Chopin was very particular about the formation of the touch, giving dementi’s Preludes at first.  “Is that a dog barking?” was his sudden exclamation at a rough attack.  He taught the scales staccato and legato beginning with E major.  Ductility, ease, gracefulness were his aim; stiffness, harshness annoyed him.  He gave Clementi, Moscheles and Bach.  Before playing in concert he shut himself up and played, not Chopin but Bach, always Bach.  Absolute finger independence and touch discrimination and color are to be gained by playing the preludes and fugues of Bach.  Chopin started a method but it was never finished and his sister gave it to the Princess Czartoryska after his death.  It is a mere fragment.  Janotha has translated it.  One point is worth quoting.  He wrote: 

No one notices inequality in the power of the notes of a scale when it is played very fast and equally, as regards time.  In a good mechanism the aim is not to play everything with an equal sound, but to acquire a beautiful quality of touch and a perfect shading.  For a long time players have acted against nature in seeking to give equal power to each finger.  On the contrary, each finger should have an appropriate part assigned it.  The thumb has the greatest power, being the thickest finger and the freest.  Then comes the little finger, at the other extremity of the hand.  The middle finger is the main support of the hand, and is assisted by the first.  Finally comes the third, the weakest one.  As to this Siamese twin of the middle finger, some players try to force it with all their might to become independent.  A thing impossible, and most likely unnecessary.  There are, then, many different qualities of sound, just as there are several fingers.  The point is to utilize the differences; and this, in other words, is the art of fingering.

Here, it seems to me, is one of the most practical truths ever uttered by a teacher.  Pianists spend thousands of hours trying to subjugate impossible muscles.  Chopin, who found out most things for himself, saw the waste of time and force.  I recommend his advice.  He was ever particular about fingering, but his innovations horrified the purists.  “Play as you feel,” was his motto, a rather dangerous precept for beginners.  He gave to his pupils the concertos and sonatas—­all carefully graded—­of Mozart, Scarlatti, Field, Dussek, Hummel, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Weber and Hiller and, of Schubert, the four-hand pieces and dances.  Liszt he did not favor, which is natural, Liszt having written nothing but brilliant paraphrases in those days.  The music of the later Liszt is quite another thing.  Chopin’s genius for the pedal, his utilization of its capacity for the vibration of related strings, the overtones, I refer to later.  Rubinstein said: