Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Black Note Etude

I think this is one of Chopins greatest songs, but I want to know is it harder to play a song where 90% of the notes are on the black keys, opposed to the white keys?

Thanks.

It shouldn't be any harder. In fact, it should probably be easier than pieces where 50% are on black keys and 50% are on white keys.

All you have to do is raise your arm a little and lean forward a little (since the black keys are higher and farther away than the white keys) and that's it - then your wrist/hand positions and finger positions and everything are the same.

holystorm,

Not wishing to single you out, as many others are guilty of the same, but Chopin's Op10 no5 is not a 'song!'

It is a piano 'piece.'

More specifically an 'étude' or 'study.'

Whoever performs it, plays it on a piano.

There is no vocalist.

Ain't nobody singin'.

It is not a song.

Hope that helps


- Michael B.

PS. As for the difficulty of this piece, black keys are narrower than white keys, so the target area for your digits is smaller. Then again, there are fewer of them on a piano keyboard, so you have fewer wrong ones to hit . This piece would be difficult whichever key it was written in: FWIW I reckon it is a tad easier for being in Gb major; I think it would be harder in G major, for example.

Never fear, holystorm, this is a commonly-argued subject that keeps coming up when certain people have nothing better to do. Here, allow me:

It is a song.

It is comprised of notes that make music.

It is a song for piano.

The piano sings it.

IT is the vocalist.

It is a song.

But a song is written specifically for a human voice, not a piano

And as for the 10/5, playing on the black keys only (although it does use white keys, heh) isn't in itself difficult, but some of the fingering problems that are created from this make it more difficult (but by using the same notes transposed a semitone down/up they would still be there)

I think the fact that it is exclusively on black keys make it somewhat easier because you have to think less about moving your hand in and out of the black key area.

Compare it to - say - the first movement of Kreisleriana. One of the difficulties of this piece is there's more of a mixture of black keys and white keys, the thumb occasionally has to play on black keys, and there is much more in and out of the black key area.

That being said, the Schumann may not be more difficult than the Chopin, I'm just making an observation on one of the challenges of the Schumann.

Derulux: Argument/pedantry for the sake of it? Mr Pot, please meet Mr Kettle [sticks fingers in ears]

La-la-la-la-la-la-la....[1]

Michael B.
[1] Now that's a song .

I know this has come up many times before but I have never replied to one of them so I feel that I am entitled to at least one comment. It is NOT a song. ie. Webster...
1. The act or art of singing; as, he broke into song.

2. A piece of music sung or as if for singing.

I know there are greater problems in life than this but at the moment this is it.

Am I crazy, or did I read or hear that a well known pianist used to play, or sort of play this piece at recitals by rolling an orange across the black keys while playing the left hand part. If someone knows if this is true, can you confirm or disconfirm my recolection?

What the heck? Is that even possible?

Yeah, that was Nicolas Slonimsky.

The piano does not sing. Singing implies use of vocal cords.
However contrary you want to be, you can't deny that.


Fail.

It is a song without words. I would rather it be a "song" because that implies a nice cantabile.

Me too. I always try to correct friends or students when they refer to a piano piece as a 'song'. Does it matter? Probably not much but ...

Black Keys etude is not a singing melody or cantabile of any sort.

The piano does not sing. Singing implies use of vocal cords.
However contrary you want to be, you can't deny that.
Then explain why so many people refer to making a line "sing"....

They are trying to communicate a method of melodic phrasing and touch.

Then it would certainly be a poor communicative effort, considering your first statement.

It is, unless one knows how to interpret it for piano performance.

It is a usage that I never heard in ~30 years of involvement in music (both instrumental and indeed, as an accompanist, choral) whilst in my native England. In fact I have never encountered it since starting to read this forum some 6 months ago. I presumed therefore that it is either (i) a new coinage amongst the younger generation[1] or (ii) an Americanism. Or perhaps both. Seeing it used about the most 'unsonglike' Black Key étude from someone located in London was the last straw I suppose...

Personally I believe that it implies ignorance of musical forms, and is somehow dismissive, seemingly reducing any piece of music to being a mere 'song'[2]. Could one talk of Beethoven's 9th being one of his best 'songs'. It has a bit of singing it after all .

- Michael B.

[1] Waves walking stick, adjusts ear trumpet and pulls blanket more closely over knees.
[2] I am aware that various composers (real) 'songs' can be great pieces of music, but the usage of the word for non-vocal music, gives me this impression somehow.