The Way of Chopins teaching and a Light Study of his Etudes

In the Book, Chopin: pianist and teacher as seen by his pupils, it

included many types of thing to concentrate on when playing the piano and
also the parts before playing the piano. His students wrote in the types of
pianos that should be used, how to sit properly in front of the piano, what
you should do when playing the piano. Here, I will be taking those techniques
and putting them to the test.
Some background of Chopins life include his piano teachers, Wojciech
(Adalbert) ywny, Jzef Elsner who showed Chopin harmony textbooks,
Wilhelm Wrfel the organist. When Chopin was in Paris, he got a chance to
meet with Kalkbrenner and played for him. There, Chopin was taught by him
but not before asking his father, sister, and his previous teacher Elsner.
(Maine, 46) Kalkbrenner had a different style of playing as he wanted to bring
out more of his expression than to just play the notes. Kalkbrenner became
one of people who influenced Chopin the most.
Chopins piano teaching
Chopin was a teacher who created his own style of playing the piano.
(Eigeldinger, 27) His most stressed point when teaching piano was for the
student to be supple. (Eigeldinger, 29) This allowed the student to play very
fast without the tiring of the wrist and the hand to be able to stretch as far as
possible. (Eigeldinger, 30) When Chopin was performing in Vienna in 1829,
the critics thought that his playing was too soft. (Maine, 22-23) This was from

his style of playing where he did not like the way of piano gymnastics.
(Eigeldinger, 27) Rather, his way of playing was for the weight of the fingers
to just fall onto the keys and almost be using a tickling motion for extremely
quiet passages. (Eigeldinger, 27) Moreover, this type of pedagogy resulted in
required that the piano has a light action without a ready-made tone. A
technique that Chopin used was for the fingers to lead and the arm would
just move to where it needs to go. He would tell his students to Have the
body supple right to the tips of the toes. (Eigeldinger, 29) The body had to
be at a balanced state so then the person playing does not need to put more
effort into pressing the notes more than they would have to. It created a
method of playing where the player did not have their wrist stiffen after
playing a fast passage. I was very curious of this and tried this method of
playing. To my surprise, I found that after I had a couple hours of trying this,
my wrists did not stiffen as it had before and I was also able to play even
faster. Another thing about Chopins technique in playing is the use of the
elbow. He suggested to his students that they should not use the elbow
strength unless they were to be playing a fortissimo passage. (Eigeldinger,
30) He also not to use the wrist as much as possible as it makes the fingers
more tired than they need to. This would bring me to my other point of
controlling the tone. Chopin had so many different types of controlling a
touch as each of them will produce a different tone. He would tell his
students to play the same note 20 times but with different touch.
(Eigeldinger, 32) I have also tried this and found out that only the better

pianos can really bring out different tones 20 different ways. Of course none
of the uprights in the practice rooms worked very well but when I used the
concert grand pianos, I was able to create so many different types of tones. I
also experimented with many different types of pressure when I started
leaning in or pulled further out. When I leaned in, I felt that I had gained a lot
more control but I was not able to play very fast. When I leaned out, I could
play very delicately but the sound produced was extremely hollow so I would
not recommend it.
The Light Study on the Technique used for Chopins Etudes (Op. 10)
The first set of these Etudes were dedicated to Franz Liszt. Although they both had
very different types of techniques with Liszt playing with the gymnastic training of
the fingers on a heavy keyboard while Chopin preferred to have a light keyboard
when practicing. (Eigeldinger, 27) All of these etudes were written was

travelling between Warsaw, Vienna, and Paris. I found that these etudes are
a lot different as they do not just have boring passages to train the fingers
but they also have a flowing melody and some even having a total change in
harmony.
In the first Etude (the nickname Arpeggios), is difficult without being
beautiful with the left hand playing heavy octaves. (Jonson, 97) The right
hand should be used very lightly with no elbow weight and the fingers doing
all the work.

