Week 1: What we've learned
WELCOME TO THE MAIN THREAD FOR THE FIRST WEEK OF "END OF THE YEAR" PRACTICE CHALLENGE!
- Select Your Piece(s): Choose one or more pieces that you've learned this year. It could be something you've practiced through our live streams, a personal favorite, or a challenging piece you've conquered.
- Record Your Performance: Film yourself playing your selected piece(s) or excerpts from it! Quality doesn't have to be professional – it's all about sharing your progress and passion.
- Share Your Journey: Post your video in our community forum under the "End of the Year Challenge" thread. Include a brief write-up about your experience learning the piece – what challenges you faced, how you overcame them, and what this piece means to you. If you don't want to record yourself, show us a video of a piece you plan to take on in the next year!
- Engage with Others: Watch, comment, and encourage your fellow community members. Share your feedback, experiences, and celebrate each other's progress.
↓ Happy Sharing! ↓
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One piece I finally learned this year, after gazing at it longingly for many years, is No. VII from the first book of Préludes by Claude Debussy, subtitled "...Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest" (What the West Wind has seen). I had originally planned to perform it at the recent Halloween Community Concert, but a scheduling conflict kept me from playing. To make a satisfactory recording of it is much harder than to play it once in a recital, so that's the goal I'm setting myself for this challenge! I'm not sure I would say that I have "conquered" the piece yet; currently, it still hovers somewhere between "work in progress" and "stage ready".
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I recently joined Tonebase. Did you mean that I can start sharing YT videos here by replying? Also if it means that we can share any recordings made thorughout the year, can I share my recordings back in, say, April? If so, I have 4 pieces that I performed throughout the year, and 1 piece that I'm currently working on. Thank you for organizing this, and happy to parcitipate!
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Miyoung Choi Hi Miyoung, welcome to Tonebase! You can add your YT videos using the little paper clip icon below. Can’t wait to hear you!
(DM me if you have any questions, I’ve been a member for 2 years)
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Gail Starr Thank you Gail. I see how I can upload my YT video. My question is actually where to share YT links, by replying to this topic, or by creating a new topic/post in the thread? I checked other "topic"s and it seems the organizer creates WEEK X topics sequencially. In another topic, I see that people wait until WEEK 4 and reply to that with YT links. I don't want to misplace my stuff :)
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Miyoung Choi excellent question! I think you can add your video at any week, whenever you feel comfortable. The other students usually get an alert once a day (if they have asked for alerts, I think) showing them all the updates for the topics they are interested in, so they will see whatever you have added as soon as it is available. I sometimes post a video that just shows work “in process”, but lots of folks only want to post pieces that are complete and polished.
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Alright, then I'm sharing my recordings from this year :)
The following are what I performed back in April and July. Please don't mind to drop these from the watch party list in Jan, if these are considered not meeting the purpose of this event.
Chopin Ballade No. 1 in g minor - I got this piece long time ago first time, like almost 10 years ago. I revisited this piece early 2023, polished it up again for 3~4 months from Jan until the day of performance. I work in tech, and during that time my work was extremely overloaded, but I pushed forward and made it to present at a group recital.
Chopin Mazurkas - I'm in love with Chopin's mazurkas, and these two are the first two mazurkas I've learned ever. It has so much dialogues and monologues in it, and has nostelgia, although I've never lived in where Chopin lived, I somehow feel homesick when I listen to his mazurkas. It was very challenging to learn the intricacy of the pieces, challenging in a different way than etudes or similar. I felt it requires very precise control of p/pp and delicacy.
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I'm currently working on Chopin's Barcarolle, and actually posting my practice diary. I'd like to share that one in this topic/thread maybe next time.
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Miyoung Choi Very lovely playing!!
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Miyoung Choi great to see you here! Alice
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What a fun Challenge! I think I’ll circle back to the Chaminade piece I worked on for the French composer challenge earlier in 2023 to see if it has (hopefully) improved.
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Hello everyone,
I don't have any video of me working on the piece but I can give one which I performed on the 18 11. 23. Is this ok?
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Dominic Cheli thank you for this lovely end-of-the-year "free form" challenge! I'm a little confused about the timeline, and looking at Miyoung Choi 's last post, I may not be the only one. Of the four to-do items listed above (select, record, share, engage), are we supposed to evenly distribute them over the next several weeks (in some previous challenges, selecting our piece was pretty much all we did in week 1), or are we encouraged to do all of them in this first week? And if it's the latter, what will we be doing in the remaining weeks until January 13? Repeat the cycle with a different piece, maybe? Thanks for clarifying.
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Alexander Weymann Great question, Alex. I'm just re-learning one the pieces I worked on early in the year and I'll post it when I feel it has (hopefully) improved compared to January.
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Scott wishes to share 2 pieces he learned recently.
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Scott Nguyễn
Bravo! The Liszt étude is just lovely - unhurried, lyrical, and astoundingly mature. The melody is singing out beautifully through the lush and full texture of the piece, and the composite arpeggios sound rich and - in the climactic passages - exciting.
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Scott Nguyễn Both pieces show a level of musicality, technique and phrasing that is simply a delight to listen to. Thank so much for posting! I’ll enjoy listening to these many times.
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Scott Nguyễn I just listened to your Granados and am even more impressed by it than by the Liszt. It is remarkable how relaxed your playing is in this piece, how improvisatory, how gently timed. You're creating a beautiful, "fragrant" Spanish soundscape full of dreaming and longing. And the sound of the nightingale at the end was scintillating and magical. I've heard the piece played many times, but your performance makes me actually want to learn it now. Bravissimo!
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Alexander Weymann Thank you very much for your kind words on Scott's play. I am sure Scott will be very happy to hear these very supportive comments from you. Scott is working on these two pieces (together with Beethoven's Pathetique, Bach's Partita 6 - Toccata, Liebermann's Gargoyles, Op. 29 and Brahms' Rhapsody Op 79, No 1) in preparation for his Associate Diploma (ARCT) exam next year. If you have any suggestions for him to improve, please kindly let me know. Hai Nguyen (Scott's dad)
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Gail Starr Thank you very much for your generous comments on Scott's playing! Any suggestions/advice for him to improve further would be highly appreciated! Hai Nguyen (Scott's dad)
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Scott Nguyễn Hai, you are doing an amazing job as a parent! Keep up the great work and enjoy Scott's playing. He seems like a wonderful kid!
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Alexander Weymann I agree 100%!
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Scott Nguyễn Amazing playing! Bravo!
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Scott Nguyễn Wow.. I really enjoy Scott's playing, he is really talented.
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Scott Nguyễn I'm so happy to hear Scott's again. Thanks for posting his beautiful playing.
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Scott Nguyễn bravo! That's very beautiful and nuanced playing!
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