Week 1: Dancing with Liszt and Schubert!
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 August 16th and August 21st I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Download the music:
Liszt's: Soirees De Vienne No.6
Please use the following format when commenting (feel free to copy & paste!):
- Section you worked on:
- One thing you found easy:
- One thing you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
Sample daily update:
- Section you worked on: 1
- One thing you found easy: Learning the notes, and rhythms were rather straight-forward, and not challenging!
- One thing you found difficult: Playing the trills/ornaments in an elegant way was what challenged me the most.
Feel free to make these updates as short or long as you wish!
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Hi my second post this week, and so nice to see more people posting comments/ videos. I鈥檓 enjoying this growing and committed community!
- Section you worked on: 2-5
- One thing you found easy: 2-4 still relatively straightforward so far, though the rubato in 4 gives a lot of freedom but then it means more decisions to make!
- One thing you found difficult: moving from vertical chordsh to the fluid triplets in 5 was a little disorientating, Still experimenting and working out the fingering that suits.
- Posting video on 2/3. (Now I鈥檓 a bit less shy and you鈥檒l see a bit more of me! )
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Ching Lee Goh Sounds great! Lovely playing. I agree with you that the transition from 4 - 5 is a little challenging
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Ching Lee Goh Very nice! Yes, I'm finding the fingerings in 5 a bit tricky where you have to hold down a half note during the chromatic triplets. I might ask Dominic about that in Tuesday's session.
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Ching Lee Beautiful enjoyed listening .
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Ching Lee Goh WONDERFUL to hear more from you! As always you have a great elegance in your playing! Don't be shy, you sound GREAT! Enjoying your playing thoroughly!
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Ching Lee Goh You are SO musical! I love the contrasts in sound quality between your eigth notes and your octaves.
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Here is my performance after Week 1. Some mistakes here and there, but then again there are a couple of more weeks to get it better :)
Sections I worked on: All sections.
Things I found easy: As mentioned by someone else, the harmonies are very clear in this piece. That also makes it easier to memorize.
Things I found challenging: There are some places we have to shift gears instantly. Thinking particularly about from section 4 to 5, and 8 - 9. It does get easier after playing threw the piece a few more times.
Next week I will aim at having the whole piece memorized.
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Sindre Skarelven The whole piece in the first week, amazing! Great job Sindre.
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Brett Gilbert Thank you! :)
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Sindre Skarelven Wow! As Brett says, great job indeed in one week. I enjoyed listening!
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Juan Carlos Thank you so much! It is a lot of fun listening to each other and learning a piece together like this :)
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Sindre Skarelven Yes, I could not agree more. It's great! I hope we learn a good handful of pieces together with these community challenges!
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Sindre Skarelven Sindre, I enjoyed listing to your playing. I particularly enjoyed your tempos because they allowed the Schubert waltz melodies to come forward as the dominant characteristic of the music. After a couple weeks of polishing, you will have a show piece.
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Juan Carlos Yes!
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Dave B Thank you! Yes, absolutely, I was thinking that too with the tempo. It is a great piece to have on the repertoire:)
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Sindre Skarelven This is GREAT work! Like Brett Gilbert and Juan commented, the whole piece in 1 week?! Impressive! As always with transitions, think about what mood you want to convey in the next section, and use the transition to create a sense of suspense or anticipation for new feeling! But you are doing so great. Can't wait to hear how the piece develops for you! And yes, Dave B is correct, your tempi are spot-on. This piece is about enjoying yourself and having a great time!
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Sindre Skarelven Fantastic I think you did a really good job ! I鈥檓 looking forward to hearing the whole piece memorized .
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Dominic Cheli This made my day, thank you so much :)
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mariannejhampton So nice to hear, thank you! I am working on it, hopefully I can present it on Sunday :)
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Dominic Cheli I love the idea of thinking about the feeling of each section so we can give each one its own personality. Thanks!
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- Section you worked on: 1-2
- One thing you found easy: The chord shapes are very easy and therefore easy to memorize!
- One thing you found difficult: Speed has never been my strength and trying to play the triplets together quickly has been somewhat difficult.
I joined the challenge late so I will endeavor to post a video on week 2 of my progress
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RoxyHart Looking forward to your video! Keep up your work!
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- Section you worked on: 1 - 4
- One thing you found easy: Key signature, incidentals, harmony seems sensible and reading slowly
- One thing you found difficult: Somewhat repetitive, but with small changes (so a bit hard to get my head around section 4 especially)
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Johnathan North3 Yes, sometimes things being "slightly similar" can be confusing to keep track of everything. But I am so happy you are joining us for this challenge. And great questions in the livestream today. Thank you for joining!
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From today's LIVE stream...You said, Dominic, "You can almost taste Vienna with that harmony." You tell beautiful stories with your piano performances, and also with your words. I enjoy your LIVE streams immensely! Thank you!
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Pauline Thanks a lot! ;)
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