I found that the second Etude was very hard to play. The treble ripples
up and down over the lightly accentuated harmonies, and the concluding
scale drops as delicately as a bird alighting on a swaying branch.1 This is
because it required the right hand to only use the third, fourth, and fifth
finger for the chromatic scale part while the thumb and the second finger to
play different notes on the beat. Chopin also stated that he wanted the right
hand to be very legato. Other than the hard right hand, I wanted to talk
about the left hand. This etude has a very detached octaves
In the third Etude, it has a very Legato melody on the right hand but the
different thing in this etude is that the right hand also have to play an
accompanying part to the piece. This makes helps the player train their
finger legato with a lot of practice. As Chopin does not care much for using
the thumb on the black keys. Here, he writes in m. 8 with the A sharp where
only the thumb can play and the performer has to very delicately play it.
There is also another part where Chopin makes use of the importance with
being in control of all the fingers. The part is on measure 34 and 35 where it
contains a counter melody on the same hand. He utilizes the fourth and fifth
finger for the first part and the thumb and the second finger for the second
melody. Just using the different fingers for so many melodies is hard but to
also hold each part while the other is playing is even harder.
1 Ashton, Jonson, A handbook to Chopin's works, giving a detailed account of all the
compositions of Chopin, short analyses for the piano student, and critical quotations
from the writings of well-known musical authors, the whole forming a complete
guide for concert-goers, pianists and pianola-players. (London: William Reeves,
1908) 98.

The fourth etude nicknamed Presto. I found this one extremely hard as
the right hand got really hard to keep even when playing on some bars. For
example, the big leaps on the 3rd measure gave me quite a bit of trouble
while other measures like measure 9 created an exercise to keep my hand
small but still loose. To stay with Chopins pedagogy, I tried to stay supple on
the wrist and also not to lean forward. Of course, changing playing technique
takes time but after a week, I was able to feel the difference with the ability
to play faster as my fingers became more agile. In terms of the key, it is a
little deceiving as it seems like it should have a dark theme but it includes a
lot of bubbles of life and spurts flame. (Jonson, 85)
In the very popular etude No. 5 Black Keys, it required smooth,
velvet-tipped fingers and a supple wrist.2 The right hand I found was that it
was easier to play compared to the fourth etude but there is also a more
difficult left hand as it requires the player to bring out the melody. This is
especially hard on measure 17 when there are quick detached notes while
the right hand is playing a quick descending passage.
The next etude is based on mostly non-chord tones. This Andante etude
creates a dark theme with six flats at the start but at measure 21, Chopin
modulates to E Major and it seems as the clouds have gone away. This etude

2 Ashton, Jonson, A handbook to Chopin's works, giving a detailed account of all the
compositions of Chopin, short analyses for the piano student, and critical quotations
from the writings of well-known musical authors, the whole forming a complete
guide for concert-goers, pianists and pianola-players. (London: William Reeves,
1908) 101.

also makes use of rubato especially on measure 32 with the g flat. It reaches
the tonic note and descends back to the main dark theme.
In Etude No. 7 (Toccata), the right hand is complicated and creates a
sense of sunshine and fresh air. (Jonson, 102) This piece requires very tight
fingerings and also a way to shape every phrase as the running passage has
a small hidden melody. For example, in measure 1, the notes g, c, d, b, g is
hard to bring out but it is repeated a few times.
The next etude is one of the light hearted etude No. 8. The left hand
creates a jumping feeling by the use of a grace note and large leaps from a C
down to F and then back up to a D and then to an A. On a technical
standpoint, this etude includes a lot of crossing over with the fourth finger on
the right hand, it also trains the player to improve on their rhythm. The
arpeggios also improve the evenness of every note and also trains the thumb
to be less accented.
Next, I would like to talk about etude No. 10. The first thing to notice is
that both hands are very active but the hardest parts in this piece is to
accent the correct note while having a very light touch. Chopin liked to use
different techniques but with the same notes. The accents start on every
other beat with slurs that start on the first and second sub beat but later
changes to a slur that starts on the strong beat to the first sub beat. On
every second strong beat for the left hand contains a held note causing the
fingers to stretch with the fourth and the thumb in rapid movement. This is

something Chopin wanted as he wanted hands to be able to stretch as far as

it can. (Eigeldinger, 30)

Bibliography
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critical quotations from the writings of well-known musical authors, the whole
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pianists and pianola-players.

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