Week One: Bonjour!
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 May 9-16 I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Please use the following format when commenting (feel free to copy & paste!):
- Piece you worked on:
- One thing you found easy:
- One thing you found difficult:
- (Optional): a video of you performing it!
Sample daily update:
- Piece you worked on: Ravel's Prelude
- One thing you found easy: Learning the notes, and rhythms were rather straight-forward, and not challenging!
- One thing you found difficult: Shifting the Hands was a bit tricky to get smooth!
Feel free to make these updates as short or long as you wish!
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Here's Chaminade's Romance op. 123 no. 7, from the first Children's Album, which I really enjoy. It isn't yet perfect, but I will be working on it throughout the month, as well as three other pieces from the two Children's albums. I found the opening to be fairly easy, while the ending was rather more challenging, as it is somewhat... Harmonically strange.
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Angela Fogg You're welcome, and thank you!
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Thurmond R Another lovely piece, very cheerful to listen to. I notice that you hardly look at the music, it looks quite effortless for you, do you actively memorise your music as you practice?
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Jenny Thank you for your kind comments! Yes, I do memorize as I play, because I find it easier. The score that's up in this video was actually the one for the next piece that I played, so it is fully memorized.
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Thurmond R I really enjoyed hearing you play this piece. it was delightful!
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Here's the beginning of La fille aux cheveux de lin by Debussy. This is probably one of my favorite pieces by Debussy, and this month seems like an appropriate time to learn it. I find the expression easy (though the pianos don't quite come across as well on the recording...), though that's not to trivialize it any. measure 14 and similar passages are quite difficult, so those and the middle section will probably be the biggest obstacle in learning the piece.
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Thurmond R Nice work on this, Thurmond. I recently listened to Peter Dugan's lesson on this in Tonebase......it's great and I highly recommend it!
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Thurmond R Love it, Thurmond!
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Brother Will Green Thank you!
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Thurmond R Sounds great!
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Thurmond R Beautiful! What a great piece!
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Sindre Skarelven Vidhya Bashyam Thank you!
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Thurmond R Beautiful piece Thurmond. You seem quite comfortable with it already. I really enjoyed listening to you play this, thank you.
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Jenny Thank you!
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Thurmond R Beautiful and delicate playing Thurmond!
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Hi All,
Today is day 2 of my practice of Alkan's Allegro Barbaro. I found page 5 particularly difficult, and have spent a long time doing just the right hand figurations alone. It will be hard playing this at speed and still showing different articulations of the runs in the right hand. Probably will have to start memorising this...
- Piece you worked on: Alkan Allegro Barbaro op 35 no 5
- One thing you found easy: not easy, but after having gone through the piece, the octave runs seems easier by comparison.
- One thing you found difficult: playing page 5 and reading the notes of the last page
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Jeff That's sounding good! This is a piece I am not familiar with, but it is obviously not easy, from the composer's reputation, and from the page up there. (And you still have to play "Furiosissimo afterwards...) But, especially for just your second day, it is sounding very good!
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Thurmond R thank you! I'm hoping to learn a little of it rest day so I have something by the end of the 3 weeks :)
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Jeff This is such a challenging piece I can鈥檛 imagine playing it myself. However you鈥檙e obviously off to a very good start, your practice clip was really interesting.
Thank you
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Angela Fogg thank you for the encouraging words :) I hope to have covered a good portion of the piece by week 3. I'm realising one of the most challenging thing about being a pianist is having to listen to myself practising the same phrases over and over and over again. Lol
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Jeff My goodness, this does look a challenging piece, I don't think i'd have a clue where to start! I'm amazed at what you've managed to accomplish in such a short amount of time. Thank you for sharing your practice.
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Hello Everyone!
This is my second time typing a post. Almost finished one and then somehow lost it.....rookie mistake! I'm now typing it in a separate file and will then cut and paste. ;-)
Excited to be working on this Community Challenge. I have been working on Ravel's Pavane for a few months. I would like to use this challenge to get it performance ready by July.
- Piece I'm working on: Ravel - Pavane Pour une Infante defunte
- Thing I found easy: It wasn't easy initially, but now I feel I am able to play it well. It's the first seven measures of the piece, which require three different articulations at the same time: Legato in the soprano, staccato in the alto and portato in the bass. I used the practice techniques from Gwen Mok's Tonebase lesson on this piece, and feel like I was able to achieve the correct sound.
- Thing I found difficult: The A2 section, which is the same melody from the first seven measures, but with rolled 10ths in the LH and staccato 16ths in the RH, underneath the legato RH melody. I am having a hard time making it flow smoothly.
I recorded those two sections and have included it here. Will keep working!
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Amy Beautiful :) Have you read the book on Ravel by Vlado Perlemuter? It's in the form of a dialogue. You might find it interesting. Thanks for sharing xx
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Brother Will Green I haven't.....thanks for the suggestion! I have read parts of the book by Roland-Manuel, who was a friend and pupil of Ravel's.
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Amy Beautiful!
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Amy Well done! I am working on the same piece, so have gotten to know the difficulties you mention! To get the voicing right is a big challenge in this one!
