Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner How do I know if I'm ready for Chopin's Black Key Etude?

The correct tempo of the right hand is inconceivable. at the most i can only do half the speed. is this piece mostly a matter of practice? I'm on break from lessons at the moment.

Not any more than any other study.

If the tempo is "inconceivable" then the piece is indeed one you are not ready for.

Work on easier pieces and build up to it.

The stock answer is that if you don`t know yourself, don`t bother.

Well, if you have to ask ... To answer to your question with a question : How would we know when you know when you are ready ...? I guess the short answer is : Try it, and find out. But you've already done that, so I really don't understand what you're asking.

On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with working on the Etude, even if it's not up to speed. If you can play it with pin-point accuracy at half-tempo, you should gradually be able to work up the speed. You will get benefits from it if you are not playing it sloppily. Don't be in a rush; don't expect to do it all tomorrow, however.

Regards,

I think this etude also sounds pretty good at somewhat less than full speed. And I think many of the Chopin Etudes are very good technical training even if not played up to full speed.

i guess if you have to ask then you're probably not ready.

Try the last page especially. I've not made a serious attempt at this one yet, but from sightreading that was really the toughest part of the piece for me. The right hand passages in the last few bars were quite tricky, and then there's the descending octaves on the black keys at the end that are very hard to get to tempo. If you feel you can eventually get over this last hurdle, then maybe it's worth a shot to try out this piece.

This etude does sound very nice even at a slower tempo though, however.

the problem is not the reading, its the speed. I'm a lefty so my RH, unfortunately is not on par with the dexterity required of this piece (whereas my left hand ironically is, i tried mimicking the same movements of my RH). Actually, I can sound out the rhythm and managed to do the first line at half the speed, but even my LH cant do the RH part on tempo.

How long have you been working on this Etude?

Regards,

oh i just got the first line down and tried getting the fingering right for the first line as well as the fluency. i don't think it makes any difference at the moment if i knew the entire piece since i would play it with just the same technique and speed which i seek to improve before i proceed further. But again, I'm not sure what is the right way to pursue this. I've heard the entire piece multiple times, however.

The best preparation I can think of off the top of my head is the Bach Prelude in Bb Major from WTC I

The G# minor Rachmaninoff prelude (Op. 32#12) would also be good.

Really?? Seems like kind of a big jump.

The Rachmaninov Prelude seems like a better stepping stone to me.

The best etudes are the ones that you can play slowly and gradually build up to faster and faster speeds. In fact, any piece that sounds good slow as well as fast is a good etude, whether it is called that or not.