Week 1: A New Hope
Starting on May 4th...
Welcome to the Unfinished Business Challenge — and the beginning of our four-week musical adventure!
Every great journey starts with a first step (and some hope!) This week is about choosing your piece: something you’ve always wanted to learn, something you started and left behind, or something unfinished that keeps calling you back.
This Week’s Mission
Choose one piece (or excerpt) to stay with throughout the challenge.
A few ideas:
- A piece you’ve always meant to finish
- Something abandoned years ago that deserves a second life
- A new piece you’ve been waiting for the right moment to begin
- A small excerpt from a larger dream piece
Big or small, all choices are welcome. What matters is that it feels like your unfinished business.
This Week, Share:
- What piece did you choose?
- Why this piece?
- Is there a musical challenge or goal you hope to work through this month?
If you’d like, post a recording of where you’re starting from — even a rough first read. We’d love to hear it.
Over the next four weeks we’ll build momentum together!
334 replies
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Here’s my week 1 update, the finale/ coda of the Chopin Barcarolle, upgraded from a slasher flick status a few days ago to student pulp fiction. I have to focus on Rachmaninoff this weekend so I’m parking this here for now!
Things to work on next: (1) more familiarity with the notes, (2) vertical layering, and (3) the narrative arc. It’s a bit oom-pah-pah sounding now, but I think that will go away once I know the notes better and work on longer phrases.
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Dear all,
Here is my week 1 update:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYFdXF-OSGO/?igsh=MXQyYndvdXR1NDd5NQ==
Best wishes,
Aaron
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For week 1, here is the A section of Brahms 117/2. I am trying to memorize early, as I learn, so pardon the typos. For next week, I hope to make the A section smoother (and better balanced between the melody and other notes) and make significant progress in the next section.
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On hearing the phrase "Unfinished Business" I immediately thought of Beethoven Op. 109 which I started learning several years ago. I had learnt most of it but it needed a lot of work and with life stuff getting in the way, I had less time to dedicate to it and lost motivation. This was a pity as it's a piece I've always loved for its ethereal qualities and innovation. Therefore this challenge is a wonderful prompt to brush it off and get stuck in with renewed vigour!