Week 1: Getting down to Business

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 July 31st - August 7 I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!     

 

Here is this week's assignment!

 

1. Pick a piece you want to revisit!

2. Let us know how far you got with it, what is "unfinished" and what your goal is for this challenge!

156 replies

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    • Personal trainer
    • Judy_Kuan.1
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    I will try to post a progress video like Kerstin today/this weekend, but in the meantime, this is a recording of my playing the Chopin Grand Polonaise for a friend from October 2021, shortly before I abandoned it because it was clearly not going to be ready in time for that term's class recital...

     

    https://youtu.be/zZluM6738kw

     

    I hear so many things I want to change this time around, and also am reminded that I could literally spend the entire month/challenge on the opening Tutti section 😅

     

    Also in the relearning process, I am realizing how many memory blind spots I have - places where I just relied on muscle memory and have no idea what the notes are

      • Kerstin
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Judy Kuan Yes quite interesting. I was studying piano in Leipzig in 1987-1990 and than stopped. Couldn’t finish for some reasons. The next 30 years I didn’t play very much. I have restarted with the Chopin Competition in 2021. Had a teacher for 1 year. I learnt a lot, but we never finished a piece. So now I am working alone . In between I had some lessons with a German teacher Jin Jeon. He was recommended by Robert Durso. Has given me some interesting views about rotation technic - Taubman Approach. There are some lessons with R. Durso on tonebase. And I will change my piece for this challenge. I can’t finish the Scherzo in 3 weeks. So I will finish Chopin Nocturne 62/2. Middle part still need some practicing. Forgive me some English grammar mistakes. Sometimes I have no idea how to say. 🤣

      Have a nice week. 🙋‍♀️

      • Have a growth mindset, no matter what!
      • Gail_Starr
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Judy Kuan Hey, I used to take evening classes in the adult division at Julliard also (when I lived in the neighborhood).  Who do you study with privately?  I also took a LONG break (actually many breaks) but really started back during Covid lockdown.

    • PViseskul
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    With inspiration from Jarred's recent masterclass, I'm reviving Chopin Nocturne op48 no1 ... hopefully this time with greater musicality and with hands/arms intact at the end of the piece! Never easy for small hands 😅

    Currently focusing on reducing tension in the downward chromatic octave passage.

      • vbashyam
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Priya Viseskul  More great Chopin! Looking forward to hearing this amazing Nocturne!

      • Natalie_Peh
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Priya Viseskul that's such a beautifully haunting nocturne! Look forward to your updates!

      • Kerstin
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Priya Viseskul Wow, this piece is not easy. The last part is extremely complicated to get the melody out and the left hand in tempo. Have fun to play. 🙋‍♀️

      • Michelle_Russell
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Priya Viseskul What a beautiful choice!

      • PViseskul
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      A quick upload for the octave passage ... It can definitely do with more dynamic contrast and a tad quicker. Also, I sometime get scared to change the pedal in fear of disconnecting the sound ... but it can then get muddy as a result. What do you think?

      https://youtu.be/QDHxB29I3vU

      Feedback welcome 🙂

      (PS I noticed my pinky slipping off the key ... that's living on the edge hahaha 😅 )

      • Pediatrician
      • a_weymann
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Priya Viseskul 😄"living on the edge" is very good! Those octaves are impressively clean already. You invited feedback, so here are my 2 cents: In the initial ascending passages with lots of repeated octaves, I was wondering if you might want to sacrifice some of your nice phrasing in favor of having a clearer and more decisive impulse on every note. I don't mean that each octave under a slur should have the same weight and dynamic, but each one should sound distinct and confident - and I suspect that if you achieve that, it'll sound less muddy already and you'll have to worry less about changing the pedal. That is: if you do use pedal at all for those octave passages. In my edition, there's almost no pedal indicated for the 16th notes in octaves; only the last two bars of the passage (47 and 48) have any pedal written at all under some groups. Which obviously would make that section even harder to play...

      What a glorious piece! I've never attempted it, but it sounds and reads really difficult.

      • vbashyam
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Priya Viseskul Your hands look so relaxed despite all the octaves. My favorite Nocturne. Looking forward to hearing more!
       

      • PViseskul
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Vidhya Bashyam Thank you! It's my favourite Nocturne as well 😊 I put effort into revamping how I played the octaves so my limbs don't drop dead at the end of the passage esp with the doppio movimento section still to go through 😅

      • Kerstin
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Priya Viseskul Sound clear and secure. Great. Now you can bring some dynamic into it. It’s a long passage with crescendo. I start piano and do not too much crescendo in the first 4 bars with octaves. How you manage the left hand in the last part? I always struggle . 

      • PViseskul
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Kerstin will take your advice and keep the octaves piano to begin with.

      The last part I struggle more with the right hand mostly because of the occasional 9th and big hand position shift. My left hand is manageable - need to make sure to rely less on the lateral movement, keep the wrist supple and feel the bounce ... like a small trampolining jump between the intervals 🙂

      • Have a growth mindset, no matter what!
      • Gail_Starr
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Priya Viseskul Really precise work!  It's sounding very solid!

      • PViseskul
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Gail Starr Thank you! ☺️ 

    • Jennifer_Mehta
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi all!  I’m hoping to have time to do this. I would like to brush off Debussy’s Prelude X From book 1. “The Sunken Cathédrale”. I want to polish the “Peu à peu sortant de la brume” section, and really work on the dynamics, the sustained notes, and all the cool things going on in this piece. 

      • Pediatrician
      • a_weymann
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Jennifer Mehta oooh.... what a great choice! wonderful piece; can't wait to hear your work on it!

      • Ursina_Boehm
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Jennifer Mehta this is one of my favourite preludes by Debussy 

      • Have a growth mindset, no matter what!
      • Gail_Starr
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Jennifer Mehta What an evocative piece. Great choice!  Little by little coming out of the mist...

    • Ursina_Boehm
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Chopin Polonaise-Fantaisie Op 61 

    What is unfinished? Feeling at ease and being able to focus on the music when I get to the technically challenging passages in this piece. I put the piece aside end of January of this year.
    My specific goal for the challenge? I want to polish the technically challenging parts (for example the passage with the thirds in the right hand,, and especially the last three pages). 

      • Pediatrician
      • a_weymann
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Ursina Boehm Amazing! I'm sure I'm not the only one who is super excited about hearing you play this wondrous, miraculous music. I think it's the perfect choice for the "Unfinished Business" challenge - one of those big beefsteaks that have to be marinated two or three times before they are ready to be roasted to perfection. I had to work on it with a couple of different teachers for a few months at a time before I was ready to perform it in recitals. 

      • Ursina_Boehm
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Alexander Weymann well, I will try my best, but I think this music will always be kind of unfinished 😃

      • Pediatrician
      • a_weymann
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Ursina Boehm that's exactly how I've always felt about it! 😄

      • Have a growth mindset, no matter what!
      • Gail_Starr
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Ursina Boehm It's a gorgeous piece to always evolve as you evolve as a pianist.  We're never "finished" (which is a good thing!).

    • Pediatrician
    • a_weymann
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    I'm finishing the first week by posting the "baseline" from which I hope to start improving. Jarred Dunn's Chopin Mazurka TWI has reminded me of the value of practicing both hands separately without pedal, so that's what I'm doing with my Étude-Tableau. Here is the right hand:

    https://vimeo.com/852200493/f2c150331b?share=copy

    And here is the left hand: 

    https://vimeo.com/852208954/4b66cf774b?share=copy

    The goal for next week will be to produce something that sounds a little bit more like music. 

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