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While that may be true, there are only four Ballades compared to the 24 Etudes and approximately 20 Nocturnes.

And yes - some could argue that the Etudes and Nocturnes are good as well.

So would most of you say that the Ballades, if you took away the coda from each, are about the same difficulty?

I don't think that's exactly true, but anyway why would we talk about how it is "taking away the coda"? I really don't get it.....

Have to strongly agree with Mark C and Butters...to play No. 1 with authority and beauty is far from an easy task. To just roughly play through for family and friends without too much concern for accurate dynamics, speed, and preciseness is one thing (can still manage to be a decent performance to untrained and non-critical ears)...but to get to actual performance quality is a whole other ballgame and can be very daunting to play with a critical audience in the background. Requires just so much musicianship. Anyways, just feel like there are ALWAYS small parts of any piece that can be thought of as "easy", and just cringe when I hear a piece is easy "except" for this section or that section. It can sometimes be just one or two "small" sections that take a piece from modestly playable to brutally difficult, and therefore the piece as a whole would have to be preoperly described as "brutally difficult". Not "easy" except for the...you get my point. Actually, I take that back...I don't think there is anything easy about the Kapustin concert etudes I am slowly, and I am mean slowly, trying to learn (if I could perform them at 1/10 Hamelin's quality I would feel some sort of success). It's like staring up at Everest and letting out a long sigh...at least for a humble amateur like myself.

That's the impression I've had of what people often mean here when they talk about how hard a piece is -- and I can't relate to it.


That's what I think it means. Otherwise we're not talking about how hard the piece is, we're talking about how easy it is to sort of play the piece.


My favorite example of that is Chopin's D-flat major Nocturne. It's not that hard, except for "that measure."

There's nothing really to get. I was just wondering if the difficulty of the coda sort of defines the piece's difficulty in technical terms. Looks like it doesn't

Right -- I don't think it does, but I could imagine people would think the opposite, especially for the 1st and 4th. But I think there's much in those pieces besides the codas that is more difficult than the other ballades.

"That's what I think it means. Otherwise we're not talking about how hard the piece is, we're talking about how easy it is to sort of play the piece." - Mark C

Exactly, to just play through FI for instance took me about 2 weeks, but to bring to performance quality (have recital in couple of weeks) with proper resepct given to every little nuance in dynamics has taken me an additional 2 months and I finally feel I am not just "faking" it (which by the way is very easy to do with FI and most non-critical listeners would hardly notice).

Anyways, guess I am getting off topic a bit, so back to the original question...I would place #4 at the top of "most challenging" ballade list, imo.

OK, thank you. One of the reasons I thought this was because someone said on this thread (can't remember who):

'#3 - Definately not easy, but without the killer codas of the other 3'

I guess they didn't mean it how I interpreted it.

Pardon my ignorance but what's "FI"?

Sorry Mark...Fantasie Impromptu. Feeble attempt to save some typing time...

Cool......and no problem, these days everything has an abbreviation, especially newly-invented medical conditions that have medications and TV ads.

LOL, exactly...yeah everything in this world seems to keep getting smaller, and smaller. Have first recital in 10 years coming up in a few weeks and trying to put together decent program. Gave up piano for tennis about 10 years ago out of high school...I don't live with regrets but man I wish I would have kept it up. Started up again with a brilliant teacher (ex-concert pianist) a few months back in Houston and just loving every minute of it. Never thought I could be this passionate about a hobby...truly a life long journey. Glad I found this forum as well, although I do spend most of my time just lurking.

Best,

David

I think probably you're better off for having done the tennis too......but welcome back to piano.

I think the reason why many people try and view pieces as easy and some sections and hard in others is to gauge the true difficulty of the piece.

If you were to compare the 1st Ballade to the Revolutionary Etude, which I know is unfair, but in the view of difficulty, the etude is difficult throughout the whole piece while the Ballade is technically passable for 1/2 or 3/4 of the piece.

I am currently learning Chopin Ballade #2 and I have also attempted to play the other three Chopin Ballades and my order from easiest to hardest is: 2-3-1-4 or 2-1-3-4 (My opinion). Many people say that #2 is really hard. It does seem hard at first, but once I got used to it, #2 will seem easier than the other ballades. The slow part is extremely easy for me. I also feel like #3 and #1 can be switched because #3 seems kind of confusing to me throughout the whole piece, but without any really hard parts or the coda. #1 has some easy parts with many difficult parts, which overall, I find most annoying for my fingers to play. #4 is just difficult. My fingers get really tired and some notes just feels and looks impossible to play.

I utterly agree