NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS! 
Happy New Year to the whole tonebase Piano community!
As much we may love the piano, itās not so easy to set goals and stay committed to realizing them over the course of a yearā¦ at least, itās not so easy to do this alone, which is how I often try (and fail) to undertake such goals.
Thatās why Iāve created this thread. Here is a place for anyone and everyone in the tonebase community to come up with your individual piano-related New Yearās 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 otherās resolutions and click āreplyā 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 youāre one of the more advanced ones donāt gloat about it, and if youāre a novice donāt be shy.
- If you donāt want to share your goals, youāre still welcome to comment on other membersā 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! Iām supposed to play Rachmaninoffās 2nd Concerto (henceforth: āRach 2ā) with an orchestra in the fall. Iām 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 (Rachās 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 (itās sounds great slow), and always listening.
NOW ITāS YOUR TURN! LET'S GO! 
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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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Sindre Skarelven I hope so, Sindre :) Not forgetting the inventions, which I can't bear to stop learning and playing! :D
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Natalie Peh Yes! I need to get back to the inventions soon too! :)
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Natalie Peh Hi Natalie! I wonder how is it going with you today, begining of August. Regarding practice, I'm doing well, I've picked up my daily practice which was a very important aspect of the goal. Now, you made me remember when I was a student back home (Venezuela) and a large group of pianist used to gather to play/try/rehearse our pieces ...Wow, lovely times! Tb has done a lot with all the activities that we can access, but...I learned Schumann's Phantasiestuckefor cello and piano. It's a lovely piece. It will be great to know how are you doing now! All the best Natalie.
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Mariela Hi Mariela! Thanks for the lovely note. I listened a little to the piece you are working on, on YouTube, and it is beautiful! You are fortunate that there is a cellist you can play it with, there is nothing more joyful than making music together with other musicians! As for my partita, I have hardly worked on it all year, I've been distracted with Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert sonatas (some of them unfinished) and Chopin's mazurkas, and the Tonebase challenges. Thanks for reminding me about the partita though, because it is one of the pieces I may wish to consider for the unfinished business challenge, that or one of the movements from the sonatas. Glad to hear from you and would love to watch a recording of your piece, if you do record it! Take care, and happy piano days, Mariela!
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Natalie Peh You make me laugh Natalie! I like it and also think is very good, thank you. I understand everything about "unfinished projects", so once in a while I hide myself to be able to write "The End" in what I've managed to finish properly. Don't give up your Bach Partita, Bach is such a master in many different ways that is worthy to stay with him as long as it is necessary.
Have a great practice, Natalie!
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Mariela I always go back to Bach, and it's like a journey home for me when I do! I saw your resolution on practising. I practise as much as I can too, and enjoy it very much! Happy practising!
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The 1st resolution for me is to stop procrastinating and to finally record/submit my exam programme by end feb! Thereafter Iāll have more time with TB and pursue some piano goals for 2023 :
Iāll start with the easier ones first 1) to revive/finish 2 pieces up to performance level eg Mozart sonata K 332, Bartokās 6 Rumanian dances
More challenging ones 2) to revive/finish 2 difficult pieces to near performance level - Rach Prelude no 5 in G Minor, and Liszt Gretchen am Spinnrade KC
3) Most challenging - to ānailā the final movement of the Brahmās piano and cello sonata no.1 with my cellist neighbour and to complete Schumann's Fantasiestuck for cello/piano. We play together in my home soirĆ©es, and I have shied away from playing solo piano due to past ādisastersāā¦
4) Hence the biggest challenge for 2023 is to perform a solo piece at each soiree and work to overcome nerves. Thanks to TB for introducing The Bullet Musician, I now feel thereās some hope for managing and overcoming performance anxiety.
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Ching Lee Goh A fantastic list! Looking forward to hearing some of this!
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Ching Lee Goh Good luck with your goals! I love that Liszt transcription. I haven't had a chance to look through the Bullet Musician website in depth, but it looked intriguing. Can't wait to hear some of your recordings!
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Ching Lee Goh I love this plan, and the pieces you are working on!
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Ching Lee Goh Great pieces! I never finished Gretchen Am Spinnrade either- canāt wait to hear your interpretation.
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Vidhya Bashyam thanks - I hope to come to grips with Gretchen this time. I posted a video of it some time ago, but i glossed over many parts. I also love transcriptions and hope to do it justice.
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Sindre Skarelven thanks - think we are both working on mozart K 332. Looking forward to hear your interpretation of it.
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Ching Lee Goh good plans! It's really nice that you have a cellist neighbour to play in a duo with.
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Ching Lee Goh Yes, I remember now. Good luck- I am sure you will do great with it.
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Ching Lee Goh Great choices indeed! I would love to learn Gretchen too!
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Natalie Peh yes I'm very lucky. The regret is that we actually lived in opposite blocks of apartments for 20 yrs and only discovered each other last year. But we are making up for lost time!
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Ching Lee Goh Best of luck to you with your goals for the year. It is often hard to stop procrastinating, isn't it? My son's new teacher wants him to participate in the RCM music development program (probably level 7 or 8) - that will be interesting to watch him learn how to pace himself and be mindful of his practice time and goals. I hope you progress well with overcoming performance anxiety.
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Ching Lee Goh Canāt wait to hear you!
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Gail Starr will make this a new year resolution - to play in a community concert in 2023!
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Ching Lee Goh Oh! Now THAT is a wonderful resolution that I should to my list alsoā¦but Iām a bit nervous.
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Happy new year, everyone! I've just joined and I finding my way around the platform. I've found a liebestraum no3 course so that will be very helpful to one of my resolutions that is to finally learn Liebestraum No 3. Also I'd like to learn Chopin Nocturne Op 72 No 1. I think I came to the right place to make that happen.
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Ovidio Molina Very excited for you! Both are such beautiful pieces.
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Ovidio Molina Welcome, Ovidio! We are so glad you have joined us.
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Iām going to follow Benās example of practice, and goals. But the piece for me is the Barcarolle. I have the first 10 pages memorized. But the last 3 are just awful. I WILL finish it by summer! I keep reworking the first and am just so scared of the rest.
