Piano Forum

I mean there are no "shoulds" but...

The Etudes are known to be hard but with proper technique they should feel comfortable (not tiring or uncomfortable) to play. Getting there can take time though and I think it's on your teacher to train your basic technique so you don't have to struggle with the Etudes.

Your issue sounds more like one of memorization though. How's your music theory? The Etude you mentioned is fairly simple harmonically so you should be able to memorize entire beats, bars or even lines quickly, because you can recognize which chord it is, know how it fits together with other chords, and how the chord has been placed/positioned on the piano.

So for example, if you recognize an A flat major chord, an E flat 7 chord, and a D flat chord, as well as some other typical harmonies and progressions used in A flat major, and know the base and melody, and note any alterations that happen to the basic chords, and know how these chords usually fit together you should be able to memorize the first page in maybe half an hour or probably less.

Memorizing the Etude in a day or two's work is not unreasonable if you know what you are doing. Otherwise you have an exciting journey ahead of you to learn a bunch of useful tricks!

My theory is very weak, I have a decent theory for keys like C major, G, D cuz I do scales in them a lot and its intuitive, I can name what like interval and scale degrees quickly in them, but for stuff like A flat I'm just starting to learn them now, especially cuz I'm learning op 69 1 and it's been really unfamiliar some of the chords like F and Db combined, but I'm starting to get names in my head for these and like see more patterns in Ab, but yeah, I basically only know the basic scales with 123453214321 fingering in LH and rh 123123412345 (and only major really, I know some minor but rarely practice them cuz also don't know harmony/voice leading rules for them).

And yes, the technique for op 25 1, is actually pretty easy. Something I'm proud of in it is I would struggle with it a bit the 10th reaches and so on, but, I figured out doing for RH 5,2,4 (triplet), 1,2,3, then hit E flat or F natural with pinky... And then, I saw in Cortot's edition (who is like my idol), he actually recommends that fingering so I was like f yeahhh when I saw that. The technique never really feels tiresome or awkward painful, I always think of the quote from Heinrich Neuhaus book that Chopin said himself.. It's something in french, but what it translates to is flexibility above all, and if you dearly apply that advice to any issues you really can gain a lot from the simple aphorism.

If this things you say is true, I may start playing less, or play in a way where I just focus on theory mcuh much more, because if I could memorize an etude in a month or even two months I would be so so happy, because, i would just play it all day over and over and over like wow... That would be amazing, I have a few theory books they are Keith Snell level 5-6-7, and hten I can use online resources like YT/musictheory.net and my own imagination to find useful things for pieces, and I'm gonna get to it, because wow this would just be amazing...

Thank you