Hi! Intrigued by the subject?

Well, here goes.

I have a teacher, a great teacher. With that said, I'm still not sure exactly how to approach a piece. As you may have read in my Technique thread, I'm obsessed with etudes. Finally going to start with the Chopin etudes now.

Let's take the Op. 10 no. 1 and 2 ones as examples. (The ones I'm starting on today). How exactly would I approach these? A general idea I have is learn them as quickly as possible and then just keep playing them slowly and gradually increase tempo. In other words, after 2 weeks or so when I learn 2 (2 at a time?) I will start two new ones even though I'm not up to speed with the others, but still play the others several times a day... if you know what I mean.

Any ideas on how to approach them in general would be warmly accepted, but even better, how to approach the Op. 10 no. 1 and 2 etudes.

Thanks,

B-

BeePhlatMinor, I must have missed some other posts of yours but I do not see how these two sentences go together.

The best person to provide guidance on how to approach learning a piece is your teacher. Since you have a great one, you should be in good hands.
That said, learning the Chopin etudes in order - i.e. op10#1, then op10#2, then #3, etc. - does not make much sense. Some of the etudes are much more difficult than others. Op. 10 nos 1 and 2 are by no means the easiest ones. I would discuss with your teacher which ones might be the most appropriate for you to work on at your current level.
Also, and I know you did not exactly say this, the object is not to learn them quickly. The idea is to solve the technical problems the pieces present, which can take a long time. When I hear a beautiful performance of one of the Etudes - or any other piece for that matter - I could care less how long it took the performer to learn it.

I would start with Op. 10 no 3, and move through the 'easier' etudes, defintely, with maybe Op. 25 No. 7 next. No question about it, if you're really serious about learning all of them.

Peter

Hahaha, the biggest challenge any pianist, and I mean ANY, can face is to play op.10 1/2, these are the most horrific problems a pianist can confront him/herself with, especially when having to play them the one after the other, op.10/1 stretches your r.h. to the limits, op.10/2 causes your r.h.'s 345 fingers to such an extend that they'll need at least a month's holiday on the Bahama's, this is only stuff for grown-ups, category don't try this at home..

if you think you can learn ANY chopin etude in 2 weeks (AND THOSE 2 ARE THE HARDEST) you are either (a) so good that you should have no problem coming up with a strategy to learn them, or (b) VERY naive... go play some mozart man

does not

Well...it shouldn't

Some people prefer a methodical way of working through repertoire, others do not. I don't really think this is a question that others can answer for you.

What are your recommendations for methodically working through the repertoire at the appropriate level for the student?

I am an intermediate piano student who just finished up the 4th year of piano lessons. My teacher is using the Keith Snell graded repertoire books and I will start the 4th level starting with my summer lessons. We have also supplemented this series with books focusing on single composers such as Bach and Mozart that contain graded pieces that start with intermediate level and finish at late intermediate/early advanced pieces.

How would you use single composer volumes to construct a methodical approach where what you learn by studying one particular composer will develop an understanding of a later composer's work and the influences on his/her and so on?

Or how studying Composer A will be beneficial in learning to Play Composer B etc.

I would actually recommend you begin on 10-3 or 10-5...you can't approach all of the etudes the exact same way, it really depends... for 10-5, 10-12, or 25-11 for example, go hands separately, for 10-3, 10-1, or 25-12, though, go both hands extremely slowly...it mostly depends on where the melody is. for just about any technically challenging piece (especially fast ones), a general rule is to be able to play it from start to finish slowly and with few mistakes, and THEN speed up.

it just does, and that is no problem at all, it is it's purpose!

It doesn't stretch my hand to the limit and I don't have big hands.

i've never played a piece that just keeps the hand stretching for a tenth that often, and I play this one daily, I use it even as an encore, but seriously, this is the
ETUDE of all études, it's really doing something for, well, stretching/make elastic/train/work out/whatever the right hand!

Here is one of Chopin's pupils - "I am quite aware that it is a generally prevalent error, even in our day, that one can only play this study well when one possesses a very large hand. But this is not the case, only a supple hand is required." i.e. there is no stretch! Do so and you'll end up at a clinic. Here's an interesting thread (of many):
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1277916/1.html

Golly! Anyone notice that this thread is all of 7 years old?

Not only that, it was fairly lame even when fresh, and it hasn't improved with age.