Chopin Etudes

[bobloblaw717]

Im an advanced player but i have never once played a Chopin Etude before. ive listened to all of them many times and i was wondering if someone could rank these in difficulty

Op. 10 No. 5
Op. 25 No. 3
Op. 25 No. 9
Op. 25 No. 1

P.S. if someone could also rank the REST of the chopin etudes that would be FANTASTIC, thank you!

[nanabush]

Heehee, it begins!!

I'll spare you: do a search on this topic before the angry mob that makes up half the forum destroys you 

10/5 isn't a bad choice to start.

Good luck

[scott13]

I would recommend starting with the Op 10 Etudes, as the Op 25 all contain technical difficulties that are introduced in the Op 10 set.

If you are learning these for the sake of it, you have already missed the point. Chopin wrote these pieces as a means to perfect specific technical areas. So the etude you chose should reflect the areas in which you want to improve your playing. Op 10 #1-4 should be learnt before branching out to the others as these hit the most important technical aspects:

Op 10 #1 - Arpeggios and stretching of the right hand
Op 10 #2 - Chromatics on weaker fingers (Basically strengthens 3,4,5 on RH)
Op 10 #3 - More an ear exercise but hits legato playing very well
Op 10 #4 - Passing melodic line between hands, sometimes with voice leading, sometimes without.

After these 4, you have the technical ability to tackle the more difficult of the Op 10's such as #12

If you want a great in-depth study of the Op 10's check out this website - https://www.pianosociety.com/cms/index.php?section=631

Good luck

[nanabush]

Just for fun: try Op 10 #11, Op 25 #3, #4 or #9.  These are kind of overlooked on the forum (compared to the commonly discussed ones like Op 25 #6, Op 25 #12, etc).

You'll see that even though they can look as straightforward as ever ( A LOT of people on the forum say they are easier etudes), that these have some technical elements someone simply may not have come across.  The left hand in Op 25 #4 at the suggested tempo... I'd take Op 10 #1 any day over that.

Also, the website link you posed has some interesting info, but I'm not too sure about calling Op 10 #1 an etude in arpeggios at all... I think 2 minutes of regular 4 octave arpeggios right hand alone (at the 176 tempo) would be more difficult to play than this etude; the hand stays open the entire time, and there aren't any finger cross overs whatsoever in this one.  It's more having the hand adapt to broken chord figurations (I'm not too sure what people refer to as an arpeggio anyway... I usually associate it with at least any form of finger crossing over/under, or else it would just appear as a plain broken chord).


Of the etudes you first mentioned, Op 10 #5 would probably be the most straightforward.  The note reading is very straightforward (left hand accompaniment has some chromatic stuff, but the right hand notes aren't a problem to decipher like some of the others).  You will understand the difficulty after the first few measures.  Some of the etudes may seem straightforward until about halfway through when some really awkward passagework comes up.  This one generally (obviously there are a few strange measures) stays put technically.  It's a great piece for voicing (the left hand has some really interesting stuff you can voice underneath the right hand).

Also, the slow etudes aren't automatically the easiest ones.  Chopin is able to create extremely dense textures in Op 10 #3, and if you don't pick out the individual lines, you will not get why this is considered an etude.

[gerryjay]

Heehee, it begins!!

I'll spare you: do a search on this topic before the angry mob that makes up half the forum destroys you 

 

my simple advice must be: if you are an advanced player, as you claim, choose the one you love the most. you don't need to play in warp speed to have fun and to actually make music with these works. imho, they do have a speed limit, but people seem to regard piano as track and field sometimes...

best!