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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Hi!
For this challenge, I'm going to be learning some of the Nocturnes of Faure! Here's a clip of the second one! The voicing... this is a challenge! But the atmosphere, the spirit of the piece - this is something easy, not in terms of difficulty, but in terms of mood. Easy-going and gentle. Until he completely switches, and enters into a whirlwind, where the swaying of the melody, the juxtaposition of the hands against each other, turn the piece upside-down, only to straighten itself out at the end, finishing as it began, a beautiful cycle of emotions!
I can't wait to learn the rest and hear all of your beautiful music, dear Piano Community! Thank you for listening. :) XO
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Brother Will Green Wonderful already! I loved listening to this. Thank you for sharing your video Brother Will.
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Brother Will Green Sounds great! I am practicing a Faure piece too.
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Brother Will Green wonderful and rich piece, already sounds great!!
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Jenny Thank you so much!!
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Vidhya Bashyam Thank you Vidhya! What are you working on? :)
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Derek McConville Thanks, Derek! It is a rich piece. I love Faure! Thanks for listening :)
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Brother Will Green Faure鈥檚 Romances Sans Paroles (the third one).
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Brother Will Green Excellent playing, sounds great Brother Will!
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Juan Carlos Olite Thank you, Juan Carlos!!
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I've now started on Ravel's Prelude. This is actually quite a challenge for me, so i'm not sure how much progress i'll make over the next 21 days, but i'm keen to find out. I've split the piece in to phrases, and i've started on what looks to me like the most difficult bars: 10-15
- Piece you worked on: Ravel's prelude.
- One thing you found easy: It's in the key of A minor so I don't need to remember about sharps/flats, as all accidentals are written on the score for me. Also the rhythm is quite straightforward.
- One thing you found difficult: The consecutive octaves alongside the awkward mix of both hands fighting over the same area of the keyboard. I'm only practicing for 5-10 mins at a time because my hands get a bit tense.
Hopefully i'll have a bit of progress to report on Friday. Looking forward to hearing how everyone else is getting on
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Jenny I love this piece :) So beautiful.
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Jenny this is such a lovely piece jenny. Great choice! I鈥檓 really worried though that your hands are getting so tense, could anyone at tonebase could offer help with this? I have various ideas myself, but I don鈥檛 know if it would be acceptable to say anything. I hope I haven鈥檛 spoken out of turn. Perhaps it could be a new thread?
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Angela Fogg Thank you so much for your comment Angela. I was a bit concerned about the tension and would appreciate any thoughts you have. I restrict my practice time and so far this seems to have helped. I notice that my hands are generally much more tense looking than those of others, so i'm focusing on a much lighter touch. This is easier said than done! I'm really enjoying the process though
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Jenny Hi Jenny, sorry for the pause in getting back to you. I hope the practice is going well. The little video has some ideas for you about tension, I hope it is helpful!
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Angela Fogg Thank you so much for this, Angela. I am very grateful to you for taking the trouble and time to offer me these insights. It is extremely generous of you. It is definitely helpful, and has highlighted the need for me to be much more aware of my body, both before and during each practice. You are very kind, thank you again!
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Hi everyone,
I have always loved the music of France, which partly relates to time I spent living and studying in the country. For this month I am going to work on at least three different pieces. Today I'll upload a practice piece of a work I've tried to learn previously but never properly, C茅sar Franck's Prelude Chorale and Fugue (he was naturalised French but Belgian born I think!)
One thing I found easy were the slower chord passages in the opening.
More difficult is trying to balance the voices in the opening and bring out the melody which had a echo effect as composed. The last few bars I find tricky with large chord spans which I have to break up.
Other pieces I want to learn are one of Poulenc's Novelletes and I'll return to Ravel's Sonatine to hopefully learn the second movement to add to the opening of the piece I've played before.
I will update as I make progress! Bon courage 脿 tout le monde!
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@Derek McConville Et toi, aussi, Derek! Bon courage :) xx
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Derek McConville I have to say that I鈥檝e never enjoyed this piece, in fact I鈥檝e always been fairly dismissive of it.
However just listening to your performance of it I鈥檓 starting to see it in a different light. I really enjoyed that! Going to see if I can find a score right now. Thank you so much!!
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Angela Fogg thank you so much for your kind feedback, and I'm very glad that you found it interesting! I think Franck is a composer who can grow on you given his style of composing!
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Derek McConville There is a lot going on in this piece, and I really enjoyed listening to you play it. Thank you so much for sharing it.
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Jenny thank you! Glad that you liked it!
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Derek McConville Deep and expressive playing Derek, it is a gripping piece.
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Derek McConville Wow! Beautiful playing of this great piece!
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Juan Carlos Olite thank you so much!
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