Chopin Scherzos

[lesems]

Hello! I am a huge fan of the Chopin Scherzos, however I fear I am nowhere near good enough to play any of them. I am currently midway through learning Beethoven Sonata 7 MVT 1. What are some pieces that will help me climb that difficulty ladder? Thanks for the help!!! 

[bryfarr]

Do as many Chopin etudes as possible before you tackle those.
The scherzo are more difficult than the ballades, technically and musically, imo.
They take an effervescent technique and mindset, ability to play light bravura.
I would recommend studying about 6-8 etudes, ballades 1,2,3 then scherzos 1,2,3.

:-)

[lesems]

Oh boy! Uhm... I don't even know where to start with the Chopin etudes! I always stayed away from them because I feel intimidated by them. Not because of the virtuosity or anything, just because I have no clue which ones to even choose to start with. What are the best etudes to start with? Maybe after those I can choose from there by myself.

[bryfarr]

Oh boy! Uhm... I don't even know where to start with the Chopin etudes! I always stayed away from them because I feel intimidated by them. Not because of the virtuosity or anything, just because I have no clue which ones to even choose to start with. What are the best etudes to start with? Maybe after those I can choose from there by myself.

That is a common question, as you can imagine.  And there is actually a good amount of information out there (and on here, perhaps) about the ranking of their difficulty.  I think putting them into difficulty groups is more realistic than ranking each one.  This YT video does that:

[liszt-and-the-galops]

I would suggest starting with op. 10 no. 6 or one of the Trois Nouvelles Etudes.

[volante]

Oh boy! Uhm... I don't even know where to start with the Chopin etudes! I always stayed away from them because I feel intimidated by them. Not because of the virtuosity or anything, just because I have no clue which ones to even choose to start with. What are the best etudes to start with? Maybe after those I can choose from there by myself.

I personally started with 10-5 which isn't too bad and it's fun to play, but I think the "easiest" ones would probably be the Trois Nouvelle Etudes and 25-2.

[geister]

Hello! I am a huge fan of the Chopin Scherzos, however I fear I am nowhere near good enough to play any of them. I am currently midway through learning Beethoven Sonata 7 MVT 1. What are some pieces that will help me climb that difficulty ladder? Thanks for the help!!! 

If you can play the Beethoven you mentioned up to tempo, without (too much) strain and with a solid technique a Chopin scherzo (any of them) would be a challenge, but not a insurmountable one. I don't agree, generally speaking, with the idea that if you want to study a piece, you have to learn other ones before. If you like Chopin scherzos, pick your favourite and give it try, you'll realize by yourself if you are biting off more than you can chew.

[symphonicdance]

Maybe better to start with (if haven't learned enough Chopin works before) his waltzes, mazurkas, tarantella, first four polonaises and etudes (the less difficult ones) before going for his ballades and scherzos.

[mekeltan]

Never tried any other scherzo, but i played scherzo 1. Learn winter wind before this one.

It’s quite hard to perfect the clarity of scherzo 1, but orher than technique, any ballade of chopin is def harder than scherzo 1, imo.

[jaquet]

For me personally i always find beethoven especially , much more difficult than other composers, so please dont put yourself down, because beethoven is hard to play well, much more so than chopin i think (imo), But the best route i would recomend is first training your technique, if you dont feel comfortable with passages which are very light and close together (almost scalic pasages), you can train this by just doing scales and appergios, improvising using these techniques, or of course explore repetoire, i think you should take a look at schumann before looking at these difficult chopin pieces. I would also reccomend learning either ballade 1 or 3 before a scherzo along with a maybe 2-3 etudes. e.g op 25 no 1 op 25 no 2 op 25 no 12. These etudes are a good starting point. i would learn one along with a ballade. But of course before tackling any of this you should do some Chopin waltzes (e.g op 18) or nocturnes.
And you could also just read through the scherzo and then think if its approachable for you or not.
Best of luck!