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They're difficult.
Remember that the etudes were written both as concert pieces and as exercises, but the difficult thing about many of the Chopin etudes, the skills you need to play them are gained... from the etude itself - they are an end in themselves.
The 'Black Key' study has the following difficulties:
* speed across the black notes (you need to practise it slowly and deliberately before speeding up)
* fast alternation of hand direction (you need to have a relaxed hand and wrist - rocking your hand in the direction the melody is moving in)
As you might notice with the other etudes, they are mostly single hand dominant - with a few exceptions (for example, Op 10 #4), only one hand is faced with the technical challenge presented (in this case, the right hand).
In the case of 'what piano works should I study BEFORE...', it depends on what level of ability you have. You might very well be capable of playing the etudes, or you might be just picking too big a piece too soon.
If you have a teacher, ask them for their opinion (although they really should know already what repertoire you're attempting).
For practise, warm up with broken arpeggios on the black keys to practise the action (F# A# (down to) C# (up to) F# (down to) A# (up to) C#) for example. Practise the difficult figures.
Trust this helps.
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