reaction from my teacher when I start looking at something new.

As soon as I sat back and practiced slowly, in sections, repeating hard passages rather than returning to them later, and observing phrasing and balance right off the bat, I'm a lot happier with how my sound is, and I'm actually finishing pieces about as quickly - just WAY more carefully.  So now with the Op 10 #1, after about 5 months of working on it, I'll run through it once at half speed, then once at about 3/4 speed; right now there are about 3 or 4 measures that still bug the hell out of me, but other than that the slow practice has helped let my hand adapt to the messed up positions this piece hands to me 

[stevebob]

I think that a discussion of relative severity or approachability of Chopin’s etudes should also consider the level of performance standard to which one aspires.  It may be an extreme challenge with the fast ones to approximate the tempo and polish of a professional recording, but there’s much for the striving amateur to gain from studying them—and achieving a reasonable speed may prove surprisingly manageable.

I’ve worked on roughly half of the etudes over the years, and I would say from personal experience that even those with the reputation of being the thorniest and most demanding (e.g., 10/1, 10/2, 25/6 and 25/11) were learnable to the extent of being technically beneficial and musically satisfying to me.

Something else to consider is that these are pieces that many of us will revisit again and again, each time bringing something new to the experience and simultaneously getting something further from it, while never quite feeling like we’ve “finished” with them.  An edition with abundant and congenial fingering suggestions is indispensable, in my opinion.  My Friedheim edition published by G. Schirmer is like a very old, and very good, friend.

For issues with “velocity technique” (and associated speed walls), I recommend reading C.C. Chang’s Fundamentals of Piano Practice.  (Google it if you're not familiar with the title; it’s a free download.)  While I share the opinion that it’s poorly written and much (or most) of it can be disregarded, there are some nuggets of wisdom there as well.  (Of particular interest to me—and germane to the topic of maximum speed—is the material about high-speed hands-separate practice of “parallel sets.”)

[birba]

I'm finding that the preludes are great etudes as well.  Not only technically, but musically as well.  And maybe even more than the etudes. (musically)