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Topic: Is it feasible for me to study ballade no 1 from chopin?  (Read 156 times)

Offline henk de potvis

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I am almost finished with la campanella, yes genuinely almost finished I already went through the fase of hating myself for studying wrong, I need around 1-2 weeks untill im done.
I have been studying the piece on and off (15 minutes a day 2/3 days a week) for around 7 months, then I kind of got to the end (badly though) and after that I started studying effectively for about two months (around 30 minutes a day) to get most of the mistakes out.

My previous repertoire going backwards in time was:
Prelude in G minor (Took about 1-2 months of effective studying)
Fantasie impromptu (Took about 1 month of effective studying)
After this I dont really now but somewhere is moonlight sonate 1-3.

I only dared to do la campanella because my teacher said I could. The piece is not perfect, but it isnt that far off, I am proud of what it has become.
I want to play ballade no 1 next, but i dont know if it is possible for me. How big of a jump is ballade no 1 from la campanella? I am willing to invest a lot of time.
I am also interested in how long it will take to learn, not making the mistakes I did before (studying with mistakes, not focussing on one part and generally not studying often). For reference I think la campanella would have taken me about 5 months studying 30 minutes a day correctly I think.

Thanks in advance!

Offline liszt-and-the-galops

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Re: Is it feasible for me to study ballade no 1 from chopin?
Reply #1 on: Yesterday at 10:27:08 AM
Prelude in G minor (Took about 1-2 months of effective studying)
Whose? Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Alkan, etc. all wrote at least one G minor Prelude.
I want to play ballade no 1 next, but i dont know if it is possible for me. How big of a jump is ballade no 1 from la campanella? I am willing to invest a lot of time.
IMO, Chopin's B1 is easier than S. 141 no. 3, though it's MUCH more difficult musically. I'd ask your teacher what he/she thinks about you attempting it.
Also, something I notice is that you seem to be primarily focusing on pieces that are extremely well-known for (supposedly) being difficult. You might want to branch out to other composers and also build up some slightly-less-difficult repertoire, e.g. pieces that you can learn in about 2-3 weeks.

Hope this helps! :)
Amateur pianist, beginning composer, creator of the Musical Madness tournament (2024).
https://www.youtube.com/@Liszt-and-the-Galops
https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/home

Offline henk de potvis

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Re: Is it feasible for me to study ballade no 1 from chopin?
Reply #2 on: Yesterday at 10:56:12 AM
Rachmaninoff.
Yeah I know those type of pieces attract me. Do you have any recommendations for pieces that are less well known, easier but still very beautiful? Where can I find those songs because in the search of music I want to play I go to youtube and mainly see the popular songs (for example Rousseau channel).
I like ''fast'' songs and thought Chopin's B1 was good because that has a big relatively slow and musical component, to broaden my spectrum so to say, but it also has the ''fast'' parts I like.

Offline lelle

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Re: Is it feasible for me to study ballade no 1 from chopin?
Reply #3 on: Yesterday at 11:21:42 AM
From a technique point of view, the Ballade should not be that hard if you have mastered La Campanella. I think most (but maybe not all) of the technical issues in the Ballade are present and often harder in La Campanella. Do you feel at ease playing La Campanella now?

Offline henk de potvis

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Re: Is it feasible for me to study ballade no 1 from chopin?
Reply #4 on: Yesterday at 12:50:27 PM
I have played all the parts perfectly at some point, except the part where the trillers are on the right 3 and 5 finger while doing the main melody if you understand. I am almost done with that part.
It feels like I am playing a game of whack a mole now haha, when one part is perfect (again) an error at another occurs. However this is going better and better. How well I play hugely depends on how warm and tense my fingers/wrists are as well.

Offline dizzyfingers

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Re: Is it feasible for me to study ballade no 1 from chopin?
Reply #5 on: Yesterday at 01:49:48 PM
I'm amused by how many times this very question gets asked on this forum;  am I ready for Chopin Ballade #1?  Probably at least two dozen.
I'm not disparaging the question.  I too as a teenager wanted to play this piece.  But there weren't any forums back then.  I simply asked my teacher if I could play it, and he said yes.  I didn't know it then but he was the kind of teacher that thought it was fine to play pieces over your head, thinking you can always come back to it later.  But I got it to a performance level, at least for that place and time and age group.  I haven't come back to it but I will probably will soon.

Offline quantum

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Re: Is it feasible for me to study ballade no 1 from chopin?
Reply #6 on: Yesterday at 11:44:16 PM
From your post, this appears to be more of a question around study habits rather than technique.  Considering your listed repertoire, Ballade 1 is within reach.  What you could work on improving is practice efficiency and discipline.  For example, if you only have 15 minutes to practice in a given day, don't practice the part that makes you feel good, practice the part that needs the greatest amount of attention. 

Never say you are done with a piece: that puts you into a mindset of closing off growth opportunities and inhibiting learning initiatives.  What you can do is set goals.  Say that you have achieved your goal.  For example, the goal of committing an entire piece to memory, the goal of preparing a piece so you can deliver a reasonably coherent performance in private practice, the goal of getting the piece to a point where you can perform it for close friends, the goal of getting the piece to a point where you can use it for an audition, etc.  Music is a life long process of learning. 







Made a Liszt. Need new Handel's for Soler panel & Alkan foil. Will Faure Stein on the way to pick up Mendels' sohn. Josquin get Wolfgangs Schu with Clara. Gone Chopin, I'll be Bach

Offline liszt-and-the-galops

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Yeah I know those type of pieces attract me. Do you have any recommendations for pieces that are less well known, easier but still very beautiful? Where can I find those songs because in the search of music I want to play I go to youtube and mainly see the popular songs (for example Rousseau channel).
If you want synthesia channels, Traum piano is the way to go. He's objectively a way better pianist than Rousseau and is also an actual concert pianist (Sung Chang). His videos have way more diverse repertoire.
In terms of finding new pieces, you might want to just look around the forum. There's almost 66,000 threads on this site; I'd be surprised if anyone could find a non-modern piano composer who wasn't mentioned somewhere in this site's history.
Amateur pianist, beginning composer, creator of the Musical Madness tournament (2024).
https://www.youtube.com/@Liszt-and-the-Galops
https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/home
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