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 resolution for 2022 was to find a duet partner, and I've managed to find 4 (3 pianists, 1 violist). My resolution is to enjoy our time together and not get in my head about perfection.
I think I'm also going to go with Seymour's advice to spend 10-15 minutes a day playing tunes by ear. Six months is small investment to have that intervallic skill.
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Natalie Peh Thank you!
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Leah Olson Great job. I'll be checking out that book. I also started playing again just before retirement after 37 years (I quit when I was 18) and performing for people remains my biggest challenge. Keep being an inspiration!
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Leah Olson Very beautiful playing Leah. Keep sharing your videos!
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Vidhya Bashyam Thank you!
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Judith Thank you! 5 to 10 minutes of box breathing every day has also been a huge help
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Leah Olson Lovely, I enjoyed listening to you. And I am happy for you that you are succeeding at getting over what-ever has been and perhaps still is holding you back.
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Anne Thank you!
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Leah Olson I've been incorporating Seymour's ear training into my practice several days a week. Sometimes I play the a line of a a piece I'm working on, sometimes whatever random song pops into my head. Yesterday it was Christmas carols. It's been nice to have a mix of more chromatic lines (e.g. Chopin) and tunes that are more straightforward. I think it's good to play some unfamiliar tunes completely by ear. I can remember a lot of the note names in a pieces I have memorized, so that's not truly by ear.
I've noticed that I frequently don't know which key I'm in, which makes the interval work harder.
I had a moment yesterday when I was about to play a note in the middle of "The First Noel", and as I looked at the keys, I thought "No, that doesn't look right. You should be a half step lower." Maybe that's progress, but it's too early to say.
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Leah Olson Leah, is that the tip to pick out melodies with the left hand on the piano, is is there more? Thank you for the reminder. I intended to do that and forgot
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That's a great resolution., Leah Olson, I'm stealing it. Out here in the middle of nowhere (Kerhonkson, NY, in case I've missed someone) it's a bit difficult. Too bad WI isn't nearer. Good luck.
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Brian Buchbinder Thanks so much! It took me awhile to find someone. Just keep putting the message out--it'll happen :-)
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I really enjoyed the Seymour video!
I'm not really a resolution person, but my plan is to continue my current path working on an AA degree in piano. I had a good first semester this fall and hope to build on that, learning more music that is challenging but doable while being kind to myself (and others).
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Jenny Fabulous resolutions!Harriet Kaplan From what we heard, you had a GREAT first semester. You inspire us!
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I am old and retired, so my first resolution is to make it through another year!
1- I belong to two in-person piano groups and one online group (in addition to tonebase), so I would like to play in as many recitals and informal meetings as possible.
2- My wife is a clarinetist, and we collaborate as much as we can. I am the weak link, since the piano parts are so difficult, but I would like to continue this tradition as much as possible.
3- Play some more American music. Last year I performed Ives "Alcotts" from the Concord Sonata in a couple of recitals, and this year I would like do the Gershwin Preludes and hopefully the Barber Nocturne.
4- Do a few of the "easier" Chopin pieces. I have the Henle collection of 17 pieces in progressive order of difficulty. Better to play the easier pieces well that the harder pieces poorly!
Sounds like a lot!
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Rodney Oh, I love your idea of mixing wine and Debussy! I may just steal your idea.Natale Farrell I love your resolutions!!Sam Smith I need to resolve to come back up to ATL to play more often with OUR in-person piano club with you, Natale, Utako, Carol and the gang!
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Sam Smith All those sound wonderful, but I particularly like your resolution to play more American music. My teacher suggested Barber to me a year ago in passing. Might be time to circle back. Enjoy the music-making with your wife!
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Ugh, Sorry, and I hate to be THAT person, but a long time ago I read somewhere that announcing goals out load publicly makes you LESS likely to achieve them! It didn't take long to search a site that confirmed this! https://www.inc.com/melissa-chu/announcing-your-goals-makes-you-less-likely-to-ach.html. So with that in mind- here goes: I HEARBY AM NOT VOWING TO 1) Practice More 2) Memorize My Pieces 3) Perform More 4) Compose More 5) Be More Organized 6) Spend Less Money 7) Spend More Time with Family 8) Sit Up Straighter 9) Love and Pray More 10) Be Positive 11) Stop being THAT person! Happy New Year to all the wonderfully talented people on ToneBase!
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Natale Farrell This made me smile Natale! These sound like great non-resolutions!
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Fabulous interview with Seymour.
As an octogenarian hobbyist my 2023 goal is to prepare a short concert for my friends and neighbors entitled "A Taste of Debussy while sipping French wine". I will perform mostly early, beautiful pieces by that genius and satisfy my desire to share his music.
Thanks for the great idea for us Tonebasers,
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Rodney I’m 10 years your junior and just love Debussy but am struggling with Estampes right now. Please let me know which pieces you’ve chosen. I’d love to know.
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Rodney My favorite composer by far! Your friends will be thrilled. Last spring semester I focused on La Plus Que Lente and a few of his preludes. It was wonderful. Enjoy!
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My resolution is two-fold: to create a repertoire by revisiting pieces I already know. Polish and memorize and "live" with those pieces and aim to cycle through them regularly. And secondly, to explore, learn, and understand deeply new pieces that I can add to that repertoire. These along with improving my technique and musicianship.
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Jocel Dumlao sounds like a very good plan!
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Jocel Dumlao Ah, yes, I definitely need to do this to., I always learn something, then promptly forget how to play it over the course of a few months, it's quite maddening!
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Jocel Dumlao this sounds good, I'm trying to do the same! My challenge is how to expand my brain memory storage capacity!
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