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!
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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...
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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Priya Viseskul More great Chopin! Looking forward to hearing this amazing Nocturne!
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Priya Viseskul that's such a beautifully haunting nocturne! Look forward to your updates!
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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.
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Priya Viseskul What a beautiful choice!
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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?
Feedback welcome
(PS I noticed my pinky slipping off the key ... that's living on the edge hahaha
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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.
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Priya Viseskul Your hands look so relaxed despite all the octaves. My favorite Nocturne. Looking forward to hearing more!
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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 -
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 .
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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
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Priya Viseskul Really precise work! It's sounding very solid!
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Gail Starr Thank you!
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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.
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Jennifer Mehta oooh.... what a great choice! wonderful piece; can't wait to hear your work on it!
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Jennifer Mehta this is one of my favourite preludes by Debussy
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Jennifer Mehta What an evocative piece. Great choice! Little by little coming out of the mist...
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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).-
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.
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Alexander Weymann well, I will try my best, but I think this music will always be kind of unfinished
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Ursina Boehm that's exactly how I've always felt about it!
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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!).
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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.
