Chopin Ballade No.1 – How to fix a tricky descending scale run

The Chopin Ballade No. 1 scale run is one of the most recognisable passages in the piano repertoire — and one that many pianists find tricky to play with confidence and evenness. In this short piano tutorial, I break down the descending scale run step by step, with practical tips to help you play it with greater confidence, evenness and musicality. 🎹✨

One of the things I find helpful is to slow the passage down and group the notes mentally while still keeping them even. This is purely a mental hack, but it can make a fast scale run feel much more manageable. It can also help to remember the underlying harmonic structure: here we have F7, followed by chord iv (notice that it’s minor, not major), then V and I in E-flat major.

As you build up speed, keep listening for evenness and clarity rather than simply trying to play faster. Practise slowly first, then gradually increase the tempo. Consistency is key!

(the descending scale runs occurs around the 7 minute mark)

Want to understand the theory behind passages like this?

📚All-In-One Music Theory books explain chords, harmony, Roman numerals and much more in a clear, practical way, with resources covering Grades 1–5.

Chopin Étude Op. 25 No. 10 Piano Tutorial – The Whole-Tone Scale

A Pianist’s Thoughts

Chopin was remarkably forward-looking for his time. In the opening four bars of this Étude Op. 25 No. 10, the main notes form a whole-tone scale — something particularly striking in a piece written in the 1830s.

By “main notes”, I mean the notes around which the others seem to hang — the notes that are given a little more prominence or accent. These are the notes marked in green on this particular score. They are also the notes I find myself singing in my head as I play, creating an interesting offbeat rhythmic pattern in places.

It’s a small detail, but I find it fascinating how this underlying whole-tone pattern contributes to the character of the music.

There is actually another piece by Chopin which uses a whole-tone scale in a much more obvious way than here. Does anyone know which one? If you know, let me know in the comments.

🎥 Watch the video on YouTube

What Is a Whole-Tone Scale?

For anyone who doesn’t know, a whole-tone scale is made entirely of whole tones (two semitones), giving it six different notes within the octave.

In this example, the notes are F♯, G♯, A♯, B♯, D and E. Each note is a whole tone away from the next.

Because there are no semitones within the scale, whole-tone scales have a distinctive, floating quality. They can create a dreamy, ambiguous or almost trance-like effect, and they are also closely connected to the augmented chord, which can be constructed from the notes of a whole-tone scale.

The whole-tone scale later became particularly associated with the music of the French Impressionist composers, especially Debussy. Finding this colour in Chopin, writing in the 1830s, is one of the many things that makes his music so fascinating to explore.

Want to understand the theory behind passages like this?

📚All-In-One Music Theory books explain about whole-tones, semitones, chords, harmony and much more in a clear, practical way, with resources covering Grades 1–5.