Which collection would you learn A to Z?

[u/srodrigoDev]

Over your lifetime as a pianist, which collection would you want to learn in its entirety? Would you even consider doing this in the first place?

For example, quite a few people learn the whole Chopin Etudes, or Beethoven sonatas. Has anyone on here done this? I'm not talking about learning only this one work in one go and nothing else, but learning it over a couple of years and keeping it as something to study over and over.

I'll go first. Collections I'm interested in (in order):

• Chopin Etudes
• Bach WTC
• Liszt Transcendental Etudes
• Debussy Preludes
• Beethoven sonatas

I'm quite drawn to Chopin Etudes for some reason. I think I just like figuring out the different techniques, and some are among my favourite Chopin pieces from a pure musical perspective (25/12, 25/5, 25/1, 10/9).

I'm reading through the whole WTC bit by bit. I've finished reading through book 1, and now I'm using it for warming up for my evening practice. I tend to spend some time on specific preludes and sometimes fugues, so I'll probably learn them all eventually. Plus is fascinating.

Liszt TEs are probably my second pick after Chopin's. The problem is how hard they are. I'm not entirely sure I'll ever be able to even get the hardest ones up to 80% or 90% polish, most likely not. And I'm not a big fan of all of them (no. 1 huh). But there's something about this work that's got a legendary aura and some of these etudes are peak music (no. 11 is my favourite).

Debussy Preludes are also very very interesting to me. There's so much variety in them, and they aren't as hard technically as other collections. I'll probably read through all of them as well and maybe work on about at least half of them over time.

The last one is... tricky. So many people love all Beethoven sonatas, but I don't really see the appeal. Some of them are among my favourite pieces of all times, but some others are quite meh (I dropped Op. 10 no. 3 this year, I just didn't enjoy the first movement to put in the work). I might read through all of them slowly, but I doubt I'll ever try to properly learn them all.

There are so many other good choices. Mozart or Haydn sonatas, Scarlatti sonatas (I'm also reading through all of them, one a day, I'm at K179), Scriabin sonatas (this would be really hard plus I don't like no. 4 and no. 1), etc.

My personal pick would be Chopin Etudes. I think I could spend a lifetime on this and not get bored. I'd pick Liszt TEs second if it wasn't for its difficulty, so I suppose I'd pick the WTC (also difficult but in a different way).

What's yours? Is there any book or collection you love and have fully learnt or are planning to? Ideally around 1h or longer (aka. not something short like Brahms op. 117).

I'm secretly hoping that someone will say "all Czerny etudes" :D

[u/CableMod1991]

Jazz standards all day err day

[u/_Sparassis_crispa_ → u/CableMod1991]

Yeah man

[u/tiredreddituser99]

Chopin Nocturnes.

I'm almost halfway through actually... the problem is i can't really play the ones I learnt first anymore. but hey that's still something

[u/Dramatic-Attempt-735 → u/tiredreddituser99]

Relearning the ones you've learnt before takes waaaay less effort than the first time, though. You could make it a habit starting now, to revisit the old ones you've finished already like once a month.

[u/tiredreddituser99 → u/Dramatic-Attempt-735]

while you're totally right, i don't have the time I had when I was a school student

I'm a big boy now with big responsibilities, gotta study for uni and work and help around the house. as good as it feels to take some weight off my parents (love you mom and dad), my hobbies are kinda slowing down as a consequence.

I'm sure it'll be fine tho

[u/Dramatic-Attempt-735 → u/tiredreddituser99]

It'll get better once you settle into a job, unless you start having kids right away ... i think uni + job + parents is a much higher workload than a regulr 9-5. I have more time for my hobbies now than I did back when I was still in uni.

[u/tiredreddituser99 → u/Dramatic-Attempt-735]

totally agreed, just gotta push through these two years and I'll be able to actually live lmao

[u/benkenobi239]

It would be a neat party trick to pull out any part of Iberia.

[u/jiang1lin → u/benkenobi239]

As long as no one asks for Lavapiés 🫣🤪

[u/bkmusicandsound]

The Rachmaninoff Preludes are alluring. Will need to step up my game to get some of those done.

[u/omlet8 → u/bkmusicandsound]

Are the rachmaninoff concertos a collection

[u/yaykat]

Clara Schumann’s complete piano works

[u/CT-6605]

Chopin 24 Preludes. The only one that is currently out of my ability is No. 24 (that one run where you need to play two notes at a time with the right hand instead of one)

[u/omlet8 → u/CT-6605]

Honestly thirds aren’t too bad. Learn a good fingering (for those descending starting on d-f I use 1-5, 2-4, 1-3, 1-4, 2-3, 1-5, 2-4, 1-3, 2-4, 1-3, 1-4, 2-3, 1-5, etc) and it gets pretty comfortable fast. Also, in my opinion, once you get used to thirds, etude 25/6 honestly isn’t that bad. 

[u/Dramatic-Attempt-735]

Scarlatti's 555 Sonatas. But that might be a bit much. I'm turning 40 next year. I don't know if I have enough time left. So I'm just gonna start with the volume that I have, which is Henle's Scarlatti volume IV. There are a bunch of them that I can sight-read comfortably at a low speed. Maybe that's enough for me.

[u/srodrigoDev → u/Dramatic-Attempt-735]

Best of luck with them. Even just reading through them a couple of times would be quite a feat. I'm a bit over 40; If I can, you can too ;)

[u/Dramatic-Attempt-735 → u/srodrigoDev]

And Scarlatti only started writing the sonatas in his 50s, and he passed away at 72 I believe. If he can write then in 20 or so years, we can learn them, right? 🙃 I'm not super convinced, but I'll try haha.

[u/New_City6965]

Liszt’s annees de pelerinage, especially year one, and his hungarian rhapsodies

[u/ScriptorHonestus]

1. Beethoven Sonatas

2. Chopin Ballades

3. Mozart Sonatas

I'm going through quite a Beethoven phase right now so I don't think learning all 32 over a lifetime would be impossible

[u/DetromJoe]

The whole WTC and Debussy etudes (nowhere near good enough for either of those rn)

[u/Big-Ice6095]

Currently attempting the Kapustin 24 Jazz Preludes… I’ve learned two and I’m working on four more right now, wish me luck

[u/caffi_u]

definitely Chopin Preludes and Études. I would probably add Brahms Op. 116-119 + Op. 76 and 79