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!

[omar_roy]

They're all absolute nightmares.

[iratior]

The idea of ranking Chopin etudes according to difficulty is an interesting problem.  In general, people with long, thin fingers have an advantage over those with short, thick ones.  Some etudes are not so hard to get the notes right on, but hard to get the right rhythm or dynamic shading.  Based on my experiences of 45 years of trying to play them, I would rank the ones in opus 10 as follows, from easiest to hardest:  no. 6, no. 9, no. 11, no. 7, no. 3, no. 12, no. 10, no. 5, no. 4, no. 2, and no. 1.  I left out no. 8 because I've never tried it, and with all due respect to Chopin, it's no Les Adieux sonata.  In opus 25, from easiest to hardest:  no. 7, no. 1, no. 10, no. 2, no. 12, no. 5, no. 6, no. 11, no. 8, no. 16.  Nos. 3 and 9 haven't been tried yet.

[iratior]

In the above list of opus 25 etudes, the most difficult should have been numbered 4 instead of 16.  It's etude 16 in the book as a whole.

[franz_]

I don't really agree with your rankig honnestly.
The Chopin etudes are for me some of the most difficult things in piano literature. Same with the Liszt etudes.
As for the original start post:

I think of those 4 etudes you mentioned, op. 25/3 is for sure the hardest. I would say 25/9 is the easiest, than 25/1n than 10/5.

If you look for the not too hard etudes... 10/3, 10/5, 10/6, 10/9, 25/1, 25/2, 25/5 (?), 25/7, 25/9

But that's all relative of course..

[scott13]

Ranking them is comparing apples to oranges to bananas and asking which is the better fruit.

Chopin wrote the etudes to hit specific technical aspects, so the "difficulty" will vary depending on whether or not you have trouble with specific technical trait being worked on in the etude.

My best advice to you is to work out which areas of your playing need work the most and then come back to us so somebody can guide you to the correct etude for that technical problem. If you only want to learn them to have a performance piece, might as well go learn the Ballades, Polonaises, Sonatas, Scherzi etc

[iratior]

Thanks for the advice, but I think I was well within my rights to rank the Chopin etudes according to difficulty.  Of course, it was always implicit that by "difficulty", I meant "difficulty for me".  Other people will of course have different opinions, based on the type of technical demands they find it easiest to meet.  For example, if they have three hands, what Chopin sought to test by Opus 25 no. 4 might be very easy for them;  they would simply do the right hand part with one of their hands, and the left-hand part with their other two.  And wouldn't it be great to have witch-like powers to move the keys with one's mind!  But seriously, the etudes can't always be neatly categorized as testing one or another types of technique.  Opus 10 no. 3 may have been designed to test legato, but I've always found the hardest thing in it to be the double sixths.  Opus 10 no. 5 may test technique with the black keys, but the hardest thing in that could be the double octaves at the end.  Opus 25 no. 8 may test sixths, but the hardest thing there could be the leaps required for the left hand.  And opus 10 no. 1 pretty clearly tests hand size, to screen out those with small hands.  Otherwise, the relative ease with which I've done the last movement of the moonlight sonata, as well as opus 10 no. 11, would be hard to explain.

[lewis_choo]

I think Chopin's Revolutionary Etude in C minor is very good

[pianisten1989]

Yeah, I like pasta...

[richterfan1]

op.25 no.1 is very hard, especially musically, i personally think that there are technical and musical etudes, and sometimes BOTH, Chopins op.10 no.4 is technical etc, op.10 no.1 is technical and musical, left hand leads the beautiful melody in octaves, and that is Chopins hardest etude

[pianisten1989]

I don't get it.. How are the octaves "a beautiful melody"? If he would write it in a nocturne, not a single person would play it. It's a bass line, doesn't anyone see that? The harmonies are, in every way, more interesting.

And how is op 10/4 not a musical etude? Musical doesn't have to be mega rubato in every phrase...

[keyboardclass]

Hardly just a 'base' line.

[pianisten1989]

Hardly just a 'base' line.

Hardly a beautiful melody.

[lelle]

Hardly just a 'base' line.

Hardly a beautiful melody.

It's what in classical music is technically called a "melobass"

[bachmaninoff]

Its kind of like trying to rank which is tastier out of apples and oranges. They're both delicious for different reasons. Chopin wrote these etudes as a means of addressing different aspects of playing technique. Some people are more adapted to a particular playing technique than others, and therefore some may find it easier to play a particular etude than another player. For instance, I find it easier to play Chopin's 25/9 than Chopin's 10/12 because I have more of a natural facility with octaves than I do with fast scales. This may not always be the case for other people, and so they might say the opposite.