Chopin or Liszt: Which Is Easier to Start With?

The honest answer is neither, and this page is mostly about why that answer is worth taking seriously.

The measurements

Read that carefully before drawing a conclusion. Liszt's median looks eleven points friendlier, but it is a median of eight pieces against Chopin's fifty-two. Eight is not a sample; one unusual entry moves it by ten points. The medians are not comparable and we will not pretend they are.

The row that does mean something is the third one. Between them these two composers wrote sixty pieces in this library, and exactly two of them score under 30.

What that number is telling you

Both men were touring virtuosos who wrote primarily for themselves. There is no Chopin equivalent of the Anna Magdalena notebook and no Liszt equivalent of Burgmüller's studies. When their music is easy it is by accident, not design — a prelude written short, a consolation written quietly.

Compare: Bach has 54 pieces under 30, Schumann 17, Mozart 21. Burgmüller has no piece above 59 at all, because teaching was the entire point of his output. See the easiest Burgmüller pieces for what a composer looks like when a beginner is the intended reader.

The two genuine entry points

Chopin — Prelude Op. 28 No. 6 in B minor, score 24. The melody is in the left hand, which is unusual and is exactly why it is playable: the right hand has only quiet repeated chords. It is short, slow, and sounds completely like Chopin. It is the single best first Chopin there is.

Liszt — Consolation No. 1, score 28. Quiet, hymn-like, and nothing like the Liszt of reputation. The Consolations are the one set where he wrote inwardly rather than outwardly.

If you want the sound and not the fight

The Chopin sound comes from a singing right-hand line over a wide, rolling left hand. You can get most of the way there with music that does not require the stretch. Of the seven nocturnes here the friendliest by measurement is Op. 9 No. 2 at 40 — not the C♯ minor one at 50, which is the one usually recommended. And three of the Preludes score under 40: No. 6 (24), No. 4 (32) and No. 20 (37). See the easiest Chopin pieces for the full order.

The Liszt sound comes from the size of the hand, and there is no substitute for that. Come back later.

Read next: the easiest Chopin pieces, what is a nocturne, and the hardest pieces in the library.