WEEK ONE Updates: Main Thread - What a delightful theme Beethoven wrote!
Hello and welcome to the WEEK ONE Main Thread for this challenge! 
Alright everyone - this is the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Twice a week between September 20th - 27th I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Download the music:
Beethoven: 6 Variations on an Original Theme
Please use the following format when commenting (feel free to copy & paste!):
- Variation you worked on:
- One thing you found easy:
- One thing you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
Sample daily update:
- Variation you worked on: No. 1
- One thing you found easy: Learning the notes, and rhythms were rather straight-forward, and not challenging!
- One thing you found difficult: Shifting the Hands was a bit tricky to get smooth!
Feel free to make these updates as short or long as you wish!
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Variation you worked on:
I worked on learning and memorizing the whole thing.
One thing you found easy:
The structure of the piece makes it easier to memorize.
One thing you found difficult:
Variation 5 gave me of the most challenges. It took a little working to find a fingering that felt comfortable.
Here is my video. I started working on the last two variations first (I usually start any piece by learning what I believe will be the most difficult part), and you can tell that I have a lot more confidence in the later variations than the earlier ones.
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Gail Starr That is lovely!
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Sindre Skarelven Oh no! I have no idea how that happened....I was just clicking around YouTube. So sorry!
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Juan Carlos Olite Thank you so much.
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Matt Thank you. But I'm so sorry my video showed up under YOUR post. I'm not sure what went wrong?!
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Matt Amazing those of you who are able to memorize so quickly. Recording quality is great too.
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Matt Great job , in awe of you guys that can produce a memorized piece with expression , articulation etc within a few days . Lovely . Hope to hear more !
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Gail Starr Bravo , enjoyed listening , cannot find the write up which goes with it but never mind as I still I enjoyed it and looking forward to the next variations. Thanks for getting me interested in this music the other night . Gail Starr
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Matt Congratulations on this impressive work for week 1 including the wonderfully fast memorization! I can't wait to see how this piece develops for you, but again I really enjoyed your video and the quality is so nice!
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Gail Starr Great playing! The video quality is great and I enjoy the sound of your piano! Keep up the great work!
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Gail Starr Glad I found your video in this thread - how lovely! I love the way you play deep into the keys on that FABULOUS piano of yours. Very interesting take on Var. 2: it was determined and every note counted. That really appealed! Thanks for the post. I can鈥檛 wait to hear more.
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Gail Starr It took me ages to find your video! I saw you had made one a few days ago and I thought well I will listen to it tomorrow. And then it was gone! Anyway I've found it again. Nice playing! I enjoyed listening to that.
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Richard George Littlewood Thank you! I've been having a tough time finding ANYONE's videos...and then when I try to reply, everything vanishes. This happens mostly when I watch on my phone, but even my laptop is acting very strange.
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- Variation you worked on: I'm a bit late to the party as I just realized this weekend there was a new challenge! I worked on the whole piece and did a video without any repeats. Interesting discussion above about which sections to repeat.
- One thing you found easy: Easier relative to the previous challenges (but still not easy!).
- One thing you found difficult: Variation 6 scales.
- (Optional): I've been experimenting with new mics and recording techniques (based on some other tonebase livestreams) so hopefully the recording quality is improving from previous videos. Looks like lots of people participating on this one!
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Brett Gilbert Wow , can鈥檛 believe you managed to do this in one weekend ! That was wonderfully musical . The piano sounded great to me by the way !
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Brett Gilbert Sounds great and I agree with mariannejhampton that the piano is sounding great! If I may ask, what mics/positioning are you using? Very nice!
Also I enjoy your tempos, and like Marianne mentioned, amazing work so quickly on short time!
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Thank you Dominic . I hope you plan on a livestream to discuss your thoughts on this piece for everyone, I always learn so much from your sessions! I tend to play everything too fast, like the Chopin Nocture
(which I plan to resubmit based on your suggestions) so I'm trying to keep tempos in control on this one. I've learned a lot from Martin Zimny on the guitar side of tonebase who recommended the lineaudio cm4 mics that I am using. In this recording I have them positioned above my head in ORTF configuration but am going to try different mic techniques as piano is more complex to mic than guitar.
Martin did a 5 week "recording course" early this year with some detailed livestreams that I've been been reviewing. Way more detail than most people would probably want, but I find the sound engineering fascinating. They aren't really guitar-specific so it might be interesting if tonebase made some of those available to piano subscribers.
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Brett amazing accomplishment in one weekend! I really enjoyed your playing!
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Brett Gilbert I can鈥檛 believe you鈥檙e so fluent after just a few days. Kudos!
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Brett Gilbert Lovely sound! I also think you often play too fast, as in some of the Handel. The music then gets lost, at least to me. I like the way you have done the 1st variation. It麓s the one I am practising now.
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Thanks Susan and Monika Tusnady , looking forward to more of your videos! Yes Richard George Littlewood , one of the many the things I've learned from tonebase (especially Dominic) over the last few months is making music is not about playing fast and treating each piece like a technical exercise. The process of recording videos and getting feedback is so valuable.
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Brett Gilbert Bravo! I like the rhythm you bring to the music, always with great dynamism.
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Brett Gilbert Loved it, Brett, Well done! Glad you saw there was a challenge going on, so you could get this done
Will be interesting to see were you take it from here.
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Theme and first variation. The theme is pretty easy now, although that first variation is much harder than it looks (the unusual figurations). My biggest problem right now is finishing variation one. Hopefully these videos work...
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Genevieve Great job on your two videos!
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Genevieve Great job . Yes that variation is a little tricky , I think it may be because the right hand doesn鈥檛 always come in on the first bet . Still you managed it okay which is great !
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