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about muscle fatigue from repeating the same technical exercises. Particularly, Chopin 
discouraged his students from practicing without any logical thinking about the context. Instead 
he suggested working with full concentration on the music. Chopin urged his students to read 
books and listen to good music, as a part of good musicianship.
56
 As a teacher, Chopin directed 
his students to practice with a metronome for correct tempo and good rhythm, and to increase the 
tempo gradually.
57
  
2. Five-finger pattern 
 
Chopin designed a five-finger technique exercise with four different touches in order to 
develop finger independence (Ex. 2.1).
58
 This exercise is described and notated by Jean 
Kleczyński (1837-1895), one of the great Chopin interpreters, in his book, How to Play Chopin, 
from c. 1880. The five-finger exercise was designed with a B major scale starting on E. Chopin 
directed his students to practice the exercise with the most natural hand shape, placing longer 
fingers on the black keys and shorter fingers on the white keys. He thought the natural shape 
could make the most beautiful sounds because it mimicked the same leverage as the piano action.  
 
Step 1 uses a staccato touch and appears to be a warm-up exercise. By using a light 
staccato touch, this can reduce the natural heaviness of each finger. Step 2 is for heavy staccato 
playing, with notes held longer than in an ordinary staccato. Step 3 involves an accented legato 
playing, with each note being accented. Step 4 is legato playing. Chopin directed his students to 
practice the last exercise with different dynamics, from loud to soft, and with different tempos, 
from slow to gradually faster tempos.
59
 
 
                                                 
56
 Eigeldinger, 27.  
57
 Niecks, 184. 
58
 Kleczyński, 27-29.  
59
 Ibid., 29. 

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Step 1 
 
 
Step 2 
 
 
Step 3 
 
 
Step 4 
 
Example 2.1: Frédéric Chopin, Five-Finger Technique Exercises 
 
 
3. Scales 
 
For the next level of difficulty, Chopin directed his students to work on scales. Using the 
same approach as with the five-finger patterns, he began with a physically comfortable position. 

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He began with a B major scale in the right hand, starting on the note E, and a D-flat major scale 
in the left hand, starting on the note G-flat. (See his suggested fingering for both of these scales 
in Example 2.2.
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) Chopin directed his students to practice with a staccato touch in the beginning 
because it does not require the thumb to turn under or the hand positions to change. With more 
advanced students, he emphasized the importance of the flexible thumb in playing scales.
61
 
 
 
B Major Scale in R.H. 
 
 
 
 
D-flat Major Scale in L.H. 
 
Example 2.2: Frédéric Chopin, Scale Exercises 
 
 
IV. Expression and Interpretation 
 
In his diary entry on September 12, 1836, Robert Schumann said, “It was stirring just to 
watch him [Chopin] at the keyboard.”
62
 Kleczyński, relates that, “Chopin, [upon] hearing the 
dull colourless playing of some young artists, exclaimed: “Put all your soul into it! Play as you 
                                                 
60
 Ibid., 30-31.  
61
 Mikuli, iv. 
62
 Eigeldinger, 269. 

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feel!”
63
 Chopin was very expressive at the keyboard and demanded artistry of the highest level 
from himself, his students, and all other artists. He taught his students how to express and 
interpret music by comparing musical expression in piano playing to that found in speaking and 
singing. Chopin advised his students to play the piano with a variety of timbres through using 
different touches. 
1. Phrasing 
 
Chopin taught phrasing to his students by comparing the spoken word to music. He wrote 
in his own method, “We use sounds to make music just as we use words to make a language.”
64
 
More specifically, he compared notes, motives, and phrases to syllables, words, and sentences. 
Chopin insisted that musical dynamics should be as natural as those found in spoken language. 
He stated that expressive speaking makes a good impression on the listener, like expressive 
piano playing. Chopin explained to Mikuli that “Wrong phrasing would provoke the apt analogy 
that it seemed to him as if someone were reciting a laboriously memorized speech in an 
unfamiliar language, not merely failing to observe the right quantity of syllables, but perhaps 
even making full stops in the middle of words.”
65
 
2. Singing melody  
 
Chopin advocated that musical instruments should be made to sing like the voice. He 
preferred and adopted the singing style particularly favored in Italian opera. Further, he directed 
his students to listen to the bel canto style for its singing melody. The bel canto style in his time 
was specifically associated with the operatic composers Rossini, Belini, and Donizetti. Bel canto 
singing is distinguished by its “perfection legato,” the beauty of tone, rhythmic flexibility 
                                                 
63
 Kleczyński, 62. 
64
 Chopin, “Sketch for a Method”; cited in Eigeldinger, 195. 
65
 Eigeldinger, 42. 

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