I recently attended a concert by a fantastic pianist who designed his set around the “Study”, pieces designed specifically as a way to exercise the body and mind in certain techniques or musical approaches. The average listener may be surprised to know that many Studies (like this Chopin work) were made with beauty in mind, as equally as important as technical exercise, a “Concert Etude” if you will (as opposed to works explicitly for scales, intervals, trills, octaves, and hundreds of other stereotypically “boring” technical variations).

Once the distinction blurs between technical study and piece of music, you begin to approach every piece of music with the same respect: a way to learn the technical skills, enhance mental comprehension, and means to express & tell a story.