Fantasie Impromtu, am I ready

[Mecarath]

Well, let me just tell you my musical backround to help out your opinion. I only been playing for two years, yet I play 4-6 hours, four days a week..sometimes a "break" here and there. I started wanting to learn from hearing the song on the radio fur-elise and read a book  PIANO FOR DUMMIES. My repertoire is:
  FUR-Elise
  Moonlight sonata
  Sonata in C Major K. 545
  Turkish Rondo

 

[pianojems]

I would not recommend doing this piece yet since you don't have enough background. Why don't you try to learn some easier Chopin pieces first such as Nocturnes and etc. Of course I don't believe in preventing someone from learning the pieces they love, but the difficulties might put you off and discourage you!

[allchopin]

This really isn't funny anymore.  Nope, not funny.

[steinwayguy]

Just ****ing start it. Do you think any of us give a damn?

[Mecarath]

Hmm..why waste your time putting sarcasm, it does not bother me. Thanks to those who actually gave advice.
        Dav

[thierry13]

First, to call pieces songs, we see you're not ready   THEY ARE NOT SONGS, SONGS ARE SINGED!

If you play the REAL moonlight sonata (3 mvt), then you're ready to play the fantaisie-impromptue. If not, you're far from the level of this piece. When you will be able to do pieces of the level of für elise ( the COMPLETE für elise, not only the easy part) at sight reading, decently , maybe will you be with a lot of practice be at the level of the Fantaisie Impromptue. If you really have to practice on the pieces you listed, you're definitly not up to Fantaisie-impromptue yet.

If you match the conditions I said, and that a qualified teacher agreed, then you're up to it. Don't even think in your crazyest dream to play it without having a teacher. You, maybe, would be satisfied, but it would be a total waste of time and would sound really bad to anybody else.

[steinwayguy]

THEY ARE NOT SONGS, SONGS ARE SINGED!

You should consider revising that.

[thierry13]

If you speak about my english grammar, sorry 

[Sketchee]

Songs are sung you mean.

Anyway, if you just want to try to play FI for fun I'd say go for it.  You probably aren't ready to seriously perform it.   Either way, play some easier pieces that you can play well.  Those will be better to learn from.

You could probably at least learn the slower middle section fairly successfully for now.  This isn't an insanely difficult piece, but evenness in both hands is essential and flaws do tend to stand out because of this. IMHO, it's at least easier than the 3rd movement of the Moonlight sonata that was mentioned.  Again, you won't be able to seriously tackle the piece but you could familiarize yourself with the score while you learn other pieces.

Don't mind some of the other posts. I don't know what the problem is there...

[vininim]

What is the issue with the 'complete'/hard Fur Elise?    I tough Fur Elise was made of three easy sections. The theme, the happy "trio like" part with some pedal points, the darky scherzo with repeated bass notes and a simple endding A minor arpeggio.

The easiest of Chopin's Nocturnes is technically harder than Fur Elise.

I say this as I have tried to play Liszt's Second Hungary Rhapsody withouth even being able to play a perfect Morzat's Turkish March (I play it complete, in a sloppish way). Guess what? After 3 weeks, I had the "omg, I should go to a piano teacher pretending I am a complete beginner and start it over" feeling. 

(I have being reading for quite a long time the boards withouth posting, when I saw someone saying that  a music that I easily play is difficult I had to say something back.
Piano Forum rules by the way  )

[Tash]

well try playing it and if you can then good for you, but what puzzles me is you've been playing for 2 years and practice 4-6hrs a day yet you say you can only play these 4 pieces my god you must've played them to death!

[thierry13]

What is the issue with the 'complete'/hard Fur Elise? I tough Fur Elise was made of three easy sections. The theme, the happy "trio like" part with some pedal points, the darky scherzo with repeated bass notes and a simple endding A minor arpeggio.

