Hello everybody, my piano teacher has given me Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique Op.13 to learn, I haven't really started it yet but can anyone tell me if its really hard and how long do you think it will take to learn, and if anyone can give me advice that would be really great, thanks. :)

The only hard part is the first Movement. The rest is pretty simple, but it'l take some skill to play it.

I'm playing the IIIrd Mvt. for a competetion next month.

what kind of level are you at? if you've been given it to learn it's obviously not too hard for you, but it could take you any amount of time.

for any sonata i've done, ive spent 1-2 weeks on each individual movement (depending on difficulty), just getting used to the notes, pencilling in things to help me, playing it through really slowly with the metronome, speeding it up etc. then once that period is over, i spend another week just playing the whole thing straight through and really getting comfortable with it. at the end of the week i record myself playing it (doesnt have to be particularly good quality- i usually just use an old cassette player because its easier) then listen back and make notes of bits i think i did well and bits i really messed up. then the final week is just spent altering the bits i messed up.

last bit of advice: when you are just starting off, listen to recordings of the sonata and follow through with the music at least 4 times a week, so you know exactly how it sounds. obviously dont try to mimic the recording though.

listen to as many different recordings as you can find. there are two different recordings of it that you can download from here:

http://nlib.org.ua/parts/mp3sound1.html