Week 4: Post your Progress!
Hello and welcome to the WEEK FOUR 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 August 21 - 26th I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Here is this week's assignment!
Post your progress on your pieces! If you are able to perform or play through sections of your music, share it with us! Let's celebrate your hard work during this past month!
We will have a watch party featuring your recordings that you upload down below on this thread, but if you would like to play LIVE please considering joining the "back to school" recital!
Assignments:
1. Record a run-through or performance of your piece!
2. Post it below
3. Write down the progress that you have seen in the last month and share that insight with all of us!
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Hi everyone,
Here is my final version of the Chopin Valse op.18. It's certainly progress compared to the start of this challenge but still a lot more polish required. I was struggling to get practice time with other commitments but still glad I took part in this :)
Derek
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Derek McConville you have found such a pretty and pleasant sonority for this waltz, and you bring out the charming, capricious character of the piece very nicely. Enjoyable to listen to; I'm glad you decided to share it with us!
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Derek McConville Excellent playing for the sound, style and atmosphere of the nineteenth-century salon. Very enjoyable to listen to.
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Derek McConville You really lend a lovely, lilting charm to this famous work. We all REALLY understand how tough it is to get time to practice, but you've made a ton of progress nonetheless.
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Derek McConville Bravo, Derek! It sounded so great! I could totally picture being at Soir茅e with this brilliant and elegant waltz!
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Derek McConville you play it so elegantly, the technical challenges of this piece melt away under your hands! I enjoyed listening to this piece very much!
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Natalie Peh Jennifer Mehta Sindre Skarelven Gail Starr Michelle R Juan Carlos Olite Alexander Weymann Vidhya Bashyam thank you for your kind words and comments. I鈥檓 very glad to have joined this challenge and finally finished this piece to an initial level!! Without the tonebase community it would never have happened:)
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Derek McConville Wonderfully musical and listenable! Seems you're on the right track!
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Here is my not-quite-as-finished-as-I'd-hoped-it-would-be Minuet in G. I decreased the tempo a bit as the ornaments were not as consistent at the quicker pace (my teacher was happy enough with the ornaments today). I repeated only the first section, as I didn't have time to learn a "clean" repeat for the second section - at least not the way I wanted to play it. I'm mostly happy with it, though I think it was actually better in my initial video - I hadn't quite planned on beginning physical therapy in the middle of this challenge, but having a mobile shoulder is a good thing!
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Michelle R Charming piece and playing! So glad your shoulder is getting better!
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Michelle R I love how you move with the music, as if you are dancing with the minuet
... and love the change of dynamics and gentleness when you enter the second part. Thank you for sharing! -
Michelle R Beautiful and gentle playing, Michelle! So glad you get better and playing this enjoyable music!
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Michelle R just delightful!
I close my eyes and see nobility in 18th century attire dancing at Court. I love the choices you make for articulation. -
Vidhya Bashyam , Thanks so much Vidhya! Interestingly, I wouldn't have known my shoulder wasn't fully healed if my piano teacher hadn't given me some technique exercises to work on.
Priya Viseskul Thank you, Priya! I enjoy using the physio-ball while playing. I don't feel so stuck in one position like I do with the bench - and it allows for some gentle movement while I'm playing which seems to keep my back happy.
Juan Carlos Olite Thank you, Juan Carlos! I appreciate your kind words.
Alexander Weymann Thanks, Alex! I was aiming for exactly the vision you describe.
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And for Sindre Skarelven (and others), here is another of Thurmond's portraits, this one of a young Martha Argerich.
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Michelle R so amazing!
The facial expression is spot-on. -
Michelle R Fabulous!
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Michelle R What lovely articulation. Now we know where Thurmond gets his musical gifts from!
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Gail Starr Thanks, Gail. You are so sweet!
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Alexander Weymann Thanks, Alex. He is in an Iconography Apprenticeship, and I think their focus on the "eyes as windows to the soul" helps him grasp expressions and attitudes very well since so much of that seems to come from the eyes.
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Michelle R Well, I might as well say what I was thinking...which is that you are an amazing mom!
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Michelle R This is another fabulous work of art! You can have an exhibition/recital where Thurmond plays and showcases his art!
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Michelle R very elegant and stately playing, well done!
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Gail Starr Thank you, Gail. Thurmond has been, and is, an amazing son! His older brother was kind enough to let me make most of my parenting mistakes with him.
Vidhya Bashyam Thanks, Vidhya! We're planning a piano recital for Thurmond's senior project (in a couple of years), so maybe the pictures could be on a screen behind him (kind of like Dominic's "Pictures at an Exhibition")? Thanks for the great idea!
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Derek McConville Thanks, Derek.
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Michelle R Please live stream his senior recital so all of us around the Tonebase world can listen! Is he a sophomore now?
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