I didn't mention hard parts, only there was an easy one. Yes they are three really easy other parts, not only for you, but for total beginners, they are like : OMG! This is one hell of a virtuoso piece !! lol But yeah, für elise is really easy when you play for more than a month 

[The_forgetten]

hey, newbie here too..

why would you guys put fantasie impromptu in the difficulty scale? is it comparable to the chopin etudes and other works like ballade and scherzo (being general here)?

i am currently working on this piece too. have been playing for about 6 months (about 2 hours per week...i know that's not a lot, but that's all the time i have), still havn't mastered it yet. looking foward to play rachmaninov's prelude in c# minor and the rimsky's (am i right?) flight of the bumble bee. hope will be able to cope with it...

(i know the pieces im playing are those "most overplayed" ones according to the profesional pianists in this forum. but please don't snub over this post...)

[SteinwayTony]

Well, Mecareth, I'm sorry people were antagonistic about your post, but you have to understand that this type of question ("am I ready for XXX?") is first of all simply asked too often, and second of all, and the reason why it can get really frustrating, is the fact that there is one common answer every time this question is asked: "we don't know."  We don't know who you are, how you practice, how quickly you learn, and so on.  A few sentences about your background hardly helps any. 

Let me also say that it's a shame that you've just played those four pieces.  You really ought to look into playing at least one piece that everybody and his brother haven't done (and butchered).

And as for your book, well, I don't trust that ends in "Dummies."

To answer your question, don't play the Fantasie-Impromptu.  You're new, and you'll probably learn it wrong, and that will hurt you in the long run if you ever decide to come back to it, not to mention it's just attempted far more than it should be.  Play some Schumann or Schubert, or give the German composers a rest and dig up some Clementi.

[SteinwayTony]

The easiest of Chopin's Nocturnes is technically harder than Fur Elise.

Maybe, but please don't tell me you're referring to Op. 9 No. 2.  The G minor, Op. 15 No. 3, is by far the simplest.

[Tash]

hey, newbie here too..

why would you guys put fantasie impromptu in the difficulty scale? is it comparable to the chopin etudes and other works like ballade and scherzo (being general here)?

i am currently working on this piece too. have been playing for about 6 months (about 2 hours per week...i know that's not a lot, but that's all the time i have), still havn't mastered it yet. looking foward to play rachmaninov's prelude in c# minor and the rimsky's (am i right?) flight of the bumble bee. hope will be able to cope with it...

(i know the pieces im playing are those "most overplayed" ones according to the profesional pianists in this forum. but please don't snub over this post...)

well it's not really that hard, in the AMEB syllabus it's only Cmus, but i found it a b*tch to get the timing right at first, and just getting an even, solid tone in the RH and playing it at a decent tempo was a bit of a challenge (possibly due to not practicing it enough...). so yeah according to AMEB it's apparently easier than the etudes, ballades and whatever else, though i must say the etudes nos 1 and 2 from op.25 were much easier. but learning it within 6 months of playing only 2hrs a week my god i'm not surprised you haven't mastered it yet! rach c# is also Cmus here, but i found it easier than FI. 
but really i can't comment on whether someone would have the technique to play it after 6 months since i've been playing for like 12 years and thus went through the grueling process of grades and beginner pieces etc.

[The_forgetten]

of course, what i meant by playing for 6 months is the period which i started working on this particular piece. the cross rhytem is still giving me a hard time. can't seem to play it clearly with the accent given to the right notes.

wow, is it true that rach prelude in c#minor is easier? it sounds difficult though. anyway, i wont give up on FI...

[mound]

ahh, a good laugh in the morning is always nice..   welcome to the forums, but I have got to assume this post was in jest.   if that is the extent of your repertoir after playing for 6 hours every day for the past 2 years, then you need to seriously revisit your methods of practice and learning before you tackle such a piece.

[pianodude]

Of course you can start practicing. However, most likely, you will not be happy with the result, because technically you are not there yet. The accented notes closed to the end of the fast part are difficult for people who just learn to play piano. You have to have a relax hand which is not easy to acquire for a beginner. You'd be better off learning Chopin waltz first, try minute waltz. If you can do this one well, you can proceed to the FI.

[puma]

   Who remembers the last thread about this subject? LOL.  But if this is an earnest post, then I would say you'd need more pieces under belt before trying this one.  It's not impossible with the amount of hours you put in, however, you'll DEFINITELY need a teacher for this one.  There's just too much difficulty in the specifics for you to mess up on your own, so you'll need the guidance and expert help.