NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS! 
Happy New Year to the whole tonebase Piano community!
As much we may love the piano, it’s not so easy to set goals and stay committed to realizing them over the course of a year… at least, it’s not so easy to do this alone, which is how I often try (and fail) to undertake such goals.
That’s why I’ve created this thread. Here is a place for anyone and everyone in the tonebase community to come up with your individual piano-related New Year’s resolutions and support each other in our efforts to realize them.
PARTICIPATION
- Make a post below to announce your piano-goals for the new year,
- over the coming days, weeks, and months, use the sub-thread of your own post to keep us all updated us on your progress (videos encouraged!)
- and in the meantime, scroll through to read each other’s resolutions and click “reply” to offer advice or words of encouragement.
RULES
- Please try to keep conversations within sub-threads, and only make a single new post to share your resolutions. This will help keep the mega-thread clean so we can navigate more easily and check in on each other.
- Keep in mind that there are people of all ages and ability levels in the tonebase community, so if you’re one of the more advanced ones don’t gloat about it, and if you’re a novice don’t be shy.
- If you don’t want to share your goals, you’re still welcome to comment on other members’ thread.
SEE MORE SEYMOUR
- Watch the inspiring new video from Seymour Bernstein (see below) where he gives new year's advice to pianists from all walks of life. And, if you ever feel discouraged or stuck, this video is always there for you!
MY RESOLUTIONS
- I will go first! I’m supposed to play Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Concerto (henceforth: “Rach 2”) with an orchestra in the fall. I’m usually a terrible procrastinator with learning new music, so my resolutions will try to counteract that:
- I resolve to give a beautiful, original, and confident performance of Rach 2 this coming fall!
- I resolve to have the full piece learned by the summer, with the 1st movement memorized and in my fingers by February 1, the 2nd movement by April 1 (Rach’s birthday), and the 3rd movement by June 1.
- To get there, I resolve to practice the piece a minimum of 30 minutes every weekday, and 2 hours each on Saturday and Sunday.
- Finally, I commit to mindful practice, enjoying playing the piece slowly and carefully (it’s sounds great slow), and always listening.
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN! LET'S GO! 
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My piano universe expanded so much in 2022. Through tonebase, I met so many lovely piano enthusiasts and learned (and recorded and shared!) so many beautiful pieces by different composers. I hope to continue this and delve even deeper in 2023. In addition to applying what I have learned to my old pieces (getting them performance ready), I plan to learn more Mozart and Bach. Maybe one Mozart Sonata (Orli’s Mozart intensive was amazing) and a prelude/fugue from Bach’s WTC. I also plan to apply Magdalena’s teachings from her livestream on bel canto in Chopin to Nocturnes I have learned. Looking forward to new inspiring intensives and challenges from tonebase in 2023!
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Vidhya Bashyam I love this! Looking forward to follow your progress threw 2023 :)
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Vidhya Bashyam thanks for sharing! Looking forward to hearing more of your playing and joining you in many piano adventures!
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Vidhya Bashyam sounds great! I’m very happy to follow your path this year! And I’m extremely grateful for all the support you and my piano friends (especially Harriet Kaplan Juan Carlos Olite Natalie Peh Sindre Skarelven Gail Starr Monika Tusnady ) on Tonebase have given me last year! Many thanks to all of you
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Vidhya Bashyam Love these resolutions, I am sure it will be a fantastic piano year for you!
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Vidhya Bashyam Those sound like doable and very fun goals for you. I was sorry to miss Orli's intensive. Based on her sonata class, I'm sure it was amazing. Good luck!
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Andrea Buckland We are so happy to be part of your musical “pod”!
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I'm not one who makes New Year's Resolutions (because they become things I end up NOT doing!!), but I do have some piano goals. First, I want to continue learning from and being inspired by all that Tonebase offers - most especially, all of you, who inspire me regularly. I want to learn more Bach, try a little easy Scarlatti, re-visit the Mozart Sonata I dabbled with, and continue to learn basics like scales, chords, etc. But most of all, I want to continue to enjoy this process of learning how to play the piano and maintain a beginner's curiousity and excitement!!
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Michelle R Sounds very wise, and I like what you are saying here! Enjoying the process is so important and the reason for doing this. Good luck with this :)
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Michelle R love hearing about your goals and your intentions for the year ahead. Good reminder also to enjoy the process!!
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Michelle R Sounds great, Michelle! The best attitude to take pleasure in the piano playing and three gorgeous composers: Bach, Scarlatti and Mozart.
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Michelle R So much to look forward to in 2023!
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Sindre Skarelven Natalie Peh Juan Carlos Olite Leah Olson Thank you! I'm looking forward to hearing and learning from all of you this year.
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Michelle R Best of luck with your plans! I recommend a relatively easy Scarlatti - Sonata K 208 - very beautiful and deliciously sweet!
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Ching Lee Goh Thank you! I'm looking at K32 (one of my favorites) - I looked on my Scarlatti list, and the K208 I marked as "later." I can't remember why, but it seemed a little beyond my abilities right now.
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Michelle R Good luck with the Scarlatti. It’s a very pretty one. Definitely share your performance when you are done.
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Michelle R Ah - the New Year's Resolution post! Shortly after I made this initial post, I had to stop playing due to an injury. I learned: if your instinct is telling you that a technique a teacher gives you seems wrong for you, it's ok not to do it! So, I'm much more careful now, found a wonderful teacher, and began regular lessons last month.
As for the resolutions I made, I'm continually inspired by my Tonebase friends. I still want to learn more Bach, eventually some Scarlatti and the Mozart. I have indeed learned more scales (I'm up to 7!!), and am working on other basics with my teacher. He recommended a book to read, which I am thoroughly enjoying: "The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart," by Madeline Bruser. Much of what is in the book resonates with me, and reminds me of how my own teaching (athletics, fitness) has changed over the years, as I refined my own ideas of what is important and how to cultivate the love of learning and movement in my students.
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I have been so inspired reading about everyone's personal piano goals. I have not been in the habit of making new-year resolutions, so this topic required some reflection :)
If I had to choose only 1 thing, I will start small by stating my intention to learn Bach's Partita no. 6 in E minor, in its entirety. I have been dipping into it, whenever I felt a little bit strong and brave, but I would love to be able to play it in its entirety.
Overall, I have been thoroughly inspired by all the activities on tonebase as well as the wonderful and amazing teachers and pianists. In the coming year, I hope to continue on this journey and to learn many more wonderful piano pieces and participate in as many piano activities as possible.
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Natalie Peh So glad we are on this journey together! I spent quite a bit of time on this Partita last year. It really is a dream piece also for me Looking forward to hear more of your fantastic playing this year, Natalie!
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Natalie Peh Bach's Partita nº 6 in E minor, absolutely great choice Natalie, I love this piece. Looking forward to hearing your wonderful adventure with this music!
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Natalie Peh Very excited to hear your recordings. Excellent project!
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Natalie Peh This sounds like a great plan! Looking forward to hear from the Partita and other pieces threw out the year!
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Andrea Buckland lovely, Andrea. Do you plan to play this Partita again this year? I hope to have more progress on it than last year :)
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Juan Carlos Olite Juan, I Iove it that each movement has a distinctive style about it. It will be very interesting to learn!
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Leah Olson I hope to share some of it here, for sure. Maybe I will be able to get at least some of it recording-worthy :)
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