Advice for learning the transcendental etudes?

[recnepspencer]

I've set a goal to learn Liszt's 12 transcendental etudes. If anyone has any tips that would be great! I started number 2 less than a week ago and i can play all the way through it with few mistakes, but it's nowhere near tempo. So my main problem is what is the best way to practice songs to get them up to tempo while maintaining accuracy?

[xdjuicebox]

That's quite a hefty goal haha

Try taking each technical difficulty and running it through every key/triad (if you have time/are crazy run it through the 7th chords) with a metronome, and just memorizing the chord patterns that Liszt uses, because usually they're really predictable

In terms of practicing the actual piece, I recommend that you practice in really, really small sections, as much as you can chew, like 5-20 times each (but not more than 20 because after that the diminishing returns really start happening), and try to start really slow, speed PAST tempo, then come back down. Also play everything in chords and slowly break them up so your hands know what it feels like to play that fast

Do not do this unless you already know how to play fast, because you'll get hurt if you don't. If you don't, find a teacher who can show you the proper motions.

When I say small sections, that's up to you, but it should be something that you can straight up play at tempo (if that's too boring for you, slightly longer is fine), like one beat, and once you "get" the technical difficulty, then practice in phrases, or groups of phrases, etc

[chopinlover01]

Only play the right notes.