Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Am I ready for Chopin's 1st Ballade?

I used to think this was true, but I now think that many students with good ability are not able to judge the difficulty of pieces if they have not played for that long.

I am a perfect example. At the age of around 16 I asked my teacher if I could learn Chopin's Ballade No.4 after hearing Rubinstein play it at Carnegie Hall. And at the age of 19 I asked my next teacher if I could learn the Goldberg Variations. I was light years of being able to play those piece and still am. At that time there was no such thing as IMSLP or YouTube or easy availability of scores in a library, so today's students may have things easier in learning how to judge the difficulty of a score.

I didn't even read the list.

I just don't understand why anyone would ask the question. It's something I trouble imagining doing, asking people here whether I'm ready to work on a piece. If I don't know, myself, how could people here possibly know any better?

So, basically, I just don't relate to the question.

There's always the "even a cat may look at a king" approach. Even if you don't feel competent or confident enough to start studying the entire work thoroughly, you can sit down at the piano, open up the Ballade and play through some of your favorite passages. It's a way to feel connected with a piece you love even if, taken as a whole, it may be beyond your current level. Also maybe a little mental preparation for when you do "tackle" it.

Someone may ask a question like this because they are unable to judge the difficulty of a piece. By giving his current rep, others can at least make a guesstimate if he can play the Ballade although this depends on how well he plays his current rep.

Good post, PL. Sometimes it's helpful to restate the obvious.

I totally agree. Try the coda first. If you can do the coda. You most likely can do the rest.

If you work on it properly, then yes!

There is a jump between the pieces you've learned and the Chopin ballade, but sometimes in order to be able to make the jump you have to take the jump.

I so didn't mean to rhyme there.

Thanks for those that had good inputs, all, or almost all, posts helped a lot. My teacher said we could work on it a small amount every class, but it's definitely something for the long term. I memorized all that before the Scherzando section, so it's going ok. Not bad for 1 week, I'm sure. I do know that the hard part begins now.

Thanks again!